Fiction, World Literature, Fiction Subjects, Peoples & Cultures - Fiction

Swift as Desire

Name: Swift as Desire
Author: Laura Esquivel
ISBN: 9780385721516

by Laura Esquivel, Stephen A. Lytle

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Overview

Instead of entering the world crying like other babies, JÃºbilo was born with a smile on his face. He had a gift for hearing what was in peopleâ€™s hearts, for listening to sand dunes sing and insects whisper. Even as a young boy, acting as an interpreter between his warring Mayan grandmother and his Spanish-speaking mother, he would translate words of spite into words of respect, so that their mutual hatred turned to love. When he grew up, he put his gift to good use in his job as a humble telegraph operator.

What tragic event has come between two such sensuous, loving people to cause their seemingly irreparable rift? What mystery lies behind the death of the son no one ever mentions? Can their daughter bring reconciliation to her parents before it is too late, by acting as an interpreter between them, just as Júbilo used to do for other people?

Synopsis

Instead of entering the world crying like other babies, Júbilo was born with a smile on his face. He had a gift for hearing what was in people's hearts, for listening to sand dunes sing and insects whisper. Even as a young boy, acting as an interpreter between his warring Mayan grandmother and his Spanish-speaking mother, he would translate words of spite into words of respect, so that their mutual hatred turned to love. When he grew up, he put his gift to good use in his job as a humble telegraph operator.

But now the telegraph lies abandoned, obsolete as a form of communication in the electronic age, and don Júbilo is on his deathbed, mute and estranged from his beloved wife, Lucha, who refuses to speak to him. What tragic event has come between two such sensuous, loving people to cause their seemingly irreparable rift? What mystery lies behind the death of the son no one ever mentions? Can their daughter bring reconciliation to her parents before it is too late, by acting as an interpreter between them, just as Júbilo used to do for other people?

Swift as Desire is Laura Esquivel's loving tribute to her father, who worked his own lifelong magic as a telegraph operator. In this enchanting, bittersweet story, touched with graphic earthiness and wit, she shows us how keeping secrets will always lead to unhappiness, and how communication is the key to love.

Book Magazine

Esquivel, best known for her delicious novel Like Water for Chocolate, has written an affectionate tribute to her father. While Swift as Desire, read by Elizabeth Peña, lacks the sublime language of her powerful bestseller, its bittersweet and passionate qualities make it intriguing. As Don Júbilo, a retired Mexican telegraph operator, lies on his deathbed, his daughter begins to understand what is at the heart of her parents' inability to communicate. Desire, tenderness and love fuel this audiobook; Peña brings zest and passion to the performance.
—Rochelle O'Gorman

About the Author, Laura Esquivel

A heaping measure of passionate romance, blended with a dash of traditional Mexican cooking and a hint of mysticism, was the unique recipe that made Laura Esquivel's debut novel, Like Water for Chocolate, a feast for readers and moviegoers alike.

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Editorials

From Barnes & Noble

The award-winning author of the international bestseller Like Water for Chocolate offers up another deliciously idiosyncratic concoction of magic and passion.

From The Critics

Publishers Weekly

The princess of modern Latin literature (second only to Isabel Allende) has written yet another quirky and sensual story with a moralistic twist, its cute-as-can-be characters arguing and loving with equal passion. But Esquivel's fourth novel lacks that certain something that enthralled readers of Like Water for Chocolate. Her writing is choppy, clich?-laden and has the feel of a translation (no translator is credited). Yet it invokes chuckles and sighs, and if a reader craves more of the sweet wackiness that made the author's first book so appealing, Swift As Desire certainly delivers. Since birth, J#bilo has had a zest for life and an uncanny ability to hear the words in people's hearts before they are able to (or just didn't want to) say them. He puts his talents to good use as a telegraph operator in 1920s Mexico and falls in love with beautiful, wealthy Luz. The couple marries, has children and enjoys a heavenly existence. But something happens during their idyllic life together that drives them apart. Now, their daughter Lluvia is nursing her father as he is bedridden with Parkinson's disease. Before J#bilo dies, Lluvia desperately wants to know the cause of her parents' separation. Through Morse code, she communicates with her father and uncovers the secret nothing juicy, just a sad story that could have been avoided if the lines of communication between husband and wife had been more open. Esquivel's storytelling abilities are in top form here, and, despite its unoriginality, the novel succeeds in conveying a touching message of the power of familial and romantic love. (Sept.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Once again, Mexican novelist Esquivel mixes together an unexpected blend of ingredients, in this case Mayan and Aztec numerology, communication technologies (from telegraphs to computers), and human passions, to tell the story of one Mexican family during the 20th century. Jubilo, a master of all forms of communication whose mind is itself a sophisticated cryptographic machine, is a proud descendant of Mayans. Lucha, his passionate and beautiful wife, is upper class and well educated. Lluvia, their daughter, is born in the midst of divorce proceedings following an unspeakable family tragedy, but eventually she, too, demonstrates her father's gift for the reconciling powers of communication. Any new novel by Esquivel will be compared to her incomparable first novel, Like Water for Chocolate. This one is quite as full of passion, fascinating cultural history, and endearing characters and will be enjoyed by her many fans. Recommended for most libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 5/1/01.] Mary Margaret Benson, Linfield Coll. Lib., McMinnville, OR Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal

Adult/High School-With a touch of magical realism, and a strong dose of sensuality that almost tips over into obsession, the author of Like Water for Chocolate (Doubleday, 1992) tells a love story like no other. Teens will be transported into a different culture, and a different way of thinking and of viewing the world when they meet Jubilo Chi. When he was a young child his Mayan grandmother taught him her language, and he became the sole interpreter between his grandmother and his Spanish mother. His translations, rather than literal, seek reconciliation between the warring women and eventually their suspicion turns to love. The power of words and of unspoken messages shape Jubilo's life and lead to his career as a telegraph operator. He also embraces the Mayans' intimate connection with the universe, especially the sun, and can often discern emotions using this connection. Eventually the family leaves his grandmother and Yucat n and moves to Mexico City, and at 17, Jubilo meets 15-year-old Lucha. Their attraction is immediate and eventually they marry. Their passion is boundless, but Jubilo's job provides only the bare necessities, and Lucha's desire for the fine things turns to discontent and the source of their troubles. After two children and many years of marriage, they separate, but their daughter, Lluvia, caring for her father, now old and ill, is determined to unravel the mystery of their inability to reconcile. How she does so provides the climax to this tale of love, laughter, desire, and remorse.-Molly Connally, Kings Park Library, Fairfax County, VA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A tender and thoughtful, if at times rather stilted, tale of a Mexican telegraph operator, by the megaselling author best known for her debut novel, Like Water for Chocolate (1992). Don Júbilo was blessed at birth with almost supernatural hearing and an instinctive understanding of all kinds of communication, from an insect's faint rustle to the sweet sighs of a woman in love. His odd gift is noted by his Mayan grandmother, doña Itzel, who quarrels with his Spanish grandmother, doña Jesusa, over the best way to raise him. Doña Itzel takes him to visit Mayan ruins, explaining the hieroglyphics and number dots as best she can to the impressionable boy, who is entranced by the Mayan notion of the galaxy as a resonating matrix in which the transformation of information occurs instantly. Júbilo is equally intrigued by a history lesson centering on an intrepid telegraph operator, a profession he later takes up to support his young wife Lucha, despite his dreams of becoming a singer. In the era before telephone services, interpreting Morse code messages for villagers and rich landowners alike puts Júbilo at the center of many lives as his own falls slowly and inexorably apart. Lucha, the spoiled youngest daughter of a wealthy family, is distressed by their relative poverty and her inability to conceive again after their first child, Raul, is born. Júbilo does the best he can, but his weakness for alcohol gets the better of him. Years later, a second son, Ramiro, accidentally suffocates one night when his father, in a drunken stupor, doesn't hear the baby's cries. Lucha demands a divorce, although she is pregnant with daughter Lluvia, who growsup to write the story of Júbilo's life. Irony of ironies: he is bedridden and mute from Parkinson's disease, no longer able to communicate at all. An imaginative, lyrical fictional memoir, it seems, of the author's own father. (Interesting note: Gabriel Garcia Marquez's father was also a telegraph operator, although the short piece he did recently was much less moony than Esquivel's.) First printing of 250,000; author tour