In the Name of Salome

Starred review from May 29, 2000
The Dominican Republic's most famous poet and her daughter, a professor in the United States, are the remarkable protagonists of this lyrical work, one of the most moving political novels of the past half century. Camila Henr!quez Ure$a is introduced as an "eminent Hispanicist, a woman with two doctorates a tenured chair" at Vassar. She is also the exiled daughter of both renowned Dominican poet Salom Ure$a and the country's last democratically elected president. Born in 1850, Salom called a revolution into being with her fearless poetry. Even as an adolescent, she saw her pseudonymous poems inspire bloodshed in the streets. Camila, born in 1894, followed the fortunes of her famous family into exile, first in Cuba, then on her own in the U.S., where she became an academic's academic. Alvarez, who has written more than once about women in exile (How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents) and women revolutionaries (In the Time of the Butterflies), and who is herself a poet, academic and exile, has found in Salom and Camila Ure$a her best topic yet. The novel's protagonists are based on real characters, yet by offering history through the lenses of both the poet and the scholar, as well as by portraying male-dominated events from the perspective of female activists, Alvarez conveys purely Latin American revolutionary idealism with an intellectual sensuality that eschews magical realism. The narrative flows freely across timeDHavana in 1935; Minnesota in 1918; Washington, D.C., in 1923; Santa Domingo in the mid to late 19th century; Poughkeepsie in the 1950sDand is punctuated with letters and poetry. While Salom is the flame that heats this cauldron, Camila tends the fire.When she retires from teaching in 1960, she must choose a meaningful conclusion to her life. Her long-time love, Marion, though recently married, invites her to live nearby in Florida. But born and bred to revolution, Camila has been too long away from the fray. It is not giving away anything to say that she spends the next 13 years in Cuba, heeding the old call to create "Jos Mart!'s America Now." $50,000 ad/promo; 22-city author tour.

May 1, 2000
When Camila was three, her mother, Salom Urena, the Dominican Republic's "National Poetess," died. For years, the youngster wrestled with the loss, holding fast to the dream that her mother would someday reappear, a mysterious, larger-than-life stranger. Meanwhile, her aunt Ramona struggled to help the child understand Salom 's demise, teaching her a special, if sacrilegious, incantation to soften what had happened: "In the name of the Father, the Son and my Mother, Salom ." Alvarez (How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents) has written a brilliantly layered novel that is grounded in 100 years of Latin American history. As Salom 's story intertwines with Camila's, we are made privy to politics both personal and international. Passionate and unpredictable, the book quietly lambastes colonialism and imperialism. At the same time, feminist themes emerge, from the enduring agony of motherless daughters to the integration of lesbians into progressive movements. Well wrought and powerful--if at times structurally confusing--this is a novel to be passed from friend to friend, from madre to hija. Highly recommended.--Eleanor J. Bader, Brooklyn, NY

Copyright 2000 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2000
Alvarez, who has built a well-deserved reputation on the success of such novels as "How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents" (1991) and "In the Time of the Butterflies" (1994), celebrates one of the heroes of her native Dominican Republic in her latest novel. Born 21 October 1850, SalomeUrena de Henriquez was a renowned poet and political activist. Her poems inspired a nation of people in their passionate expressions of patriotism (such as in "A Quisqueya," "En defensa de la sociedad," and "Anacaona"), sentimentality ("A la llegada del invierno," "Tristezas," "Horas de Angustias," and "El ave y el nido"), and the need for social and political reforms ("Ruinas," which is regarded as one of her best poems). But to Alvarez's credit, the novel is no hagiographical exercise. Instead, she juxtaposes Salome's life in the Dominican Republic with that of her daughter Camila's in Cuba and the U.S. By crisscrossing back and forth in time and space, Alvarez uses the different experiences of the mother and daughter to ask the deeper question: Who are we as a people? This book is Alvarez's intelligent and compassionate response, her effort to help Our America understand and create ourselves as countries and as individuals. ((Reviewed March 15, 2000))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2000, American Library Association.)