Amor Eterno: Eleven Lessons in Love

by Patricia Preciado Martin

Overview

It brings a mother to her knees to plead for her son's safe return from war. It draws a grown woman back to the site of cherished childhood memories. It keeps the passion and romance of youth alive in an older woman's heart. It brings together heiresses and busboys, lawyers and chambermaids. Only love, the magical elixir that transcends boundaries and relieves heartaches, can do these things.

Through earthy, charming stories that blend songs, letters, and prayers, Patricia Preciado Martin explores the hidden places of the soul and the human longing for amor eterno, eternal love. Forbidden love, enchanted love, and desperate love are just some of the varieties of love that get mixed into this sweet concoction of romance, wit, and instruction. A delicious combination of modern sensibility and folk wisdom—including recipes for fresh breath and special prayers to Saint Valentine—this book tells universal tales of devotion and desire. Seeking love in many forms, Martin's characters relive unforgettable experiences, pursue elusive destinies, give themselves with abandon, and yearn for home. Love is the mysterious and miraculous emotion that leads them to deny or indulge their deepest needs.

Amor Eterno is a passionate and humorous collection of stories that will inspire us to treasure and share the loves we have known.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780816519941
Publisher:	University of Arizona Press
Publication date:	01/01/2000
Series:	Camino del Sol
Edition description:	3rd ed.
Pages:	110
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Amor Eterno is Patricia Preciado Martin's third book of short stories; her earlier works were El Milagro and Other Stories and Days of Plenty, Days of Want. She has also authored two collections of oral histories, Songs My Mother Sang to Me and Images and Conversations, and a children's book, The Legend of the Bellringer of San Agustín; her work has been excerpted widely in anthologies and literary journals. She is a former teacher and Peace Corps volunteer who lives in Tucson with her husband, Jim, and keeps busy with writing, lecturing, and celebrating love and life with her familia and amistades.
 

What People are Saying About This

Alma Luz Villanueva

These 'Eleven Lessons in Love' string together like clear crystal beads - each one innocent yet wise. The last words of the collection give the reader the only promise love can make: 'And I know that love, like the rain, will come again.' My advice: add these crystal beads to your collection.
— (Alma Luz Villanueva, author of Naked Ladies)

Demetria Martinez

These stories are windows onto a culture....A beautiful weaving of historical sensibility and contemporary situations.
— (Demetria Martinez, author of Breathing Between the Lines)

Editorial Reviews

"How do I love thee? Let Martin count the ways. Just as she did in El Milagro, oral historian Martin draws on the oral literature of the Mexican American community. . . . These short stories transcend their regional milieu to tell universal amorous truths. Written with finesse and without pretension, they are charming and appealing."—Library Journal

"Forbidden, enchanted, desperate—these are some of the varieties of love in this charming concoction of romance, with, and instruction by the Arizona oral historian."—Latina

"The technique is unique; the combination of epistolary form, songs, recipes, prayers to Saint Valentine, promises to Mother Mary, and stories told in flashback all reveal the many expressions of love. Highly recommended."—Multicultural Review

"The stories are windows onto a culture. A beautiful weaving of historical sensibility and contemporary situations."—Demetria Martínez

"These 'Eleven Lessons in Love' string together like clear crystal beads—each one innocent yet wise."—Alma Luz Villanueva
 

From the Publisher

Following the author's two previous collections, El Milagro and Days of Plenty, Days of Want, and written in the bilingual idiom of the Southwest, this is a volume of 11 charmingly simple, imagistic stories about several varieties of love: the desperate love of a mother for her son away at war; the love that refuses to fight when a relationship is abused but that takes a delicate revenge; the aching of young loves separated by time and distance; the love of a woman who writes letters to her long-dead husband; the loving prayers of old women for the characters of a telenovela whose lives seem so turbulent. There is a sweet (not saccharine) depth of feeling here, matched by the author's depth of cultural wisdom. Bits of regional lore are sprinkled throughout--like the very precise instructions for making a petition to a local saint (actually a young lover killed by a jealous husband a century before) or the recipe for a lovers' breath freshener. Poems, letters, promesas left on altars and verses of songs are interwoven with the stories to create an earthy yet innocent celebration of romantic longing. (Mar.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

How do I love thee? Let Martin count the ways. Just as she did in El Milagro and Other Stories, oral historian Martin draws on the oral literature of the Arizona Mexican American community to tell 11 love stories: an epistolary "Arranged Love," a lyrical "Lost Love" with a surprise ending, the poignant "Mother's Love" for her war-scarred son, and the unexpected humor of "Forbidden Love." Occasionally, the realization of this love relies on nonliterary elements--the story called "Desperate Love" relies on herbal recipes, "Frustrated Love" on magic spells, and "Enchanted Love" on prayers to St. Valentine. These short stories transcend their regional milieu to tell universal amorous truths. Written with finesse and without pretension, they are charming and appealing. Recommended mostly for public libraries.--Lawrence Olszewski, OCLC Lib., Dublin, OH Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\

Library Journal