Download Let Their Spirits Dance: A Novel, by Stella Pope Duarte
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Let Their Spirits Dance: A Novel, by Stella Pope Duarte
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Let Their Spirits Dance is the moving story of a family's journey across America. Thirty years after the death of the family's son and brother, Jesse, in Vietnam, the family has remained in many ways locked in a time of grief and pain. Having heard her son's voice, Alicia makes a vow to touch his name on the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C., and her decision inspires her warring children, along with hundreds of strangers across the country.
Stella Pope Duarte portrays a family struggling with the universal scars suffered by all who have been touched by death through war. In this powerfully evocative novel, Pope Duarte connects family, friends, and an entire nation with the names on the Wall, honoring the men and women who served in Vietnam as well as those who watched and waited, but never forgot.
- Sales Rank: #2219358 in Books
- Published on: 2003-11-04
- Released on: 2003-11-04
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.00" h x .76" w x 5.31" l, .55 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 336 pages
From Publishers Weekly
A cross-country trip to the Vietnam Wall is the subject of Let Their Spirits Dance, Stella Pope Duarte's tearjerker of a first novel (Fragile Nights, a collection of short stories, was published in 1998). Elementary school teacher Teresa Ramirez is skeptical when her ailing 80-year-old mother hears voices telling her to make a pilgrimage to touch her son's name on the wall, but the whole extended Ramirez family and assorted friends set out to drive to Washington, making a name for themselves along the way. Duarte's narrative is meandering, but the density of the detail she packs in gives the novel emotional clout and historical depth.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Duarte's first novel is an inspirational road book full of energetic Latinos exorcising their cultural, political, and personal demons. A fortyish schoolteacher, Teresa is failing at her marriage and is haunted by the memory of her beloved brother, Jesse, who was killed in the Vietnam War 29 years ago. One night, Teresa's mother hears Jesse's voice, which tells her to go to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC. Then surprise, surprise she finds out that the government owes her $90,000 because it had mistakenly delivered her son's body to the wrong address. Despite poor health, Mrs. Ramirez rounds up Teresa, her other children, and friends and heads to the nation's capital by auto caravan. The press picks up on their junket and follows them through American towns large and small. As they near the memorial, the mother takes sick but not before meeting Jesse's Vietnamese wife, his son (raised in America), and his grandchild. Duarte's considerable talents shine in the entertaining travel sections, but red-flagged plot devices and an excess of cultural and historical apposition about Chicano history undermine the narrative's complexity and aesthetic enjoyment. Recommended for collections of Latino literature. Harold Augenbraum, Mercantile Lib. of New YorkFuentes, Carlos. Inez.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Thirty years after the death of Jesse Ramirez in Vietnam, his mother is convinced that the last words her son spoke to her in the airport have come true. He promised her that she would hear his voice again, and she--believing she has done just that--feels she must make a pilgrimage to the Vietnam War Memorial. The story of the family's journey in a ragtag caravan, consisting of the extended family and Jesse's old friends, is narrated by Jesse's sister Teresa. She remembers the joy of family life when Jesse was still alive and the sadness and pain that ripped them apart after his death. When their journey attracts the attention of a TV reporter, the resulting publicity brings them good news about Jesse's time in Vietnam, and the family is finally able to make peace with his death. Partly a political novel and partly a family story, Duarte's tale seems barely able to contain the welter of emotion that tumbles from its pages. Deeply felt and often moving, this is an impressive first novel. Joanne Wilkinson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Most helpful customer reviews
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Five Stars
By audriana
Love this book will read again
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
A story of one family's involvement in the Vietnam War
By Ratmammy
LET THEIR SPIRITS DANCE by Stella Pope Duarte
The debut novel by Stella Pope Duarte, LET THEIR SPIRITS DANCE revolves around a Hispanic family's trip from their Arizona home to the Vietnam Wall, in a journey where they question themselves, their beliefs, and remember the family member they lost to the Vietnam War.
School teacher Teresa Ramirez has held on to the knowledge, all these 30 years, that her brother Jesse knew he was not going to return from the Vietnam War. On his departure at the airport, he whispers to her that he will not be back, and to take care of their mother. This memory haunts her when they get word six months later of his death while trying to help out a fellow soldier who was shot down. Thirty years later, when Teresa's mother Alicia informs everyone she has heard Jesse call to her, Teresa is more than just upset, and wonders if her mother is hallucinating or if her mother truly has these powers where she can hear from the dead.
Then, in a surprising turn of events, they are informed that because of an error made by the government all those years ago, Alicia has $90,000 coming to her because of Jesse's death. This seals the deal - Alicia informs the family they are going to DC to touch Jesse's' name on the wall. It doesn't matter that Teresa is being sued by her husband's girlfriend for assault, or that Teresa is waiting to hear about her soon-to-be divorce from Ray. Alicia says it will all take care of itself, and that they are all to go on this journey together. Alicia's health is in jeopardy, but she is determined to do this, as the last thing she may do on this earth.
Duarte tells the story with flashbacks, the point of view coming mostly from Teresa, as she remembers her childhood with Jesse and her other siblings Priscilla and Paul, happy moments as well as sad moments that continue to bother her into the present. She remembers her father, who was unfaithful to her mother Alicia, a man that Teresa had no respect for. She also remembers the stories she heard from an old Aztec medicine man, Don Florencio, who talked about the ancient Aztecs, their heritage, about dead spirits and other things that Teresa wants to believe are true.
While the first half of the book is filled with mostly flashbacks and helps set up the story, the second half details the journey that the Ramirez family and friends take, as they drive in a caravan of vehicles to their destination in Washington. They become the favorite of the media, thanks to the help of nephew Michael and his computer, even garnering the attention of President Clinton. Relationships are mended and created as the trip ensues, while more and more people join the caravan, and when they finally reach their final destination, it is a moment of sadness and remembrance as they embrace those that have left them.
This reviewer enjoyed LET THEIR SPIRITS DANCE. The story of the Vietnam War and how it affected one family, as well as one group of people, the Hispanics, was eye opening. The ending was expected, yet it also was climatic in that one had waited so long for this journey to end. It was not truly a happy ending, but what made it happy was their realization that our loved ones are never really far from us, only separated by death. Teresa's story involved one's questioning of faith and religious beliefs, and reconciling one's past with the present. Her problems are resolved in a manner that surprised this reviewer, but it was a wonderful ending to her story as well as Alicia's journey in search of her son. Some readers may find the politics in this book to be opposite of what they feel, as Duarte does not hold back on her views of the war, told through the eyes of the characters in this story. Other than that, four stars for LET THEIR SPIRIT DANCE.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
Score one for the teacher!!!
By Terry Mathews
Stella Pope Duarte's bio says she is a university instructor and a high school counselor. I'll bet she took a lot of writing and/or literature classes during her school years, because her debut novel is nothing short of a miracle, considering how publishers continue to release poorly constructed, poorly edited books.
From the first sentence -- "The passion vine bloomed until late November the year Jesse died."
-- until the last paragraph --
". . . No one knows if a spirit can balance on the point of a pin, or send light beams when we least expect. I looked down at the Wall. Light shone from it like a laser beam reaching us flying overhead. It's OK that I knew my brother wasn't coming home. I was supposed to. It got me to write this book, to tell his story to the world."
-- Ms. Duarte's elegant, mystical prose casts a spell on her reader.
Duarte weaves the story of a Chicano family torn asunder by the death of its beloved son/brother/cousin Jesse Ramirez during the Viet Name War in 1968.
Before he boarded the plane, Jesse promised his mother that she would hear his voice again. When she finally hears his voice one night, some thirty years after his death, she cannot rest until she visits the Viet Nam Memorial Wall to touch his name.
Jesse's family has not fared well since his death. One of his sisters, Teresa, is in the middle of a difficult divorce. Another sister can't find Mr. Right, although not from lack of effort. His brother is an ex-con trying to connect with his estranged son. His buddies who returned from the war have had their share of struggles, too.
Riding herd on this rag-tag group is Jesse's mother, Alicia Rodriguez. She alone has not lost faith and despite her fragile health and lack of money, she is determined to make the long trek to Washington to see the Wall.
I look forward to many, many more books from Stella Pope Durate. She's got all the skills necessary to teach us about quality writing and to entertain us for years to come.
Enjoy.
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