Overview
Edgar Bonjour, at middle age and after rising to a suburban family life, starts drug-trafficking with a motorcycle gang from his old South Bronx neighborhood and ends up dead. The published news of his murder sets the stage for introspection among other Bonjours, even those who did not know him, who interpret his returning to the past by way of a young woman gang member as the work of their family curse.Descended from three French brothers who settled in Puerto Rico, Bonjours now belong to extended branches, some settled in New York City. Removed in varying degrees, all remain connected by the lore that only one island family possesses their surname, and that starting with the three brothers—sowers of a legacy of adultery and abandonment—every Bonjour male carries a reckless, womanizing gene.
Lineage and legend of lineage haunt but do not make these lives predictable. So Daisy, who hardly knew her father and has passed her prime without much interest in marriage, secretly falls in love with the man who paid her to marry him so he could get a green card. Ten-year-old Marco does not know what the reader does: that his visiting, divorced Bonjour father is gay. Recently married Gabriel, having flown to Puerto Rico to bury a father who intermittently entered his life, meets an African American down from Georgia, whom he learns is his embittered brother, and his beautiful stepsister, with whom he faces the same temptation that sidetracked his father.
Interconnected like his Bonjour families, these stories of unpredictable and unforgettable characters will transport the reader to a plane where ethnicity becomes universality.
Synopsis
Edgar Bonjour, after rising to suburban life, gets involved with a drug-trafficking Puerto Rican motorcycle gang from his old neighborhood and is brought down by an affair with a woman in the gang. News of his murder leads to introspection among other Puerto Rican Bonjours, all descended from three French brothers, today known only by their surname Bonjour, whose extended generations branched out, some settling in New York. The Bonjours remain connected by the lore that only one island family carries that name and that, starting with the three brothers—rampant adulterers—every Bonjour male carries a reckless, womanizing gene.
This novel of unpredictable and unforgettable characters will transport the reader to a plane where ethnicity becomes universality.