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Spirits of the Ordinary

A Tale of Casas Grandes By Kathleen Alcalá

5-1/2 x 8 in; 204 pp ;
Hardcover
Published in January, 1997
ISBN 0811814475
ISBN13 9780811814478

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$22.95  

Reviews

--Library Journal, February 1997
Both historically and politcally relevant, this first novel from an assistant editor at the Seattle Review is dazzling in its originality, casting a fresh light on several time-worn questions: What is spiritual enlightenment? Is assimilation always bad? Is gender equity possible in a heterosexual partnership? Can personal integrity demand defiance? Set in Mexico in the 1870s, the book tells the story of the Carabajal family as it circuitously poses and debates these questions. Central to the story is the horrifying impact of the Spanish Inquisition, for 13 generations after all signs of Judaica were wiped from Spanish culture, some members of this family persist, behind bolted doors, in observing and studying Jewish rituals. For them, staying connected to their ancestral faith is paramount, and while each person's path to piety is different, each search proves powerfully moving. Alcalá embellishes straightforward prose with tinges of mysticism that will entice even the most spirtually disinterested. An extraordinary debut, this tale of ordinary people in pursuit of honor, decency, and cultural connection is sure to resonate.

--Publishers Weekly
In her first novel, Alcalá (author of the story collection Mrs. Vargas and the Dead Naturalist) has crafted a fecund fable about the convergence of cultures -- Mexican, American and Jewish -- along the Mexico/Texas border. The Carabajal family clandestinely practices their Jewish faith in a northern Mexican village of the 1870s. Julio spends his days in his secret Hebraic library; his wife, Mariana, hasn't uttered a word since childhood; and their son, Zacarías, who'd rather prospect for gold than learn a trade, has married a Catholic woman, Estela. Estela's family has a few secrets of their own: an intensely independent woman, Estela has raised her family single-handedly during her husband's long gold-hunting absences and has decided to cut him off financially; her younger brother and sister, twins, have been banished to Texas because of their scandalous androgyny; her unmarried daughter is pregnant; and now her own love affair with an army captain is about to be exposed, while her Zacarías is being hunted by the government for inciting a purpoted Indian uprising. In the tradition of Latin American literary fabulism, Alcalá's seductive writing mixes fatalism and hope, logic and fantasy, to create moral, emotional and politcal complexities. But her characterizations and plot sparkle with a freshness that is an apt fit for the new social order she writes about with a multicultural vision notable for its lack of preachiness. Readers will be happy to learn that this enchanting episode is the first of a trilogy.

--Kirkus Reviews, December 1996
Like a vivid dream, this debut novel, the first of a projected trilogy by the Mexican-American author (Mrs. Vargas and the Dead Naturalist, 1992; stories), blurs fantasy and reality as it details in luminous prose one family's search for identity and meaning.

The story is set in northern Mexico in the late 19th century, at a time when the authorities fear that the peasants and Indian tribes are about to revolt. The Roman Catholic Church is all-powerful; Jewish families like the Carabajals have long been forced to practice their faith in secret. Though Zacarías Carabajal converted when he married Estela, his father Julio lives in expectation of the Messiah, and his mother Mariana, a mystic, has not spoken since the age of 12, when she fell into a 30-day trance. As the novel opens, Zacarías. leaving Estela and their three children -- son Gabriel and twin daughters -- behind, has set off on yet another search for gold. Estela fears Zacarías is wasting her dowry and their children's on these futile ventures; and when Zacarías shows no signs of returning, she embarks on a brief but intense affair with an Army doctor. Meantime, Zacarías, frequently traveling through rough and dangerous terrain, has his own amorous diversions. While a hospitable tribal elder and an American woman photographer disguised as a man add further color, Zacarías's transformation from a prospector into a visionary and healer lies at the heart of the tale. It's only when the army brutally attacks the old cliff village of Casas Grandes, where Zacarías and the followers he's gradually gathered have hidden, that he finds the answer to his long quest. Gabriel, it seems likely, will soon be called to a quest of his own.

Some characters seem more decorative than esseential, but, still, Alcalá offers a beautifully imagined if quiet portrait of the insistent urgings of the human spirit.

--Laurel Graeber, The New York Times Book Review
. . .it is testimony to Ms. Alcalá's vivid talents as a storyteller, and to the mystical alure of the threads of magic realism that run through her narrative, that we come to care about many of her characters, and wonder what destinies await them in her next book.

--Larry McMurtry
Kathleen Alcalá is a writer with beautiful gifts. Her prose is continually arresting -- there's a spirit in it which is not ordinary. She has given us a strong and finely rendered book in which passions both ordinary and extraordinary are made vivid and convincing.

--Alberto Ríos
This book entered my dreams. Sprirts of the Ordinary is an immediately fresh and engaging weave of voices set earlier in this century and ranging easily above any fences separating Mexico and the United States. Following one family's obsessions, it explores the centures-old but hidden Jewish heritage exhibited even still in the small details of so many contemporary Mexican families' lives. This novel unerringly details a range of human dimension not easily forgotten. I am ready for more.

Author Info
Kathleen Alcalá was born in California and now lives in Seattle. She is the author of a highly praised collection of stories, Mrs. Vargas and the Dead Naturalist.

Quotes
An extraordinary debut, this tale of ordinary people in pursuit of honor, decency, and cultural connection is sure to resonate.

Library Journal

In the tradition of Latin American literary fabulism, Alcala's seductive writing mixes fatalism and hope, logic and fantasy, to create moral, emotional and political complexities. Publishers Weekly