Synopsis
The Inhabited Woman is an intelligent and politically sophisticated adventure-romance in which the soul of an Indian warrior woman from the time of the Conquistadors inhabits the body and mind of Lavinia, a middle class woman living in a Latin American country. With daring and growing self-assertion, Lavinia abandons the confines of her own privileged life to join an underground movement against a dictatorship, undergoing a personal transformation in which she finds - through love - the power and courage to act.
Reviews
The politics of Latin American revolution offer a worthy subject here, but Nicaraguan-born poet Belli seldom rises to the challenge. Lavinia, an independent young woman of privileged background, takes a job as an architect as a means of supporting herself and her newly inherited home. Entering into a romantic relationship with Felipe, a fellow architect given to mysterious absences, she soon discovers his secret: he is a member of the National Liberation Movement, a group dedicated to freeing their imaginary Latin American country from an oppressive dictator. Encouraged by the Movement's nurse, Lavinia becomes progressively more involved in the budding revolution until finally, after Felipe dies, she decides to take his place in a military operation. Intended to chronicle Lavinia's awakening political consciousness, the novel never rises above the level of propaganda, as oppressors and oppressed alike are portrayed as mere stereotypes of good and evil. A touch of magical realism, in the character of an Indian woman who fought the conquistadores and whose spirit now inhabits a tree outside Lavinia's house, ultimately adds little to a disappointing treatment of a topic that deserves better novelistic exploration.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
This book, by a highly regarded Central American poet, is an intelligent romance, an action-adventure with considerable depth. The German edition alone has sold over half a million copies. Lavinia Alarcon, 23, an aristocrat from ``Faguas'' (read Honduras), has returned from her university studies in Italy to take her first job as an architect. By the standards of Faguas she is a very liberated woman: She lives alone, frequents discotheques with a group of modern young friends, avoids romantic commitment, and refuses to examine the hunger and violence all around her. Her life is slowly disrupted by her affair with her boss, Felipe, who is a leader in the National Liberation Movement. Lavinia is drawn into the Movement in spite of herself, aided by the spiritual presence of Itza, a 15th-century female resister to the Conquistadors who now inhabits an orange tree in Lavinia's garden; whenever Lavinia makes fresh orange juice, her spirit and Itza's become further intermingled. Itza's story and Lavinia's run parallel; this is a case not of possession but of spiritual influence. Lavinia's gradual change from rebel-without-a-cause to guerrilla is carefully detailed and presented as her own destiny. With each small adjustment in her consciousness she leaves her old self farther behind. Felipe also undergoes a slow transformation from a stereotypical macho male into a real companion who can fight with his woman at his side, even if she does come from a higher social class. A gripping page-turner with a historical basis, an action tale that boldly dramatizes an inner struggle. Lavinia is the Everywoman of the 21st century, searching for a balance between the extremes of violence and privilege. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
In an unnamed Central American country in the early 1970s, young, rich, beautiful, and talented Lavinia Alarcon yearns for more fulfillment than her privileged background has provided. She finds it in a career as an architect, a love affair with her colleague Felipe, and their membership in a revolutionary group dedicated to the overthrow of The Great General, the country's autocratic ruler. Appearing throughout the book is the Nahuatl warrior-woman Itza, whose 16th-century struggle against Spanish conquistadors had led to her death and metempsychotic reappearance in the orange tree in Lavinia's garden, from which she observes, and perhaps influences, the action. Lavinia is asked to design a new house for General Vela, The Great General's righthand man, and accepts with the idea of providing valuable information to her group. Felipe is shot just prior to an attack on Vela's house, but before dying he convinces Lavinia to take his place on the assault team, with dire consequences. Although some of the action is melodramatic and Belli's characters are often stereotypes, her writing moves events swiftly to an exciting climax. For literary collections.
Harold Augenbraum, Mercantile Lib., New York
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Belli is a well-regarded poet from Nicaragua, now resident in the U.S. Her novel is already a best-seller in other parts of the world, and it's a credit to this publisher that it's now being presented to American readers. Lavinia is a young professional woman in an unnamed Latin American country, born into privilege and European trained. She dreamt of constructing buildings, leaving her mark, giving warmth and harmony to the concrete of the capital city. Lavinia is not to be the master of her own destiny, however, because she comes to be inhabited by the spirit of a woman indigenous to the area at the time of the Spanish conquest. As this woman of a previous age had used her energies as a force against the oppressor, so she compels Lavinia to use hers to fight against the political oppression of her contemporary world. An inviting novel of love, politics, and history, steeped in magical realism, served in rich prose. Brad Hooper
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