- Paperback: 480 pages
- Publisher: Grove Press; Reprint edition (Sep 20 2005)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0802142214
- ISBN-13: 978-0802142214
- Product Dimensions: 20.9 x 14 x 3.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 544 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #398,875 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
The Guatemalan-American Goldman (The Ordinary Seaman, etc.) has used the often violent modern history of Central America as the backdrop of his two previous novels. His latest plunges back to the 19th century, telling the story of a woman who might have borne an illegitimate child of the great Cuban poet, Jose Martí. First a nun, then a translator for the British ambassador, María de las Nieves Moran is involved with four men, one of whom is Jose Martí. Unfortunately, Martí never transcends his wooden theatricality as "the poet" in Goldman's narrative. Much more interesting are María's three other suitors, especially María's true love, a mysterious boy whom the ambassador has plucked out of obscurity and wants to make the king of the Mosquitoes, an Indian tribe on the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua. Certain sequences (a journey to the interior of the republic, the romance between María and the "king" of the Mosquitos, etc.) are beautifully written. The narrative, however, loses his sense of what is central and what is peripheral. The novel suffers from too much clutter and the obsession with Martí, a bothersome McGuffin in an otherwise independently interesting story.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
Goldman, a highly artistic writer of conscience, delves more deeply into the injustices and paradoxes of Central American society with each book, creating, in his third novel, a dynamically episodic saga written in a more ebullient, mischievous, and sensual mode than before but without belying complexity or tragedy. Two friends serve as polestars: Francisca "Paquita" Aparicio, lovely and privileged, and Maria de las Nieves Moran, a smart, tough, and multilingual mestiza. They're sequestered in a convent (prompting thorny musings on tyranny and mysticism) to protect Paquita from her much older admirer, a revolutionary called El Anticristo, but once he's in power, Paquita becomes a willing first lady. Maria de las Nieves becomes a translator, which prompts a provocative inquiry into language and conquest, interpretation and dominion, and she falls in love with Jose Marti, the nineteenth-century writer and martyred leader of the Cuban struggle for independence. These volatile circumstances serve as catalysts for a multifaceted, brilliantly satirical tale populated by compelling and diverse characters, and laced with piquant riffs on everything from miscegenation to hot-air balloons. Ultimately, Goldman not only dramatizes the fate of one lush but unlucky Central American country but also conjures the very spirit of humankind in all its perfidy and splendor. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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First Sentence
When Maria de las Nieves Moran crossed from convent school to cloister to become a novice nun, it was to prevent Paquita Aparicio, her beloved childhood companion, from marrying the man both girls called "El Anticristo." Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
When Maria de las Nieves Moran crossed from convent school to cloister to become a novice nun, it was to prevent Paquita Aparicio, her beloved childhood companion, from marrying the man both girls called "El Anticristo." Read the first page
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2.3 out of 5 stars (9 customer reviews)
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
The Literary Equivalent of a Mugging, Jan 9 2006
By K. Mccandless - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Divine Husband: A Novel (Paperback)
Wow - what an extremely frustrating novel. On the one hand, for the first three quarters of the book, I thought it was absolutely delightful. Goldman's an excellent writer, is able to evoke the world he's writing about, and mixes both the comic and tragic elements masterfully. And then, about seventy pages before the end, it all goes off the rails.The mystery which most of the book has been building up to is resolved with an unlikely deus ex machina. The heroine and her supporting cast start acting strange and uncharacteristicly. And the last chapters make an awkward, poorly written shift from the third person point of view to the first.
Really, as much as I liked Goldman's first two books, I can't recommend The Divine Husband at all. It should have been longer or it should have been rewritten one more time or whatever. Let's hope the next one is better...
24 of 30 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
The Divine Bore, Feb 10 2005
By Book Maven - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Divine Husband (Hardcover)
The historical details in this book are quite interesting. Other than that, the book is excruciatingly dull. Though Maria (the main character) is supposed to be a sort of rebellious femenist character, her actions don't really back up that facade. In addition, it takes so long for the action to develop that even after a hundred pages, I still could find nothing in the book that grabbed me. In general, most of the characters are flat, one-dimetional and rather unlikable. Their motivations are unclear and murky; Maria makes a pact with her friend Paquita that stipulates that Paquita cannot lose her virginity until Maria loses hers, principally because Maria cannot abide Paquita's much older, revolutionary fiance. Maria intends to thwart the union by becoming a nun. Ridiculous? Yes, especially because the religious faith of the girls seems to be quite superficial (and of course, the plan does not work). Although it sounds silly, I really wanted to like this book (...mostly because the quality of the paper is so nice and the cover is quite attractive!)However, for someone who enjoys everything from Krantz to Thackeray to Rushdie, I was quite shocked that there was a dearth of qualities that I could enjoy in this book.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Three and a half stars, Aug 9 2006
By Mary Sharratt "Author of Daughters of the Wit... - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Divine Husband: A Novel (Paperback)
Francisco Goldman's THE DIVINE HUSBAND is an epic novel set in an unnamed Central American republic in the late 19th century. The protagonist is Maria de las Nieves, a teenaged novice nun forced out of the convent when anti-clerical revolutionaries ban the religious orders. Her subsequent life as a young woman trying to scratch out an independent living as a translator is narrated in part through the point of view of the men who are fascinated with her--until she has a child out of wedlock and refuses to name the father.Like the previous reviewer, I was thoroughly enchanted with the first three quarters of the book. The writing is absolutely vivid and beautiful, wonderfully researched and full of quirky characters and dashes of magical realism, such a nuns who can bi-locate and be in two places at once.
However, after much build up, we finally learn the story of Maria's secret love affair with the young "Mosquito King," and this is the least convincing part of the book. Everything that happens afterward seems clumsy and anti-climactic. The author seems to lose focus at the end of the book, spending more time describing the life of Jose Marti, exiled Cuban poet, than fully developing Maria's story.
However, it still gets three and a half stars because the beginning and middle of the book are so strong.
-Mary Sharratt, author of The Vanishing Point
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