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The Messenger: A Novel
by Mayra Montero, Edith Grossman
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Harper Perennial (2000-07-01)
ISBN: 0060929618
EAN: 9780060929619
Dewy Decimal #: 863
Paperback: 228 pages
Release Date: 2000-05-30
SKU: BX008-080707004
Condition: Used: Like New
Comments: Clean and shiny. Like new. No remainder mark.
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Editorial Reviews
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Amazon.com
Here are the facts: in June of 1920 the legendary Italian tenor Enrico Caruso arrived in Havana, Cuba, on tour. During a matinee performance of Aïda a bomb went off in the Teatro Nacional, and Caruso, in a panic, rushed out into the streets of the city and disappeared for several days. Taking off from this historical footnote, Cuban-born writer Mayra Montero has impressively imagined what might have occurred during the singer's "lost weekend." The Messenger is narrated by Aida Petrirena Cheng, a Chinese Cuban mulatto woman whom Caruso literally runs into just moments after the explosion. If the singer is shocked by events, Aida is not; she has already been warned by her godfather, a Santería priest, that a man "will come to crown you and tell you that you are the queen of his thoughts. Before that you will hear the thunder, the walls will fall down, there will be dust and fire." She instantly recognizes that Caruso is the man of her godfather's vision, and with that recognition comes a frisson of fear, for old José de Calazán Bangoché had given another warning. "On that day--listen carefully--take your protection out of your clothing and put it over your hair. Then you bring me that man, you will have to bring him to me." He picked up the ékuele and hid it between his hands. "He is coming to die. But if you don't want that, bring him to me right away, he will not die. Bring him so you won't be tainted. He is not coming to die: he is already dead when he comes." Aida does as she is told, bringing Caruso to her godfather's house where she and the singer soon become lovers. As their love affair escalates, so does the danger--from the people Caruso believes are trying to kill him, but even more from the disease that is slowly consuming him. Montero tells this star-crossed tale from several perspectives: Aida, her daughter, Enriqueta, and the testimonials of several different witnesses to the events of that June day when the bomb first went off. Propelled by the rhythms of santeria, infused with folk lore and magic, The Messenger is a magical portrait of love that comes too late--and death that comes too soon. --Alix Wilber
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Product Description
Set in Cuba, The Messenger tells the story of a pair of doomed lovers-world-famous tenor Enrico Caruso and his Chinese-Cuban mullatta mistress. In June 1920 a bomb exploded at the Teatro Nacional in Havana at the very moment that Enrico Caruso was singing RadamÈs in the opera AÏda. In a panic, he fled the theater and disappeared into the streets of Havana. What happened to him is the story imagined by Mayra Montero. As Caruso tries to escape the murderous agents of the Black Hand, he is drawn into a passionate love affair with Aida Cheng, a woman whose godfather is the powerful Afro-Cuban santero JosÉ de CalazÁn. Told by Enriqueta, the daughter born of the love affair, and by Aida herself as she lies dying many years later, The Messenger unfolds its mysteries against the rhythms of African santerÍa and Chinese folk magic and weaves a brooding, compelling tale of love and death.
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Customer Reviews
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Good fiction
Rating  (5)
Date: 2001-01-21
I loved the book because it deals with Enrico Caruso, the greatest tenor who ever lived, and it is very well written. The story takes place in Cuba and describes what happened after a bomb exploded during an Aida performance of Caruso (this starting place of the story really happened) - for the rest of the story - one has to admit that it is purely fictional. Caruso taking part in strange Voodoo ceremonies, the black hand persecuting him and chasing him all over Cuba and he strangely in love with a Chinese girl. Also in the description of the looks and the character of Caruso I could not actually recognize him.... But who cares when the story as a story itself is so exiting. The magic of the book lies in its description of fate and tragedy around the famous man. Somehow its easy to take mentally part in the story...and you'll read it in a night, so thrilling and exiting is the book... I had the feeling it was written by somebody who fell in love with the famous voice and added a little bit too much imagination :-) It's like an opera of Verdi - you think it's absurd, but you love it.Ps: Who already owns the book and is interested to know, the name written on the picture (KiKo) is one of Caruso's nicknames. If you want to have a look on it, you'll find it in Dorothy Caruso's book about her husband.
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Emotionally uninvolving
Rating  (1)
Date: 2000-10-21
2 out of 5 customers found this reveiw helpful
The story of a brief romance between the opera singer Enrico Caruso and a Chinese-mulatta Cuban woman, Aida Petrirena Cheng, narrated by their illegitimate daughter. The romance is doomed because Caruso is only making a short tour in Cuba, he's married, the Sicilian Black Hand is making death threats, and he may be seriously ill (the last I never figured out). The story is presented like a tragic opera. Unfortunately, although competently written the book is emotionally uninvolving throughout. The characters, though not stereotyped, never came to life, and neither did the story. It always seemed as though everyone was making much too much of a fuss about everything. So Caruso had a (fictional) fling; what's the big deal?
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Exquisite handling of multiple points of view - must read
Rating (5)
Date: 1999-05-02
7 out of 7 customers found this reveiw helpful
The Palm of Darkness left me wanting more of Mayra Montero. I expected another excellent book - I got an exquisite one. Montero masterfully handles a variety of voices, scene changes that are cultural as well as temporal, and weaves them into a magnificant unity. The story is sufficiently compelling that one appreciates the craftmanship only in retrospect.Within my taste she stands with Emmanuel Carrere, Luis Sepulveda, and Antonio Tabbuchi as a true contemporary master of the novel.
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