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Critics' Opinion:
Readers' Opinion:
First Published:
May 2005, 512 pages
Paperback:
Apr 2006, 528 pages
From the book jacket: Teresita is not an
ordinary girl. Born of an illiterate, poor Indian mother, she
knows little about her past or her future.... As a teenager
she learns the way plants can cure the sick and prayer can
move the earth, she discovers an even greater gift: she has
the power to heal. Her touch, like warm honey, melts pain and
suffering. But such a gift can be a burden, too. Before long,
the Urrea ranch is crowded with pilgrims and with agents of a
Mexican government wary of anything that might threaten its
power. The
Hummingbird's Daughter is Luis Urrea's majestic
masterpiece, the story of one girl's life and the swollen
heart of all Mexico.
Comment: Urrea says it took him 20 years to
craft this Mexican love-song (labelled an instant classic of
Hispanic literature by some reviewers), which combines
magical realism and sobering reality in a story based on
real-life events. A number of reviewers comment on
Urrea's extraordinary skill in sustaining the story through
500 pages. As one puts it, "If Olympic medals were
given for narrative athleticism, Urrea would get gold".
This is his first novel since In Search of Snow
(1994), but you may recollect hearing about him more
recently due to his non-fiction work, The Devil's Highway,
which was shortlisted for a Pulitzer Prize.
"To the very end, 'The Hummingbird's Daughter' is a book of
surprises and savory treasures. Urrea's much-praised recent
work, 'The Devil's Highway', was a journalistic re-creation of
the deaths of 14 Mexicans who crossed illegally into the U.S.
southern desert in 2001. He has loosened his expressive
reportorial skills to write lyrical fiction, and we can only
be grateful." - The Washington Post.
What is magical-realism? Magical realism is a style
of writing that combines fantastic elements with realism.
The term was first used by Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier in
1949. Many Latin-American writers use the technique,
to the point that it has become synonymous with
Latin-American authors, but other writers such as Salman
Rushdie also employ magical-realism from time to time.
This review was originally published in The BookBrowse Review in July 2005, and has been updated for the
April 2006 edition.
Click here to go to this issue.
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