Deborah Clearman
Auteur de Todos Santos
Œuvres de Deborah Clearman
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Two of the most intense television series I have watched are Breaking Bad and Ozark. Both deal with seemingly average people who become involved in the drug trade, dragging their families into the situation.
Deborah Clearman's novel, Remedios, is the literary equivalent of those two series. Fernando is a college professor, living with his wife and three children in Guatemala. They have a comfortable life, although Fernando borrowed money from a loan shark to renovate their home, and the payment is due. Fernando is unsure how he will be able to repay the money.
A childhood friend, Memo, shows up on his doorstep after nearly thirty years. The last time Fernando saw Memo was when they were teenagers, at a meeting that was violently attacked by the military. Fernando and his brother escaped, but Memo was caught and forced to become a soldier.
Memo now works for a dangerous Mexican cartel, and he comes to Fernando with a offer: let them build a meth lab on his property. The money Memo will give him will enable him to pay off the loan shark, and no one but Fernando needs to know what is going on. Fernando resists, but ultimately he agrees.
They concoct a story that Memo is building a cleaning supply manufacturing plant on Fernando's property, and Fernando is able to live with that until he discovers that his 14 year-old son Felix is working with Memo.
Fernando's younger wife Sandra has also become entranced by Memo, bringing him food and spending time with him. Memo encourages Felix and Sandra's affections for him, pulling them deeper into his web. Fernando feels helpless and impotent to save his family.
Remedios is a taut, intense novel that had my stomach in knots. Like Breaking Bad and Ozark, you watch as good people make bad decision after bad decision, wanting to warn them away from the danger. Reading Remedios also gave me a better understanding of the history of the civil war in Guatemala in the 1980s, and how drug cartels were able to use that to gain a foothold in that country.
If you're looking for a book that will get your pulse racing, a quick read at only 228 pages, put Remedios on your list. I highly recommend it.… (plus d'informations)
Deborah Clearman's novel, Remedios, is the literary equivalent of those two series. Fernando is a college professor, living with his wife and three children in Guatemala. They have a comfortable life, although Fernando borrowed money from a loan shark to renovate their home, and the payment is due. Fernando is unsure how he will be able to repay the money.
A childhood friend, Memo, shows up on his doorstep after nearly thirty years. The last time Fernando saw Memo was when they were teenagers, at a meeting that was violently attacked by the military. Fernando and his brother escaped, but Memo was caught and forced to become a soldier.
Memo now works for a dangerous Mexican cartel, and he comes to Fernando with a offer: let them build a meth lab on his property. The money Memo will give him will enable him to pay off the loan shark, and no one but Fernando needs to know what is going on. Fernando resists, but ultimately he agrees.
They concoct a story that Memo is building a cleaning supply manufacturing plant on Fernando's property, and Fernando is able to live with that until he discovers that his 14 year-old son Felix is working with Memo.
Fernando's younger wife Sandra has also become entranced by Memo, bringing him food and spending time with him. Memo encourages Felix and Sandra's affections for him, pulling them deeper into his web. Fernando feels helpless and impotent to save his family.
Remedios is a taut, intense novel that had my stomach in knots. Like Breaking Bad and Ozark, you watch as good people make bad decision after bad decision, wanting to warn them away from the danger. Reading Remedios also gave me a better understanding of the history of the civil war in Guatemala in the 1980s, and how drug cartels were able to use that to gain a foothold in that country.
If you're looking for a book that will get your pulse racing, a quick read at only 228 pages, put Remedios on your list. I highly recommend it.… (plus d'informations)
Guatemala, a mother's love, summer, painting, having fun, fear, daily life, superstitions......
A summer in Guatemala....this definitely sounded exciting to Isaac and much better than spending it in summer school in Iowa. Isaac accompanied his mother to Guatemala and stayed with his aunt while his mother made a trip to Todos Santos to do some painting.
While his mother was away, Issac met another American boy who was bad news, but whom Isaac continued to befriend. The boys planned a trip of their own without actually telling anyone the truth about their destination. Their adventures as well as the adventures of Catherine made up most of the book...Catherine found things she wasn't expecting and Isaac did as well. The trip Issac and Bernie took was frightening to me....seeing the risks they took in a foreign country made my heart race.
Meanwhile, Catherine was enjoying herself and learning many things about the culture of Guatemala...both good and bad aspects. The book had vivid descriptions of the beautiful landscape of Guatemala and the lifestyles of its people. The characters were interesting and colorful.
The book took me a while to read not because it was difficult, but because I was afraid to see what was going to happen to Catherine and her son. It also was heart wrenching to learn how the citizens of Guatemala actually lived on a daily basis and how the leaders were so self-centered, corrupt, controlling, and superstitious.
Deborah Clearman is a very talented author...she has fantastic descriptions of characters, scenery, and emotions. You could feel the emotions of each character as they were dealing with the situation occurring at the moment......the well-described scenes and emotions made the book unique for me.
I truly enjoyed the book except for the fear factor that I brought on myself. :)
Also stop at Black Lawrence Press to view Ms. Clearman's video of the background for her novel...quite intriguing.
http://blacklawrencepress.com/ - go to the side bar and choose Authors.… (plus d'informations)
A summer in Guatemala....this definitely sounded exciting to Isaac and much better than spending it in summer school in Iowa. Isaac accompanied his mother to Guatemala and stayed with his aunt while his mother made a trip to Todos Santos to do some painting.
While his mother was away, Issac met another American boy who was bad news, but whom Isaac continued to befriend. The boys planned a trip of their own without actually telling anyone the truth about their destination. Their adventures as well as the adventures of Catherine made up most of the book...Catherine found things she wasn't expecting and Isaac did as well. The trip Issac and Bernie took was frightening to me....seeing the risks they took in a foreign country made my heart race.
Meanwhile, Catherine was enjoying herself and learning many things about the culture of Guatemala...both good and bad aspects. The book had vivid descriptions of the beautiful landscape of Guatemala and the lifestyles of its people. The characters were interesting and colorful.
The book took me a while to read not because it was difficult, but because I was afraid to see what was going to happen to Catherine and her son. It also was heart wrenching to learn how the citizens of Guatemala actually lived on a daily basis and how the leaders were so self-centered, corrupt, controlling, and superstitious.
Deborah Clearman is a very talented author...she has fantastic descriptions of characters, scenery, and emotions. You could feel the emotions of each character as they were dealing with the situation occurring at the moment......the well-described scenes and emotions made the book unique for me.
I truly enjoyed the book except for the fear factor that I brought on myself. :)
Also stop at Black Lawrence Press to view Ms. Clearman's video of the background for her novel...quite intriguing.
http://blacklawrencepress.com/ - go to the side bar and choose Authors.… (plus d'informations)
If it can be said that a novel whose central character is the mother of a teenage son is a coming-of-age novel, then "Todos Santos" is exactly that. In fact, both Catherine Barnes and her 14-year-old son, Isaac, have coming-of-age experiences in what is Deborah Clearman's debut novel.
Catherine Barnes has been living the good life in Iowa with her professor husband and young son. But when she learns that her husband makes a habit of becoming intimately involved with female students of his, she understands she has been living a lie. Making matters even worse, Isaac is so uninterested in school that he will fail 8th grade unless he attends summer school. Catherine senses that both she and her son badly need to get away from Iowa for a while, and when her sister-in-law invites her to Guatemala for the summer, she gladly accepts the offer.
Zelda, a longtime resident of Guatemala, happily agrees to put Isaac to work in her shop while Catherine, an illustrator of children's books, moves on to remote Todos Santos to work on her next book. As Catherine learns from Oswaldo, the guide Zelda hired for her, Todos Santos is a mountain town with a violent past, one whose residents are still very much influenced by superstition, black magic and legends about ancient mountain gods. Only after she moves into a Todos Santos hotel and begins her work, does Catherine fully realize just how different a culture surrounds her.
Isaac, in the meantime, tricks his aunt into believing that he has been invited on a weekend trip by the parents of his new friend, a 15-year old boy from New Jersey. In reality, he and Ben are off to the coast on an adventure of their own, an adventure that leads to tragedy for both boys. Catherine knows it is up to her to rescue her son, but she is hours away from him and Todos Santos is falling into chaos around her. What happens over the course of the next few days will change Catherine and Isaac forever.
Deborah Clearman's novel is an eye-opener for readers like me who come to it with little more than a generic picture of Guatemala in mind: a country with beautiful beaches, widespread poverty, recent political violence, and little hope that things will get better, etc. These clichés are all true to one degree or another but Clearman uses her Guatemalan characters to remind us that people are pretty much the same no matter where they might live, that our similarities far outnumber our differences. Parents everywhere want to provide the best possible lives for their children. Mothers love their children more than they love themselves. Relationships change, and love is sometimes found when and where one least expects to find it.
Deborah Clearman has a deep affection for the people and culture of Guatemala. She has, after all, been visiting and living there since the late 1970s. One only has to read "Todos Santos" to understand why.
Rated at: 4.0… (plus d'informations)
Catherine Barnes has been living the good life in Iowa with her professor husband and young son. But when she learns that her husband makes a habit of becoming intimately involved with female students of his, she understands she has been living a lie. Making matters even worse, Isaac is so uninterested in school that he will fail 8th grade unless he attends summer school. Catherine senses that both she and her son badly need to get away from Iowa for a while, and when her sister-in-law invites her to Guatemala for the summer, she gladly accepts the offer.
Zelda, a longtime resident of Guatemala, happily agrees to put Isaac to work in her shop while Catherine, an illustrator of children's books, moves on to remote Todos Santos to work on her next book. As Catherine learns from Oswaldo, the guide Zelda hired for her, Todos Santos is a mountain town with a violent past, one whose residents are still very much influenced by superstition, black magic and legends about ancient mountain gods. Only after she moves into a Todos Santos hotel and begins her work, does Catherine fully realize just how different a culture surrounds her.
Isaac, in the meantime, tricks his aunt into believing that he has been invited on a weekend trip by the parents of his new friend, a 15-year old boy from New Jersey. In reality, he and Ben are off to the coast on an adventure of their own, an adventure that leads to tragedy for both boys. Catherine knows it is up to her to rescue her son, but she is hours away from him and Todos Santos is falling into chaos around her. What happens over the course of the next few days will change Catherine and Isaac forever.
Deborah Clearman's novel is an eye-opener for readers like me who come to it with little more than a generic picture of Guatemala in mind: a country with beautiful beaches, widespread poverty, recent political violence, and little hope that things will get better, etc. These clichés are all true to one degree or another but Clearman uses her Guatemalan characters to remind us that people are pretty much the same no matter where they might live, that our similarities far outnumber our differences. Parents everywhere want to provide the best possible lives for their children. Mothers love their children more than they love themselves. Relationships change, and love is sometimes found when and where one least expects to find it.
Deborah Clearman has a deep affection for the people and culture of Guatemala. She has, after all, been visiting and living there since the late 1970s. One only has to read "Todos Santos" to understand why.
Rated at: 4.0… (plus d'informations)
Statistiques
- Œuvres
- 4
- Membres
- 23
- Popularité
- #537,598
- Évaluation
- 4.0
- Critiques
- 8
- ISBN
- 5
- Langues
- 1
Fernando is a college professor and lives in a nice house with his wife and children. They appear to be upper middle class and have a good life. One day a childhood friend of Fernando's shows up at his office. He hadn't seen Memo in over 30 years but he is happy to see him and takes him home to meet his family over lunch. Soon the family falls under Memo's concerned and loving attitude to the point that Fernando allows him to build a meth lab at the family property outside the city; Felix, the oldest son goes to work for him and Sandra, Fernando's young wife, is sexually attracted to him. From the outside, it all looks positive - Fernando is able to pay off a loan shark, Felix is able to find a good job without leaving the country and Sandra is happy but feeling a lot of guilt. Despite the people in town believing that the meth lab is a manufacturing site for household products, things begin to go very wrong when the Mexican cartel becomes involved. As the family crisis grows and affects all of Fernando's family, they all realize that they are paying the price for making bad decisions and trusting the wrong person.
I really enjoyed this book - it's an intense page turning novel but at the center is a likable innocent family who has lost their way.… (plus d'informations)