The Latin Deli : Prose and Poetry
by Judith Ortiz Cofer
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Hardcover
Published by Univ of Georgia Pr
Publication date:
Dimensions (in inches): 0.75 x 8.76 x 5.82
ISBN: 0820315567
From Booklist , 11/15/93:
Ortiz Cofer's collection of her stories, essays, and poems is a delicious
smorgasbord of the sights, smells, tastes, and sounds recalled from a cross-cultural
girlhood. Whether delineating the yearnings for an island homeland or the
frustrations of a first-generation immigrant's struggles to grow up in
"el building" in a New Jersey barrio, Ortiz Cofer's work is rich in evocative
detail and universal concerns. On the whole, it constitutes a coming-of-age-in-America
saga focused on a young Judith baffled by anti-Hispanic prejudice, by Puerto
Rican and black hostilities, by the Roman Catholic conflict between flesh
and spirit, and by the challenge of an adolescence spent in "cultural compromise."
Part of that coming-of-age, Ortiz Cofer shows us, was the quickening of
the pulse when entering a library, for books "contained most of the information
I needed to survive in two languages and two worlds. . . . Reading books
empowered me."
Copyright© 1993, American Library Association. All rights reserved
From Kirkus Reviews , 10/01/93:
A compassionate, delicate rendering of Puerto Rican life in America--told
in poetry and 15 short stories--as Cofer continues to explore territory
first described in her debut novel, The Line of The Sun (1989). In ``El
Building,'' a noisy barrio tenement teeming with life in Paterson, New
Jersey, the joys and tragedies of childhood, adolescence, and adulthood
unfold in separate vignettes. Young love is nipped in the bud by mothers
protecting their studious sons from dark-skinned neighbors (``American
History'' and ``Advanced Biology''), while the fragile relationship between
a girl and her father appears in several variations, as in ``Not for Sale,''
where parental tyranny over a 16-year-old's willfulness is transformed
by a disturbing encounter with Middle Eastern traditions. Grandparents
and siblings are portrayed from the same forgiving perspective, but in
addition to loving family portraits, sharply etched sketches of women in
crisis also emerge. In ``Coraz¢n Caf‚,'' the young widow of a deli
owner mourns his sudden death by recalling the innocent romance the two
of them had on ``the Island,'' finding in the recollection--and realization
that she has become a vital member of the Paterson community--the strength
to carry on without him. A darker side of immigrant life surfaces in ``Nada,''
however, when a mother's loss of her only son in Vietnam, shortly after
the death of her husband, unhinges her: she gives away all she owns, throwing
the remainder out the window in a frenzy, before killing herself. With
the poetry accenting and enhancing themes revealed in the prose: a remarkably
cohesive, moving collection--a tribute both to Cofer's considerable talent
and her heritage. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All
rights reserved.
Synopsis:
Cofer tells readers of the women's lives that entangled with hers in
El Building in Patterson, New Jersey. A community transplanted from what
they now view as an island paradise, these Puerto Rican families yearn
for the colors and tastes of their homeland. As they carve out their lives
as Americans, their days are filled with drama, success and tragedy. --This
text refers to the paperback edition of this title.
Booknews, Inc. , 03/01/94:
A collection of poetry, personal essays, and short fiction in which
the dominant subject--the lives of Puerto Ricans in a New Jersey barrio--is
drawn from the author's own childhood. Annotation copyright Book News,
Inc. Portland, Or.
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August 10, 1998
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