Caramba!
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- 4,99 €
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- 4,99 €
Beschreibung des Verlags
An “absurdly entertaining first novel” (Los Angeles Times) about mamacitas and mariachis, fiestas and tupperware parties, rodeos and Miss Magma beauty contests.
“Endlessly inventive ... very funny. Martinez’s deadpan perspective on faith, romance and the uneasy bonds of family is truly wonderful.” —The Washington Post Book World
Natalie and Consuelo are like-minded individuals who live in Lava Landing, California. When they aren’t working at The Big Cheese Plant, they get all dolled up for the racetrack, or go for at a tequila float at The Big Five Four. They urgently need to get Consuelo’s father out of Purgatory: he won’t stop turning up in women’s dreams until they do. But that means a trip to Mexico, and Consuelo still hasn’t gotten over her fear of long car rides….
In this touching and dazzling fresh novel, inspired by La Loter’a, a Mexican game of chance not unlike bingo, the American experience emerges in a brilliant new language and landscape.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Lava Landing, Calif., home of a dormant volcano and the annual Miss Magma beauty pageant, is the setting for this effervescent, luminous debut. Although the novel has a slew of protagonists, readers first meet Natalie and Consuelo (Nat and Sway), two firecrackers with an "ever growing fascination with the wideness of the world." Sway's father is recently deceased and stuck in purgatory ("The Perg"); the only way to get him out is to go to his hometown in Mexico, gather the townspeople, visit the railroad tracks where he was killed and pray for him. As Sway has a phobia of long car rides and public transportation, Nat must go. Meanwhile, Mart nez, in a bubbly mix of English and Spanglish, spins a plethora of side plots, among them the struggle of a born-again Christian mariachi who falls for an ex-convict; the search for true love by Lulabell, who's fashioned an anthropological map of Mexico detailing which regions are known for which kinds of men; and the triumph of True-Dee, a frustrated drag queen/beautician. Mart nez draws on magical realism, kitschy humor and tongue-in-cheek clich s (e.g., "True-Dee was oh so nervous as she walked into the Bowling Alley Caf "), but there's truth behind the zany humor. Mart nez's soap opera silly story belies serious truth telling about love and happiness in life and death. And as if the fabulously ludicrous plot weren't enough, Mart nez illustrates her work with "artifacts," including Mexican Loter a cards, letters written by True-Dee to an advice columnist and the classified ad Lulabell runs in the local paper, selling her soul to the highest bidder.
