Rating: 
Summary: Slow, tedious and boring
Review: I struggled through this book. There was no momentum and the author's style lacked emotion. It could have been a great book, due its interesting subject matter, had the author not written so dispassionately
Rating: 
Summary: A wonderful read
Review: I thought this was an incredible story of one woman's journey. Compelling and heartbreaking, you need to know what will happen next and how she will survive.
Rating: 
Summary: Beautifully written but with many flows concerning accuracy.
Review: It's a beautifully written book about the hacienda living in Venezuela. Being Venezuelan I was disapointed about many inacuracies that I found. 1) She says the Mayas Indians lived in the west part of Venezuela when the spaniards arrived. False. No Mayas in Venezuela. 2) The "Gaita" music she describes as coming from the plains (los llanos), has its origins in Zulia State. 3) The founder of the socialist party was Jose Vicente Rangel and not Rafael Rangel. 4) The head of the family, that she calls "padron", is the "patron" with a p. 5)Presidents are elected every five years, not every four years. And on and on. Is this bad editing? Probably so.
Rating:
Summary: I can't believe the other reviews here! Terrible writing.
Review: Make that a negative three stars. Between this book and these reviews I'm wondering if perhaps I have a brain tumor. This is the worst writing I've ever read, the most baffling editing, and who proof-read it?! I'm not nearly so outraged by the inconsistencies and improbabilities that suggest it may be partly fabricated. I quail less before the unlikely depiction of a whole culture devoid of intelligent adaptations to cruel conditions -- less than I recoil from the simple fact that this memoir was published and is acclaimed. The writing is clotted and nonsensical not magical or fascinating. "...mostly I lazed like a lizard escaped from its prey." Think about it! Jeees.
Rating:
Summary: For those interested in Hispanic culture
Review: Reading this book was like a walk down memory lane for me. During College, I spent a year in Mexico, and in reading this book, I found that the culture of the Venezuelan Andes in the 70s was surprising similar to the Mexican culture of today. I really connected with the author as she described so many of the things that I, too, struggled with, appreciated, and learned from while living the Hispanic way. Some of the more memorable things included: the tolerance of male infidelity- that "every man had a right to make love to every woman if he could", the "manana" way of living, the "fairer the better" mentality (in this case, for people AND sugar), the letters that would never arrive, the party scene: "Parties in Venezuela start whenever they start, and end when the last of the revellers has collapsed in a drunken stupor", and, of course, the often repeated "Que diran?" I also learned some new things about the culture: the way of celebrating the Nochebuena: "a time exculsively for drinking, eating, and greeting," the horrendous care administered at the public hospitals, and the funeral traditions, especially the way of celebrating the death of a child. For me, this book was an interesting look at Hispanic culture. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in other cultures and the way that living in a different culture can change the individual.
Rating:
Summary: For those interested in Hispanic culture
Review: Reading this book was like a walk down memory lane for me. During College, I spent a year in Mexico, and in reading this book, I found that the culture of the Venezuelan Andes in the 70s was surprising similar to the Mexican culture of today. I really connected with the author as she described so many of the things that I, too, struggled with, appreciated, and learned from while living the Hispanic way. Some of the more memorable things included: the tolerance of male infidelity- that "every man had a right to make love to every woman if he could", the "manana" way of living, the "fairer the better" mentality (in this case, for people AND sugar), the letters that would never arrive, the party scene: "Parties in Venezuela start whenever they start, and end when the last of the revellers has collapsed in a drunken stupor", and, of course, the often repeated "Que diran?" I also learned some new things about the culture: the way of celebrating the Nochebuena: "a time exculsively for drinking, eating, and greeting," the horrendous care administered at the public hospitals, and the funeral traditions, especially the way of celebrating the death of a child. For me, this book was an interesting look at Hispanic culture. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in other cultures and the way that living in a different culture can change the individual.
Rating: 
Summary: Truth Stramger Than Fiction
Review: Remembr folks, Lisa was 17 when she met her future husband. She spent three years touring Italy with Jaime and his two young male friends before leaving for Venezuela. Remember folks, life is inconsistent and truth is stranger than fiction. Having lived through the experiences, rhe repeats them to us without whining. Bravo, Lisa! She tells the story of the el gente with compassion without taking away their dignigy. Bravo, Lisa! She leaves us wanting to know what happened to her and to her daughter and wanting to know how she managed to get out of the country . . . . Few people can understand her bravery. Perhaps fewer people can recognize and understand her love for those who peopled her life there, despite it shinning through her story. She not only survived, she prevailed. She won the respect of many of the men she encountered. This all took place within my lifetime. It would be difficult to find a more self-liberating woman. Tying her story together,giving it a loud ring of truth, are the letters she wrote to her mother and one to a friend.
Rating:
Summary: Great story; incredibly vague, sloppy execution
Review: The rave reviews of the Hacienda in the New York Times have shocked me! I was eager to like this book. The underlying story is bizarre and wonderful: Teenaged London girl marries mad Venezuelan and moves to the tropics, bears a child, falls in love with the earthy local peasants, learns about avocados...and eventually is forced ot flee gun-wielding, totally insane spouse. Lives to write about it. Great story. Terrible book! It read like Teran sat down, started typing everything she could remember about her marriage, produced a rambling, illogical, unstructured scroll of writing which she promptly mailed off and which, due to its vivid subject matter, is now an unsatisfying, weird, poorly written, insufficiently edited book. Why did Teran marry the creepy Venezuelan? Why did she stick around for so many years? What was she thinking? Those are big questions she never answers! There's something very unreal about all of this. To me, the gaps in the narrative don't make the book more poetic or beautiful. They make it seem vague, incoherent and rushed. Big disappointment.
Rating:
Summary: a blue bearded husbund
Review: This book is very uneven and slightly dispersed. When I started to read it, I found it a bit boring, and thought some of Lisa's narrations were heavy-handed and with a slight touch of drama. The time in England and Italy, where she lived in a sort of fantasy land with her husband and friends, and the first couple of years in the hacienda seemed especially so. One example of that is when her husband's cousin tells her that she needs to push her authority in order to get results, and pretty much blackmails her into doing so. Another example is her furtive trip into Los Pollos de Eladio. Both scenes, as described in the book, look staged, almost out of a soap-opera. She also used a very self-deprecating tone when describing herself in those early days, and in the distance that time brings, I wonder why she has not been able to forgive herself somehow. After all, she was so young, how could she know what she was doing? Midway through, the book started to take shape and develop into a very focused memoir. I think the break point was the episode with the green boy. After that, the flow changed and I found myself flipping pages anxiously, rushing to learn more and more. I was very taken by the letters to her mother interspersed here and there. They give the whole book a human and tender touch. I was less impressed by her poems, though. Some of her Spanish might have rusted out, or her translations lost some accuracy, like La Noche Buena (it is not Christmas, it is Christmas' Eve). But much of Lisa's writing is brilliant, like the story of the dying eaglet. That was beautiful, skilled writing, awesome. I also liked her very subtle references to physical abuse in hands of her husband. She describes these beatings in a way that could be described as elegant, which makes them even more horrific. I very much enjoyed the farming bits, the sheep, the avocado and sugar cane stories. I also enjoyed her transformation from a starry-eyed teenager into a woman assuming full responsibility for everybody and everything: her family, her farm, and the welfare of hundreds of people in it. I wouldn't go as far as describing her as a "powerful matriarch", like the book jacket does, but she certainly obtained a power that was more than anything emanating from herself. I was tremendously disappointed with the ending, though. Throughout the book there are many references to her seven years in the hacienda, so you know that at some point she leaves. The end was cliff-like: there is some elaboration to the circumstances that pushed her departure, and some of the obstacles she was facing. And then, that's it. She left. I was hoping for an epilogue, a mention of what happened to her, her daughter, her husband, la gente, no matter how brief. I was left yearning to know more, to wrap it up, because just by physically removing yourself from a place, you just don't automatically close that chapter of your life. In any case, this book is very much worth your while. Her vision and descriptions of all people, animals, plants and things were excellent and very poignant, even when referring to a simple object.
Rating:
Summary: Uneven but worthwhile
Review: This book is very uneven and slightly dispersed. When I started to read it, I found it a bit boring, and thought some of Lisa's narrations were heavy-handed and with a slight touch of drama. The time in England and Italy, where she lived in a sort of fantasy land with her husband and friends, and the first couple of years in the hacienda seemed especially so. One example of that is when her husband's cousin tells her that she needs to push her authority in order to get results, and pretty much blackmails her into doing so. Another example is her furtive trip into Los Pollos de Eladio. Both scenes, as described in the book, look staged, almost out of a soap-opera. She also used a very self-deprecating tone when describing herself in those early days, and in the distance that time brings, I wonder why she has not been able to forgive herself somehow. After all, she was so young, how could she know what she was doing? Midway through, the book started to take shape and develop into a very focused memoir. I think the break point was the episode with the green boy. After that, the flow changed and I found myself flipping pages anxiously, rushing to learn more and more. I was very taken by the letters to her mother interspersed here and there. They give the whole book a human and tender touch. I was less impressed by her poems, though. Some of her Spanish might have rusted out, or her translations lost some accuracy, like La Noche Buena (it is not Christmas, it is Christmas' Eve). But much of Lisa's writing is brilliant, like the story of the dying eaglet. That was beautiful, skilled writing, awesome. I also liked her very subtle references to physical abuse in hands of her husband. She describes these beatings in a way that could be described as elegant, which makes them even more horrific. I very much enjoyed the farming bits, the sheep, the avocado and sugar cane stories. I also enjoyed her transformation from a starry-eyed teenager into a woman assuming full responsibility for everybody and everything: her family, her farm, and the welfare of hundreds of people in it. I wouldn't go as far as describing her as a "powerful matriarch", like the book jacket does, but she certainly obtained a power that was more than anything emanating from herself. I was tremendously disappointed with the ending, though. Throughout the book there are many references to her seven years in the hacienda, so you know that at some point she leaves. The end was cliff-like: there is some elaboration to the circumstances that pushed her departure, and some of the obstacles she was facing. And then, that's it. She left. I was hoping for an epilogue, a mention of what happened to her, her daughter, her husband, la gente, no matter how brief. I was left yearning to know more, to wrap it up, because just by physically removing yourself from a place, you just don't automatically close that chapter of your life. In any case, this book is very much worth your while. Her vision and descriptions of all people, animals, plants and things were excellent and very poignant, even when referring to a simple object.
|
