Two San Miguel Artists

Two writers with connections to San Miguel de Allende have made news recently. Kaylie Jones received a book review by Sheridan Sansegund titled A fast-paced thriller set in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico: “The Anger Meridian” by Kaylie Jones,  Akashic Books, $15.95

The police, are there at her door to tell her that her husband has been killed in a car crash, together with a young woman, while engaged in activity best avoided while driving at high speed and drunk.

Not only was her unlamented husband abusive but it gradually emerges that he was up to his crooked neck in financial shenanigans that are going to bring panicked business partners, vicious money launderers, and the F.B.I. down on Merryn’s neck like a ton of very angry bricks.

Her only concern is to protect her bright but physically fragile 9-year-old daughter, Tenney, from the ensuing scandal. The only safe place she can think of is her mother’s house in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, and within the hour they are on the road (and, yes, this is going to look suspicious to the F.B.I.) driving to Mexico.

The second mention is an interview about ‘House on Mango Street’ author Sandra Cisneros traces her life through places she's lived By Bryan Llenas, Bill VourvouliasPublished.



Cisneros, who in recent years moved from her longtime home in San Antonio to San Miguel de Allende in Mexico, has also authored the critically-acclaimed novel “Caramelo” (2002), collections of short stories, poetry books, children’s literature and now her memoir, which is composed of a series of essays that she wrote for different newspapers and other publications over the years.

3 Mexican authors for a summer reading list

Latin American authors are often absent from suggested English-language reading lists, wrote Maria Sanchez Diez for Quartz June 28, despite a demographic shift that has been taking place in the United States for many years. For Mexico News Daily readers who might enjoy reading the work of the new generation of Mexican authors, here are the three Mexican writers from the Quartz list and some recommended reading.

First up is Yuri Herrera, whose Signs Preceding the End of the World is described as a breathtaking novel that tells of the mission of a young girl sent to track down and rescue her brother, who has disappeared in the U.S. “Makina’s character encapsulates the Mexican immigrant’s Odyssey toward the north, as Herrera explores the symbolic and psychological dimension that every transition carries,” writes Diez.

The book was Herrera’s third. His fourth, The Transmigration of Bodies, is due to be published in English next year. Novelist and short story writer Guadalupe Nettel has created a mosaic of unforgettable characters in Natural Histories. Among them, the pregnant woman who spends her days observing how two fishes fight, the bourgeois family whose apartment is taken over by cockroaches or the couple of musicians who share a genital infection.

The tales explore the intersection between animal and human behavior, and how biological instincts influence relationships. Another more recent book by Nettel is The Body Where I Was Born, an autobiographical novel in which the narrator recalls her childhood and an eye anomaly from the couch of a psychoanalyst.

Valeria Luiselli is one of the youngest “and most talented” figures in Mexican literature, says Diez. Her Faces in the Crowd is an award-winning tale about the Spanish-speaking literary diaspora in New York.

For non-fiction, Diez suggests Luiselli’s collection of essays entitled Sidewalks. Her latest book is the novel The Story of My Teeth, which relates the tale of a man who tries to replace his repulsive teeth.

Mexico News Daily

Purchase the electronic edition of any of the suggested books by clicking on the name of the bookseller.

Yuri Herrera:

Signs Preceding the End of the World

Guadalupe Nettel:

Natural Histories

The Body Where I Was Born

Valeria Luiselli:

Faces in the Crowd

Sidewalks

The Story of My Teeth

Book Review: Angel Face by John Scherber

John Scherber, San Miguel, Mexico resident, has just published his thirteenth novel in the Paul Zacher series and it is a good one.  

Paul Zacher, Maya, and Cody, like a dog with a ball, have once again invited us to play the detective game when a movie star, dead for 28 years, is disinterred and found in almost pristine condition. Is it a natural thing to happen to her body or is this something religious and should the issue of saint hood be raised? Based on a true story of a like incident in the Philappines, two brothers of the actress in San Miguel, Mexico propose different plans for the body of Angel face. Naturally, when Paul Zacher is around, you can expect murder.

This is perhaps the most introspective of John Scherber’s thirteen books about what it is to be a man. The case also pulls at the stretched and frayed fabric of the Paul-Maya relationship. Paul Zacher and crew should be a TV series and Angel Face the concluding chapter of season one.

SAFETY IN MEXICO

When you talk to folks back in the States, always one of the first questions "Is it safe?" John Scherber once again writes on safety on his blog:

SAFETY IN MEXICO "The constant drumbeat from the US media and the State Department on the subject of risk to travelers or expat residents in México is a subject I’ve addressed before, both on this blog site and in my nonfiction books. Recently I’ve received more messages on my website...on this topic, ... It might be time to put up a few sane comments on this issue again."

Check out Scherber's blog for the rest of the story. Good Day!

Southern Litfest Highlight: John Warley

author John Warley will talk about his new book, “A Southern Girl.” 

Southern Litfest is coming to Newnan June 5-6 to celebrate Southern literature and hospitality.

Authors and performers are scheduled for the two-day event, which will take place at various locations throughout downtown Newnan. Highlights of the festival will include:

A Southern Girl,” a compelling novel of adopting a Korean baby into an aristocratic Charleston family by John Warley, Virginia lawyer turned author – book signing follows in the old courthouse courtroom in downtown Newnan, 1:30-2:30 p.m.

Warley, a native South Carolinian, is a 1967 graduate of the Citadel. He was a roommate of author Pat Conroy, and they still enjoy meeting once a week for lunch. Warley obtained his law degree at the University of Virginia Law School and practiced law in Virginia until 1993, when he moved to Mexico to write and teach. Now a full-time writer, Warley divides his time between Beaufort, South Carolina, and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. He and his late wife, Barbara, have three sons, Caldwell, Nelson, and Carter, and a daughter, Mary Beth, born in Seoul, South Korea.

It was during the process of adopting and raising his Korean daughter that Warley drew his inspiration for “A Southern Girl,” his third book. At the same time, he is quick to point out that the story in the novel is not her story. “Her story is certainly interesting, and if one day the story is told, it will be told by her not me.”

The inspiration provided by his daughter has garnered praise from Warley’s peers.

“Set against the exquisite, historical backdrop of Charleston's insular South of Broad neighborhood, ‘A Southern Girl’ is a tale of international adoption and of families lost, then found anew through revelations, courage, and the perseverance of a love without bounds,” wrote “New York Times” best-selling novelist Therese Anne Fowler’s in the foreword of Warley’s book.

Can't Stop Thinking About The Girl From Veracruz

5.0 out of 5 stars Can't Stop Thinking About The Girl From Veracruz May 10, 2015

By Mike D. Landfair

Format:Kindle Edition

You know what you are going get with a John Scherber novel. The Paul Zacher detective agency, Paul, his girl friend Maya, retired ex-cop and sidekick Cody, and a murder, one or more, to solve. If you haven't experienced San Miguel or Mexico, Scherber exposes you to the culture, the corruption, and the beauty of San Miguel. You will always learn something new about some aspect of Mexico and wonder where does Scherber get his ideas.In this case a young girl turns up dead in a part of San Miguel that caters to the more fortunate. The police sweep the death under the rug, but Maya takes the death personally and wants to flush out the culprit and bring the corrupting influence to bay.Since Paul Zacher is a painter, I always enjoy seeing the world through his eyes.I think this is his best work yet. The scene with the Rose the water-colorist stays with you.

Writer's Group

We formed a Writer's Group today here in San Miguel. Nine of us assembled at Starbucks at 1:00 pm to see if there was an interest in forming a group, how often to meet, rules and format, would it be a critique group and something else. We all agreed to a critique group in which one author would read from his writing or current project for about ten minutes and the group would offer advice or criticism; such things as the character works or doesn't, word choice, plotting,m etc. I am sure I will learn a lot.

There may be about 8 to 10 members ranging from successful novelists and non-fiction writers, to freelance writers like me that want to get on with my novel, to writers that want the shock of being with like minded people and how that can jump-start their writing and creativity. I just want to learn about my craft and see if what I do is any good.

This afternoon I prepared the first ten pages of my novel. I made sure it was double-spaced, properly indented and obvious errors and typos were removed or changed. When all was done, I sent it out with trepidation to the other members of the group. God, do I feel sick all of a sudden! It is one thing to talk with an author about his books, but then to have him or her peek at your innards...wow.

One member of the group said leave your ego at the door. It's not about you or me, but the writing. Can we make it better, I assume, so people will read what you wrote. I knew words have power. I saw many examples of that in my life. It really came home to me when a poem I wrote made such an impression on a young woman, that she started weeping. (Yeah, it was so bad, ha ha!). Somehow it touched a nerve with her. Maybe she was going through something similar to the situation in the poem. Anyway, that convinced me that if I did something well, two souls or minds could share a moment of closeness, just the way a sunset or beach or water fall can touch our senses.

Our next meeting is Thursday, so I  will report back, if I'm still a member of the group, that is.

Sandra Cisneros Delights Crowd with Excerpts

Tahree Lane, Blade Staff Writer entertains us with a story about Sandra Cisneros, who entertained and soothed an audience of 450 on Wednesday evening, reading from several of her stories and books.

Adapting her high speaking voice to more than a dozen characters in the small, illustrated Have You Seen Marie?, she was, in turns, a river, a girl hanging upside down, a deaf Mexican grandmother, a cowboy, a woman "as pretty as a mermaid" — all part of her San Antonio neighborhood she encountered when searching for a lost cat named Marie. Ultimately, the story was about her own loss and how Ms. Cisneros learned to cope with being orphaned at 53 by the death of her mother.

"It's for people who have their hearts broken in two," she said. Enjoying being read to, an activity that never grows old, the audience responded with soft chuckles and occasional applause.

Ms. Cisneros' appearance at the Stranahan Theater was part of the Authors! Authors! series presented by The Blade and the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library.

"Every story is medicine, every book is medicine," she said, particularly if it's read when one needs its message. The afterword of Have You Seen Marie resonates with people learning to live with the loss of a loved one.

"A part of them is born in you, not immediately, but eventually, gradually," she said. "Even sadness has its place in the universe."

Ms. Cisneros, 60, read for nearly an hour. She was born in Chicago, became famous for The House on Mango Street (1984), followed by the inventive Caramelo, books of poetry and fiction, the award of a MacArthur Fellowship, and years of work promoting Latino writers. She lives with five dogs in San Miguel de Allende, a mountain town in Mexico, and is considering writing a novella. For her, writing is a spiritual mission to promote understanding between disparate groups.

She was recently invited to speak in Mexico City at a forum about teachers and others who have disappeared, but was required to limit her message to 200 words.

She wrote a poem in which she called on grandmothers to form a brigade against violence. "Who do we revere the most? Mothers. The only ones holier than mothers are grandmothers."

Her final reading was an exquisite story based on the later years of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, whose work Ms. Cisneros saw this week at the Detroit Institute of Arts, along with the big art of Diego Rivera, Ms. Kahlo's perennially unfaithful husband.

It was an ode to the everyday beauty Ms. Kahlo created out of love for Rivera, and to the animals who gave her unquestioned loyalty.