Descripciones mejoradas de Syndetics:

Along with Sandra Cisneros and Julia Alvarez, Esmeralda Santiago has emerged as one of today's preeminent Latina authors. Legions of fans have waited five long years for the next chapter of the story begun in her memoirs When I Was Puerto Rican and Almost a Woman . And now the wait is over. In The Turkish Lover, Esmeralda finally breaks out of a monumental struggle with her powerful mother-only to come under the thrall of "the Turk" and discover that romantic passion, too, can become a prison. Esmeralda's journey of self-liberation and self-discovery is a daring one, candidly and zestfully recounted, and leads, most surprisingly, to her graduation from Harvard. (Her view of that venerable institution is an eye opener, told as only a brilliant writer totally outside the mold can tell it.) The expansive humanity, earthy humor, and psychological courage that made Esmeralda's first two books so successful are on full display again in The Turkish Lover , which will both reward the author's faithful readership and extend it. Hers is a fresh, exciting, and necessary voice. A Merloyd Lawrence Book

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• El hombre que yo amo/The man I love(p. 1)
• "That is not good, Chiquita."(p. 3)
• A nena puertorriquena decente(p. 7)
• "Come, Chiquita, this is your job."(p. 21)
• "I want you here, with me."(p. 29)
• "What are you doing here?"(p. 35)
• "Do not concern yourself, Chiquita."(p. 43)
• "Is there something you want to tell me?"(p. 55)
• "This I do not like."(p. 61)
• "You think your life so bad?"(p. 75)
• I want you together, like the fingers on my hands(p. 87)
• "Do you believe in reincarnation?"(p. 97)
• "You Puerto Ricans are so romantic."(p. 111)
• Another train will come(p. 127)
• "I wanted you here, with me."(p. 139)
• "Were you a gasser biter?"(p. 147)
• "Don't worry, you still have me."(p. 161)
• "You are very important to me."(p. 171)
• "I'm not neurotic!"(p. 183)
• "Today is the first day of the rest of your life."(p. 195)
• "I belong here!"(p. 205)
• "My name is Esmeralda."(p. 215)
• "Is there anything you would like to know about him?"(p. 233)
• "Tell me about yourself."(p. 245)
• Alterity(p. 255)
• "You are the last person I expected to see in Boston."(p. 263)
• "You used to be prettier."(p. 273)
• "We have to talk."(p. 289)
• Reify(p. 297)
• Nisus(p. 305)
• "Leave me out of your plans."(p. 319)
• "You have many men friends, Chiquita."(p. 323)
• "A pen makes a lovely graduation gift."(p. 329)
• "It takes a long time to get over a breakup."(p. 333)
• "Alabate pollo ..."(p. 337)
• Acknowledgments(p. 339)
• About the Author(p. 342)

Reseñas proporcionadas por Syndetics

Library Journal Review

In her third memoir (after When I Was Puerto Rican and Almost a Woman), Santiago exposes with crisp clarity her struggle to extricate herself from a lover who did not know how to love and substituted instead obsession and control. The book recounts how she left her mother's control only to encounter Ulvi, a Turk 17 years her senior determined to rule her life, e.g., he selects her clothes and discourages her efforts to return to school. He even ignores her real name, substituting the diminutive Chiquita. Santiago writes with understated grace. Instead of whining, she gives a humorous account of a celebratory dinner for Ulvi after he achieves his graduate degree possible only because of her research and editing. At a friend's insistence, Ulvi begrudgingly acknowledges his "typist and spell-checker." "To Chiquita," everyone exclaims in the last toast. We get it and fortunately, she does, too, beginning her seven-year odyssey toward autonomy, which includes a Harvard education. Recommended mainly for public libraries, but college students will also welcome Santiago's account. Nedra Crowe-Evers, Sacramento P.L. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

"I will teach you everything," says Santiago's lover, the Turkish filmmaker Ulvi Dogan. "But you must listen to what I say." Thus begins the deftly understated saga of an intense, abusive relationship in Santiago's third memoir. When I Was Puerto Rican (1993) and Almost a Woman (1998) examined Santiago's Puerto Rican childhood, her adolescence in New York and her emerging acting career, when Dogan spots her in a phone booth and offers her an audition. Santiago revisits their seven-year relationship with uncommon candor and directness. Dogan controls Santiago's every moment, yet Santiago believes he "was gentle and understanding" of why she couldn't always obey him. In their nomadic lives (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; New York; Syracuse, N.Y.; Lubbock, Tex.), they make up and break up as Santiago devotes herself to Dogan's graduate studies and career. But when a traffic jam unexpectedly delivers them to Harvard Square, Santiago blurts out, "I belong here." So it happens that at 25, she enters Harvard. It's the beginning of the end with a man who "might love me, as he claimed, but he had no idea, no clue whatsoever, of what was important to me." Although there's nothing here to delight readers seeking a vicarious dip into another culture (which When I Was Puerto Rican provided), Santiago's latest will grow on readers. Her slow self-realization is deeply human. Agent, Molly Friedrich. (Sept. 1) Forecast: Santiago is an enormously popular author with a proven track record, and reading groups are sure to gravitate to this. She'll go on an eight-city author tour, stopping at the Miami Book Fair; and will be profiled in Latina and on NPR. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

School Library Journal Review

Adult/High School-Santiago's memoirs, which began in When I Was Puerto Rican (Perseus, 1993) and Almost a Woman (Knopf, 1999), continue. At 21, she left her family and her home in Brooklyn to be with Ulvi. She was not sure she loved him, but she was convinced that this was the step she had to take "into the rest of her life." A Turkish immigrant, he was much older, worldly, domineering, and condescending. Their relationship was lopsided. He didn't allow her to answer the phone, pick out her own clothes, or drive. While Ulvi earned two masters degrees and a Ph.D., she helped him with his research and typed his papers. But all was not lost. By the time Esmeralda had the strength to separate from him, she had earned a degree from Harvard University and was supporting herself. In addition to exploring themes of feminism and racism, Santiago shares her personal view of life. When life becomes frustrating, she falls back on the theory that "there [will] always be another train." This memoir is realistic and humorous, and its themes and lessons are just waiting to be discovered.-Sheila Janega, Fairfax County Public Library, Great Falls, VA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

Puerto Rico-born writer Santiago was raised by a fiercely protective single mother who brought her teenage daughter and 10 siblings to 1960s Brooklyn in search of a better life. In this follow-up to the critically acclaimed memoirs Almost a Woman (1998) and When I Was Puerto Rican (1993), 20-year-old Esmeralda is restless in her family's cramped apartment and eager to experience the world beyond its doors. She runs off with Ulvi Dogan, a struggling Turkish filmmaker 17 years her senior. Although he is distressingly possessive, Ulvi refuses to marry Esmeralda, who, in their six years together, feels more suffocated than set free. It is only when she enrolls at Harvard--on a full scholarship--that the spirited young woman gains a sense of who she really is: I spent more time gazing into the mirror than I had my entire life, trying to see myself through my own eyes, quieting the critical voice that had judged my every action. Readers of Sandra Cisneros will embrace The Turkish Lover, an earthy, heartfelt tale of liberation, desperation, and the crippling grip of obsessive love. --Allison Block Copyright 2004 Booklist

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

Esmeralda Santiago is the author of two other memoirs, When I Was Puerto Rican and Almost a Woman, which was made into a Peabody Award-winning film for Masterpiece Theatre