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Guadalupe Magdalena Molina Vásquez -- wife, scoundrel, courtesan, mother -- is full of contradictions: she believes in love but is suspicious of men; she rejects religion but admires the Virgin Mary; she respects tradition while breaking all the rules. Here, in the Golden Zone of Teatán, Mexico, Magda tells her extraordinary life story -- from a poor Mexican barrio to American affluence, from wide-eyed childhood to worldly courtesan life, from full-blooded youth to oncoming blindness -- and bewitchingly imparts the hard-earned wisdom she has gained through the years.

Average Customer Rating:

Condescending language nightmare

Customer Rating:

I read with interest the impressions that foreigners have on Latin culture. Call me a masochist... Many times i am left with disappointment, and unfortunately this was no exception. I do have a problem when Spanish and English are liberally mixed in narration. People DON'T talk that way. If you are a native Spanish speaker and you are telling a story in English, you may need help with a word here and there, depending on your proficiency. But the language patchwork shown in this book is nowhere near reality. Some of the expressions were so contrived they stank: "When I had nine years" is a literal translation from the Spanish, very different from the "When I was nine years old". A person that has lived in the US, married to an American college professor for years, should know better. This was just a little quirk of the author, a little "cuteness" that may sound lovely to some of her audience, but to me sounded totally forced and contrived. I am not Mexican, but I have to wonder if Mexican women get a little tired of yet another survival story that involves extreme poverty, sex, abuse, alcohol, violence... I have read so many of these that I suffer from overexposure, and that's when the topic starts losing relevance.

Empowering

Customer Rating:

I bought this book, opened it, and put it back on the self for six months. Later, I picked it back up and plowed through. Once the flashbacks began I found myself hooked. The story is a an unconventional in terms of American feminism, but it offers a beautiful and rich tale of a woman coming to terms with herself and her culture through a series of engaging trials. The woman's life is complicated by an eventual conflict between her and her American, progressive, feminist daughter. The result of the culture clash is eye-opening. Although many readers seem to feel that the culture illustrated is a poor representation, most readers will not be bothered by the accuracy...they will become infatuated with the honesty of the characters, especially protagonist Magda.

Debut novel of growing up poor in Mexico - and moving on

Customer Rating:

The title of this review makes it sound like another ho-hum feminist story about a deprived or abused woman moving upward into another culture. Yes, there's some of that, but there's so much more to this quite extraordinary fiction debut by Donna Gershten, who won Barbara Kingsolver's Bellwether Prize for her effort. Guadalupe grew up as a victim of a strong patriarchial culture and learned how to work within that system. Then she manages to use her intelligence and beauty to rise above her origins, she find herself married and moved to the States. There, she's at a loss as to how to fit into her new world. All the old rules no longer seem to apply. This is a cross-cultural tale that deals with the inequities inherent between men and women, between those `with' and those `without' within both societies.

A great intro to Mexican culture.

Customer Rating:

This book was great! I enjoyed the struggle Magda had between the 2 cultures she loved- her Mexican heritage and the American opportunities. It was amazing to read about how she made her way from the gutters (literally) of Mexico to the business woman she became. Her journey changed her and she had a hard time trusting the world around her. Her relationship with her mother and aunt were her cornerstone, and her relationship with her daughter was her life. I wanted to give this to my high school Spanish 2 class to read but decided against it due to the high sexual content. Definitely an R rated book, but seriously worth it!

Wonderful!

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I was required to read this book for my Literature class. The first couple of pages were the hardest to get through,(because of the transition from Spanish to English) after that, I couldn't put it down! Donna has a wonderful way of weaving words and bringing the gritty texture of reality into focus. I've bought this book for everyone in my family and am anxiously awaiting her next one. We got to meet with the author and she is an incredible person!