Overview
The extraordinary new novel from the winner of the: 2004 Lannan Literary Fellowship 2005 PEN USA Literary Award for Fiction 2006 Whiting Writers? Award
?A new work of obsession, tragedy, and the unpredictable trajectories of the heart.?(Cristina Garcia, author of Dreaming in Cuban)
A powerful testament about the far-reaching effects of political brutality and lost love, Draining the Sea sifts through the incongruities of history and memory, unfurling inside the mind of a man who spends his days driving the streets of Los Angeles, racked by visions of the Guatemalan Civil War and, in particular, of Marta, a beautiful young prostitute who died violently in it-a tragedy in which he himself may have played a role.
Editorials
Wendy Gimbel
Raised in Los Angeles, the child of an American father and an Armenian-Lebanese mother, Marcom observed the force of history as it bore down on her grandmother during the Armenian genocide. A talented, passionate young writer, she urges the reader to revolt at the inhumanity in our midst. Even though her style lacks maturity, Draining the Sea is a daring attempt to face down evil and an original contribution to a growing body of literature that bears witness to the atrocities of our time.—The Washington Post
Publishers Weekly
Marcom (Three Apples Fell from Heaven; The Daydreaming Boy) looks at the Guatemalan civil war through the eyes of a former American soldier complicit in the killing of civilians in this circuitous novel. As the unnamed narrator, a descendant of Armenian genocide survivors, drives through Los Angeles and goes through his daily routines, he's awash in memories, mostly about Marta, an Ixil prostitute whom the narrator both loved and possibly killed. In a florid stream of consciousness, the narrator continually revisits several themes, events and images: black flies, Marta's brother's murder, Marta's torture and death among them. Throughout, Marcom weaves references and imagery from religion, mythology and Guatemalan, Armenian and American history, and indicts the powers-that-be for turning a blind eye toward the slaughter of indigenous people. Though some may find that Marcom overly romanticizes Ixil life and is ham-fisted in her critique of American consumerism, the novel's evocative imagery and explicit prose can move as well as chill. In the end, though, the book is more demanding than enlightening. (Mar.)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business InformationLibrary Journal
Marcom's third novel, after the award-winning Three Apples Fell from Heaven and The Daydreaming Boy , proves James Baldwin right: you cannot deny the humanity of another without diminishing yourself. The stream-of-consciousness narrative chronicles the internal ramblings of an unnamed male narrator, living in Los Angeles, who is relentlessly tormented by memories of a young, beautiful Guatemalan Indian tortured and killed during the country's civil war. Marcom's research is apparent, and the book includes numerous statements from Guatemalan militarists and massacre survivors. In addition, fragments passed down from the narrator's Armenian mother-images that demonstrate Turkey's early 20th-century brutality against this ethnic minority-are woven in. The work is obsessive, with violent incidents repeated again and again. What's more, it's hard to tell the real from the imagined. Was the narrator ever in Guatemala? Did he participate in the woman's abuse, or is he a stand-in for all soldiers who blindly obey orders? While the text clearly illustrates the narrator's agony, the actual story is both hard to follow and inexorably grim. Nonetheless, the poetic language and vivid images are affecting. Recommended for large literary collections. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 11/1/07.]-Eleanor J. Bader, Brooklyn, NY
Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.