5/12/2023 0 Comments The lacuna book review![]() ![]() The tempestuous Frida becomes a life-long friend, and through this couple Shepherd becomes acquainted with the Communist revolutionary Trotsky, the former Russian leader who has sought asylum in Mexico City from Stalin’s death threats.ĭisheartened by Trotsky’s assassination, Shepherd seeks a new life in America just as World War II is about to begin. Ignored by his father and threatened with having to attend a school for mentally handicapped children (though he is exceptionally bright), Shepherd returns to Mexico and becomes a cook and typist in the household of muralist Diego Rivera and his wife, the painter Frida Kahlo. Finally, she packs teenage Shepherd off to be with his father in the United States, where he witnesses the Bonus Army protest on Washington, D.C. Though his mother is the first to encourage him to write, she provides only a precarious support system for Shepherd as she pursues relationships with several Mexican oil tycoons. Born in the United States, Harrison William Shepherd spent his boyhood in Mexico with his Mexican mother who is divorced from his American father. Barbara Kingsolver’s first novel in ten years, The Lacuna, opens with the words: “In the beginning were the howlers.” The howlers are monkeys on an island off the coast of Mexico, and the year is 1929. ![]()
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