Rated of 5
by Fred Lima Nights by Marie Arana
A sensory narrative about a love-affair and its impact on friends and family, this book submerges the reader in color, aroma, heat and light. It's tropical heat at every level. I felt like I was back in Lima myself, wandering among colonial houses reeking of past wealth, jungle scents, and Latin spices.
Rated of 5
by Wendy Feverish to flagging
I started reading this book when I had a cold and was slightly feverish. Lima Nights was an appropriate choice as the pace in the first part of the novel is also slightly feverish. I found myself appalled and attracted to Bluhm, the older husband who sees Maria at the bar/dance club called Lima Nights one evening. They dance the tango and she slips a note into his jacket pocket. Later, he sees her working at the grocery store and becomes obsessed with her despite the fact that she is only 13, younger than his youngest son. So begins their attraction and relationship. I didn't like him for cheating on his wife. I didn't like him for pursuing a relationship with a poor young girl. I didn't like Maria, though I did not blame her for trying to better her situation. And yet, I couldn't put the book down.
The second section, which takes place 20 years into their relationship, is more slow-paced. We don't know the characters well, as mirrored in the fact that they don't know one another despite having been together for 20 years under the same roof. Bluhm has let his family go for Maria while Maria clings to a false sense of security that living under Bluhm's roof seems to provide. The mix of fighting, voodoo and even some psychotherapy is still not a substitute for the shallow character development, which is ultimately the author’s point. The characters are as stagnant as their relationship.
The first half of the book was much more interesting, albeit disturbing, than the second half. Regardless of the flaws, the story was still compelling enough to finish. I wanted to know how it all worked out, though seemingly there couldn't be a happy union between "a chicken and a goose", two very different characters who had only a tenuous love and flagging sexual desire to keep them together.
Rated of 5
by Sharon Lima Nights
What begins as a story of infatuation and promise of new love between Carlos and Maria turns into a melancholy saga of lost family ties and misguided dreams.
Clean poetic prose and rich flavorful descriptions of modern day Lima center around a lovely old mansion that has been in Carlos' family for generations. The house becomes a symbol of all things held dear to those in Carlos' family including his wife, mother and sons.
The class and culture disparity between Carlos and Maria sets a tone of tension, leading them to a series of unfortunate events and ultimately sealing their fates.
Carlos' three close friends, Willy, Marco and Oscar provide a sorely needed dose of reality and banter to a story that left me feeling empty and sad at the conclusion.
Rated of 5
by Patricia Wanting more
Despite the promise of an erotic love story, I felt somewhat detached from the story of Carlos and his mistress Maria.
Because their personalities weren't well developed, they remained characters in a book, not people whose lives I could become involved in and care about . The story seemed to be an age old one of Latin American men being hot blooded and needing to feed their sexual appetite and yet this time Carlos went too far, destroying his entire family. The author wrote about voodoos and hexes which enlivened the plot, and the ending had an unexpected twist, but over all, I felt it lacked passion.
Rated of 5
by Elise Not a Happily Ever After Lima Nights starts out as a very passionate love story and ends in complete turmoil. Readers looking for a "happily ever after" will not find it here. I continuously wished I could understand the characters more fully. Arana would repeatedly brush the questions I had about what was motivating the main characters; however, she would only partially answer them - always leaving the reader to draw his/her own conclusions.
Rated of 5
by Linda Posson, Fort Collins, CO Lima Nights
Arana’s latest book is a delicious read, the kind you might devour while sipping your afternoon tea or a glass of wine in front of the fireplace. Chocked full of sensual description and poetic metaphors, she leads the reader into the bizarre world of two disparate characters each clinging to a dream of what their life could be. I can imagine my daughters and their friends as well as my own circle of 60-something readers enjoying this page-turner.
Fearless, gripping, at once darkly funny and tender, spanning three continents and numerous lives, Americanah is a richly told story set in today's globalized world.
The story of an American family, middle class in middle America, ordinary in every way but one. But that exception is the beating heart of this extraordinary novel.
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Kenn Nesbitt is new Children's Poet Laureate(Jun 12 2013) Kenn Nesbitt has been named the new Children's Poet Laureate: Consultant in Children's Poetry to the Poetry Foundation, which noted that the two-year position...
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of 5
by Fred 
of 5
by Wendy 
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by Patricia 
