The Mortifications

July 4, 2016
At the heart of O’Henry-winner Palacio’s debut novel are the twins Ulises and Isabel Encarnacion. The twins’ mother, Soledad, has fled Cuba with her children during the Mariel boat-lift of 1980, leaving their rebel father, Uxbal, behind in rural Buey Arriba. The three exiles settle in Connecticut, where Soledad takes up with a Dutch horticulturist who grows Cuban tobacco, but she, like her children, cannot escape the past. All three family members are defined by their longing for something lost. Ulises, especially, longs for something indefinable, something he wonders if he ever had in the first place, and which he carries as a burden anyway. A twisted promise Uxbal asks Isabel to keep drives the girl deep into Catholic mysticism. She seeks sacrifice, choosing first one martyrdom and then another, until she goes missing. Ulises is a natural with the Dutchman’s soil, and he excels in Latin and the classics at school. He doesn’t remember much about home, but when Soledad falls victim to cancer and asks him to find Isabel, Ulises returns to Cuba. In fact, all the characters end up where they began—in Cuba—their journeys as mythic as geographic. Perhaps strongest of all in this winning debut are the scenes set in Cuba: these humid and colorful pages sing with empathy. The orphans, rebels, and old women he describes breathe with vital intensity. Agent: PJ Mark, Janklow & Nesbit Associates.

Starred review from December 1, 2016

A mother, Soledad, flees Cuba, abandoning her revolutionary husband Uxmal and absconding with their 12-year-old twins Ulises and Isabel. She bypasses Miami for Hartford, CT, finding work as a court stenographer, making her the transcriber of other people's words. Although Uxmal is always in her thoughts, Soledad eventually takes a lover, Henri Willems, a farmer of Dutch ancestry who attempts to cultivate Habano (Cuban) tobacco in Connecticut. Ulises, a behemoth 6'7" teen, commits his mind to college books and his body to Henri's tobacco fields. Isabel commits her voice to religion, taking a vow of silence. Longing and desperation reunite the estranged parents and children in a remote Cuban village, where each--including Henri--will need to confront history, culture, familial bonds, and weakened bodies, all of which are on the verge of total collapse. In this atmospheric and profound work, Palacio takes on life--the family's name is Encarnacion, as in incarnation, made flesh--and death--mortifications marking the death of that flesh--and produces an enviable, triumphant debut. Narrator William DeMeritt's growly tones perfectly capture the trapped energy and the latent truths embodied and sacrificed by Palacio's complex characters. VERDICT With the recent opening of U.S.-Cuba relations, travelers and international fiction enthusiasts will want to explore Cuba further through resonating literature.--Terry Hong, Smithsonian BookDragon, Washington, DC

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