About this ebook
Mateo Irigaray has come home to end his miserable life. A child prodigy, he was the pride of Hudson County. Born to a Colombian mother who died giving birth to him, he was raised by his older sister and surrounded by an assortment of unusual family members. Though young and inexperienced, it didnÍt take his sister long to realize that Mateo was unusual. By the age of two, he could read and write. As a boy, he could learn a foreign language in a matter of weeks. But now heÍs depressed and ready to end it all. Learning that the famous genius has returned, Melody More, a reporter with the local newspaper, agrees to try and convince him to give the paper an interview. But the only quote heÍll give her is, ñAll I want to do is die!î In spite of his anger and rudeness, she finds herself strangely attracted to the surly, slovenly man who begs her to leave and not interrupt his plans. As their relationship developsMelody returns every day with an assortment of tempting food and winethey realize that they share a complicated history of family secrets and betrayals. From New Jersey to Havana to Switzerland, Rivera peppers this off-beat love story with a range of eccentric characters: MelodyÍs boss and former lover Xoan Xavier Contreras, known to the newspaperÍs readers as Triple X for his triple x-rated expos?s; her sister Odette, who went unnamed for an entire year because of her motherÍs revulsion at her Thalidomide-deformed hands; and most importantly, MelodyÍs mother, who was obsessed with perfection and having a child prodigy of her very own.
Mateo Irigaray has come home to end his miserable life. A child prodigy, he was the pride of Hudson County. Born to a Colombian mother who died giving birth to him, he was raised by his older sister and surrounded by an assortment of unusual family members. Though young and inexperienced, it didn...
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About the author
BEATRIZ RIVERA cleverly conveys the experience of the Latina woman attempting to reconcile her heritage and her existence within the greater construct of the American society in her short stories and novels. RiveraÍs characters draw from their distinctive backgrounds to forge a bi-cultural image of themselves and their communities. Cuban-born Beatriz Rivera grew up in Miami. She finished high school in Switzerland and then went on to study Philosophy in Paris where she received a MasterÍs degree. Her intention then was to remain in Europe and never to return to the U.S. She began writing her first novel in Paris, while teaching English and Spanish in area schools. Rivera spent ten years in Paris until one day she realized that, as a writer, she didnÍt have much of an identity. If she wasnÍt Parisian, and wasnÍt an American in Paris, what was she? After returning to the U.S., two of her short stories appeared in journals: the first, entitled ñPaloma,î appeared in The Americas Review, and the other, ñLife Insurance,î in ChiricÏ Journal. Three years later, her short story collection, African Passions and Other Stories (Arte PÏblico Press, 1995), was published. Other short stories and poems appeared in reviews such as The Afro-Hispanic Review, and in anthologies such as Little Havana Blues (Arte PÏblico Press, 1996) and Floricanto, Si! (Penguin Books, 1998). RiveraÍs three works eloquently demonstrate RiveraÍs humor and spirit. Rivera followed her collection of short stories, African Passions, with her novel Midnight Sandwiches at the Mariposa Express (Arte PÏblico Press, 1997). In 2000, Arte PÏblico Press released her third work, a novel entitled Playing with Light. In all three books, Rivera creates a funny yet realistic portrait of the Cuban American female struggling to find her place in the American Dream. Her latest novel, Do Not Pass Go (Arte PÏblico Press, 2006), is about an unlikely love affair between a former child prodigy and a newspaper reporter. In 2002, Rivera completed her Ph.D. in Spanish Literature on Challenging the Canon: A History of Latina Literature Anthologies, 1980-2000 at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City. She is an Assistant Professor at Penn State University and lives in Northeastern Pennsylvania with her husband and two children.
BEATRIZ RIVERA cleverly conveys the experience of the Latina woman attempting to reconcile her heritage and her existence within the greater construct of the American society in her short stories and novels. RiveraÍs characters draw from their distinctive backgrounds to forge a bi-cultural image ...
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