The Disappearance of Irene dos Santos; Margaret Mascarenhas
Date of Review:
Jul.09.2010
Published Work:
Reviewer:
Serendipitous Readings
Source:
Serendipitous Readings
Flush with the vivid reenactments of each character as each tells their own personal memories of what happened when they were in a certain place and time and how they all came together to be such great friends and lovers to their spouses through hard circumstances, and tests that have been placed upon them. What it is meant to love and be loved after decades and what it takes after all those years, which made me respect the characters and their values and morals and what they had endured to make them better for their families.
Mascarenhas uses a 15-year-old girl's disappearance to spin a multilayered history of a Venezuelan family, incorporating folklore, political intrigue and magical realism...Other recurring themes tying together disparate plot strands: an underground political struggle, the legend of unofficial saint Maria Lionza, telenovela screenwriting and the act of storytelling (a Martinez family obsession). At times overwhelming in its breathless explosions of information, this family epic is immersive; no character or event is left unexplored from multiple perspectives. Indeed, the conclusion is like the final piece of an intricate puzzle. ”
—Publishers Weekly
About Margaret
Margaret Mascarenhas is a consulting editor, curator and novelist, the author of the Diasporic novel, Skin, Penguin India 2001 (published in French translation by Mercure de France in 2002, and in Portuguese translation by Editora Replicacao in 2006), and of...
Connections
Causes Margaret Mascarenhas Supports
Goa Bachao Abhiyan
PEN USA
Margaret’s Favorite Books
Love in the Time of Cholera, Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, The Implacable Order of Things, Canto General, Anthills of the Savannah, Sula, ...and others