Taína
-
-
4.0 • 2 Ratings
-
-
- $4.99
Publisher Description
A uniquely dark, coming-of-age novel rife with urban magical realism, love, and redemption, from the author of Bodega Dreams
When Julio, a teenager living in Spanish Harlem, hears that Taina, a pregnant fifteen-year-old from his high school claims to be a virgin, he decides to believe her. Julio has a history of strange visions and his blind and unrequited love for Taina will unleash a whirlpool of emotions that will bring him to question his hard-working Puerto Rican mother and his communist Ecuadorian father, his beliefs and even the building blocks of modern science (after seeing the conception of Taina’s baby as a revolution in nature).
After meeting Taína's uncle, "El Vejigante", an ex-con with a dark past, he accepts his proposal to support her during her pregnancy and becomes entangled in a web of crime that, while taking him closer to Taína, ultimately reveals a family secret that will not leave him unscathed.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Spanish Harlem serves as both setting and muse in Qui onez's disarming third novel (following Bodega Dreams and Chango's Fire), a tale of a virgin birth told by an adoring admirer. Seventeen-year-old Julio lives upstairs from the pregnant Ta na with his Puerto Rican, Jehovah's Witness mom and unemployed, Marxist dad. Convinced that a revolution of atoms has taken place in Ta na's body, Julio seeks out Ta na's uncle Sal, an ex-con, to find out how he can help. Julio learns much from the mysterious Sal, including things about his own parents' past. The old guy insists that Julio bring money for Ta na's mom, Dona Flores, who in turn insists that only the very expensive "espiritista" Peta Ponce can discover the truth about the baby's origin. Julio comes up with a dog-napping scheme that works far too well to be plausible, and in return for sharing his reward money with Do a Flores, he's allowed to visit Ta na, a foulmouthed beauty and the only one of Qui onez's characters to ring untrue. But as the baby's birth draws near and Peta Ponce arrives, Julio's earnings scam goes heartbreakingly awry. Though its metaphors go down weird rabbit holes and the slang sometimes careens into the awkward, the story is nervy and fresh. Qui onez's entire oeuvre should be required reading for those who believe in steering literature toward a more truthful, nuanced view of America.
