- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: Vintage Books (May 1997)
- Language Spanish
- ISBN-10: 0679781455
- ISBN-13: 978-0679781455
- Product Dimensions: 13.1 x 1.8 x 20.3 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,967,901 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
When Cristina García's first novel, Dreaming in Cuban, was published in 1992, The New York Times called the author "a magical new writer...completely original." The book was nominated for a National Book Award, and reviewers everywhere praised it for the richness of its prose, the vivid drama of the narrative, and the dazzling illumination it brought to bear on the intricacies of family life in general and the Cuban American family in particular. Now, with The Agüero Sisters, García gives us her widely anticipated new novel. Large, vibrant, resonant with image and emotion, it tells a mesmerizing story about the power of family myth to mask, transform, and, finally, reveal the truth.
It is the story of Reina and Constancia Agüero, Cuban sisters who have been estranged for thirty years. Reina, forty-eight years old, living in Cuba in the early 1990s, was once a devoted daughter of la revolución; Constancia, an eager to assimilate naturalized American, smuggled herself off the island in 1962. Reina is tall, darkly beautiful, unmarried, and magnetically sexual, a master electrician who is known as Compañera Amazona among her countless male suitors, and who basks in the admiration she receives in her trade and in her bed. Constancia is petite, perfectly put together, pale skinned, an inspirationally successful yet modest cosmetics saleswoman, long resigned to her passionless marriage. Reina believes in only what she can grasp with her five senses; Constancia believes in miracles that "arrive every day from the succulent edge of disaster." Reina lives surrounded by their father's belongings, the tangible remains of her childhood; Constancia has inherited only a startling resemblance to their mother--the mysterious Blanca--which she wears like an unwanted mask.
The sisters' stories are braided with the voice from the past of their father, Ignacio, a renowned naturalist whose chronicling of Cuba's dying species mirrored his own sad inability to prevent familial tragedy. It is in the memories of their parents--dead many years but still powerfully present--that the sisters' lives have remained inextricably bound. Tireless scientists, Ignacio and Blanca understood the perfect truth of the language of nature, but never learned to speak it in their own tongue. What they left their daughters--the picture of a dark and uncertain history sifted with half-truths and pure lies--is the burden and the gift the two women struggle with as they move unknowingly toward reunion. And during that movement, as their stories unfurl and intertwine with those of their children, their lovers and husbands, their parents, we see the expression and effect of the passions, humor, and desires that both define their differences and shape their fierce attachment to each other and to their discordant past.
The Agüero Sisters is clear confirmation of Cristina García's standing in the front ranks of new American fiction.
Translation by Alan West.
It is the story of Reina and Constancia Agüero, Cuban sisters who have been estranged for thirty years. Reina, forty-eight years old, living in Cuba in the early 1990s, was once a devoted daughter of la revolución; Constancia, an eager to assimilate naturalized American, smuggled herself off the island in 1962. Reina is tall, darkly beautiful, unmarried, and magnetically sexual, a master electrician who is known as Compañera Amazona among her countless male suitors, and who basks in the admiration she receives in her trade and in her bed. Constancia is petite, perfectly put together, pale skinned, an inspirationally successful yet modest cosmetics saleswoman, long resigned to her passionless marriage. Reina believes in only what she can grasp with her five senses; Constancia believes in miracles that "arrive every day from the succulent edge of disaster." Reina lives surrounded by their father's belongings, the tangible remains of her childhood; Constancia has inherited only a startling resemblance to their mother--the mysterious Blanca--which she wears like an unwanted mask.
The sisters' stories are braided with the voice from the past of their father, Ignacio, a renowned naturalist whose chronicling of Cuba's dying species mirrored his own sad inability to prevent familial tragedy. It is in the memories of their parents--dead many years but still powerfully present--that the sisters' lives have remained inextricably bound. Tireless scientists, Ignacio and Blanca understood the perfect truth of the language of nature, but never learned to speak it in their own tongue. What they left their daughters--the picture of a dark and uncertain history sifted with half-truths and pure lies--is the burden and the gift the two women struggle with as they move unknowingly toward reunion. And during that movement, as their stories unfurl and intertwine with those of their children, their lovers and husbands, their parents, we see the expression and effect of the passions, humor, and desires that both define their differences and shape their fierce attachment to each other and to their discordant past.
The Agüero Sisters is clear confirmation of Cristina García's standing in the front ranks of new American fiction.
Translation by Alan West.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3.7 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Las Hermanas Aguero - una obra maestra!, 1 July 2000
By Amelia M - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Las Hermanas Aguero (Vintage Espanol) (Paperback)
This book is a wonderful story of two sisters that have lived separated for most of their lives. A view into life in Cuba and life in the US as an immigrant. The constant strugle between ones personal beliefs and those instilled by the Cuban government to it's people. It is most importantly about "familia" and the story of the Agueros (3 generations of them). I highly recommend this book (also available in English). Good use of imagery. I had forgotten I purchased it and just recently found it in my bookcase and what a surprise it turned out to be.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Las Hermanas Aguero, 1 May 2003
By Abulafia "Abulafia" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Las Hermanas Aguero (Vintage Espanol) (Paperback)
The book seems to be good, but the translation is poor, and it is full of spelling errors - I only wished I had read the book in original language to really enjoy it! Between the translation and the spelling errors, it is very hard to read!! It is not a relaxing exercise any more. Pity!
4.0 out of 5 stars
Las novelas más inspiradoras sobre la mujer latinoamericana, 1 May 2010
By Juan Pablo Seminario - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Las Hermanas Aguero (Vintage Espanol) (Paperback)
Las novelas más inspiradoras sobre la mujer latinoamericana son "La casa de los espíritus" de Isabel Allende, "El amor en los tiempos del cólera" de García Márquez, "Las hermanas Agüero" de Christina García, "La casa en Mango Street" de Sandra Cisneros y la que acaba de aparecer sobre la mujer de la inmigración, "El amor de Carmela me va a matar" de Eduardo González Viaña.
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