Word: fourteeners
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...Cubs Irish immigrant Nelson O'Brien meets Mariela Montez, whom he marries and takes home to the States. Margarita, the first of their fifteen children, is born at sea on route to America. Her recollections form the backbone of the novel, which recounts the fate of the fourteen sisters and the one brother. Emilio...
...Fourteen Sister is likely to upset some readers Occurrences that seem disreputable in Garcia Marquez' Picturesque backwater towns become more distorting when they arise in Cobbleton, Pennsylvania at the beginning of the novel, a plane crashes because the Montez O'Brten house exudes so much femininity that the pilot is overcome and the engine malfunctions; later, the ghost of Nelson's sister returns to watch him make love to Mariels. American readers can swallow these events when they're set in Macondo and Aracatacas; magical realism has been relegated to the level of quaint events in imaginary south...
Hijuelos' deliciously extravagant imagination declares its presence on every page. His style is impassioned and almost impossibly lyrical. Often bawdy, Fourteen Sisters is also beautiful, reflective and wise. Particularly memorable is the birth of Emilio, who "descended out of the heaven of his mother's womb, through clouds of Cuban and Irish humors, slipping into this feminine universe at half past ten in an upstairs bedroom brilliant with sunlight, surrounded by the chatting, nervous, delighted, and overwhelming female presences that were his sisters...
...narrative, and the style suffers as well. As the sprawling novel winds down, Hijuelos' lyricism appears to run out of steam. The disappointing ending feels a little contrived. But this failure is insignificant, and serves to underscore the magnificent, visionary achievement of the rest of the novel. With The Fourteen Sisters of Emilio Montez O' Brien Oscar Hijuelos has given American readers a vibrantly imagined history of their nation...
...College where his memos included Donald Barthelme and Susan Sontag. Hijuelos held a low-level job with a mass transit advertising agency before quitting in 1980, when his first novel, Our House in the Last World, was published. He spoke recently with The Crimson about his new novel. The fourteen Sisters of Emilio Montez O'Brien...