The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 17 February 2000
by Lisa St. Aubin de Terán
As a young girl, Lisa Terán fantasized about the magical beauty of an hacienda in the Andes near Valera, Venezuela. Swept off her feet by a dashing Venezuelan expatriate, her trip into the mountains proved to be a dramatic education for her. This is her story, from her wide-eyed arrival to her troubled departure from the sugar plantation of her dreams. Terán is a pretty good writer, and she brings to life many of the people who live on the hacienda. The undercurrent throughout the story, though, is her relationship with her husband Jaime. He is a disturbed figure, part mad, part obsessed with the great inbred history of the Teráns in those mountains. He is key to the story, yet he appears here as a ghostly shadow. Not often showing up at the hacienda, more often wandering the countryside and cities. We learn precious little about Jaime, except that his action (and inaction) make life for Lisa (and the whole hacienda) very difficult. Still, Lisa's learning (she was only 17 when she arrived in Venezuela) is the heart of this book. She grows up, rapidly, before the reader's eyes. She takes a firm hand in the running of the hacienda, through good as well as bad times. She learns to take care of la gente who live on the farm. And she raises her daughter in impossible circumstances. This is a lonely memoir. Full of the feeling of isolation and foreboding. Yet there is beauty and hope as well.