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Flight to Freedom
From the Book:
Yara Garcia and her family live a middle-class life in
Havana, Cuba. But in 1967, as Communist ruler Fidel
Castro tightens his hold on Cuba, the Garcias-who do
not share the political beliefs of the Communist
Party-are forced to flee to Miami, Florida. There Yara
encounters a strange land with foreign customs. She
knows very little English, and she finds that the other
students in her new school have much more freedom
than she and her sisters. Tension develops between
her parents, as Mami grows more independent and
Papi joins a militant anti-Castro organization.
From School Library Journal
Grade 6-9- Similar to titles in the
"Dear America" series
(Scholastic), this informative novel
incorporates historical facts. The
story and characters ring true in
their portrayal of loss, longing,
and the hope of starting a new life.
From Booklist
Gr. 6-9. Set during the turbulent
late '60s, Veciana-Suarez's first
novel for young people is a diary
account of 13-year-old Yara's
flight from Cuba and of her new
life in Miami with her family…
Veciana-Suarez beautifully
articulates the pain of exile for
young readers while introducing a
turbulent era in America. The
author's personal afterword
provides more history. Another
fine entry in the new First Person
Fiction series about coming to
America.
The Chin Kiss King
From the Book:
The Chin Kiss King is a heart-wrenching novel
that chronicles the lives of three generations of
Cuban American women in Miami: Cuca,
zealous believer in the hovering presence of
spirits; her daughter, Adela, a superstitious,
gambling cosmetologist with a weakness for
men; and Adela's daughter, Maribel, a
marketing research assistant who does not
know the power of dreams yet draws spiritual
nourishment from the older women. When
Maribel's son, Victor, comes into the world with
a severe birth defect on a fateful Leap Day in
1992, the three women who make up this
family and who are his sustenance are forced
to confront the inextricable ties that blind them
to one another.
The New York Times Book Review, Jim Gladstone
As sweet and tart as the tropical fruits that are savored
by the ebullient trio of Cuban-American women at its
heart, Ana Veciana-Suarez's debut novel offers a
refreshing take on characters and situations that at first
glance seem bound for cliché. The central plot of The
Chin Kiss King could easily be the stuff of a television
melodrama; a young Maribel, abandoned by her
husband, gives birth to a severely handicapped infant
and must rely on the aid of her impulsive, lottery-crazed
mother, Adela, and her insightful grandmother, Cuca, to
see her and baby Victor through. But rather than
offering superficial bathos, Veciana-Suarez zooms in on
the details and textures of day-to-day existence that the
arrival of a baby--particularly one whose life seems so
fragile--causes a family to reflect upon and appreciate
anew.
From Kirkus Reviews
A tenderly moving debut novel about three generations
of Cuban-American women who turn the brief life of a
handicapped baby into a celebration of life and love.
Veciana-Suarez, a columnist for the Miami Herald, sets
her first fiction in the same Miami neighborhood she
grew up in: a place of bodegas, Cuban restaurants, and
neatly maintained duplexes like the one her characters
share… A three-hankie debut, luminously written, that is
also a loving grace note to family and the human spirit.
Birthday Parties in Heaven
From the Book:
In "My Lowly Thatched Cottage," Veciana-Suarez poignantly
chronicles her family's exile from their native land and the abiding
importance of a place to call home. "My Father, Mi Papi" paints a
vivid portrait of her activist father; while "Stitchwork" is a tribute to
her mother: factory worker by day, seamstress by night-educator,
disciplinarian, and role model. In the moving title essay, the
sudden death of her husband forces Veciana-Suarez to confront
the nature of grief and loss, the process of going on-with five
young children to raise. "The Religion of Love" chronicles her
attempts to meld her Catholic rituals and beliefs with her second
husband's Jewish traditions.
From Library Journal
Not afraid to reveal highly charged
emotional situations, Veciana-Suarez
(a syndicated columnist for the Miami
Herald and author of the novel The
Chin Kiss King) gives an honest,
unflinching account of life after the
loss of her first husband, compelling
compassion with skillful writing that
forbids bathos or pity. In turn, she
uplifts spirits with a thoughtful yet
humorous account of her second
marriage -- he is Jewish, she is
Catholic -- and her wonderful
vignettes on beisbol ("baseball").
Veciana-Suarez has managed to
retain an ability to view her culture
with the crisp impressions perceived
only by the newcomer or the very
young.
From Dave Barry
"Ana Veciana-Suarez is a wise,
honest, and astonishingly perceptive
writer who looks at everyday life and
finds both gentle humor and profound
truth."
Contact Ana at aveciana@aol.com