![]() ![]() For example, Mercedes’s daughter Amalfi receives only a brief mention in the narrative. However, the novel suffers from hurried and incomplete portraits of Graciela’s descendants. Rosario does a superb job of portraying the desperation of the Dominican Republic at the hand of the “yanguis” and brings the imagery of Caribbean life alive in her writing. Fifty years later when Mercedes’ own journey leads her from the rural poverty of the Dominican Republic to the urban poverty of New York City, Graciela’s spirit is reborn in Mercedes’ granddaughter, Leila. ![]() ![]() Mercedes, left largely to her own devices, grows to be resourceful and self-reliant. Graciela is not content with Casimiro’s prescription her quixotic search includes journeys to brothels and convents, and ultimately results in her death. Graciela’s dream of a turquoise palmwood house leads her to Casimiro, a patient charmer who tries to quell her restlessness by taking her on a boat ride to “Puerto Rico”–a voyage that turns out to be village a few miles down the river. Following the death of her lover, she is left with her infant daughter Mercedes and little else. Impoverished, restless, and passionate, Graciela yearns for a life beyond her small island. Set against the backdrop of the United States’ occupation of the Dominican Republic in the early 1900s, Nelly Rosario’s debut novel paints a colorful, seductive, and often heartbreaking portrait of one young woman and her descendants. ![]()
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