The Line of the Sun: A Novel

by Judith Ortiz Cofer

Overview

Set in the 1950s and 1960s, The Line of the Sun moves from a rural Puerto Rican village to a tough immigrant housing project in New Jersey, telling the story of a Hispanic family's struggle to become part of a new culture without relinquishing the old. At the story's center is Guzmán, an almost mythic figure whose adventures and exile, salvation and return leave him a broken man but preserve his place in the heart and imagination of his niece, who is his secret biographer.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780820340104
Publisher:	University of Georgia Press
Publication date:	10/07/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	308
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

JUDITH ORTIZ COFER (1952–2016) was the Regents’ and Franklin Professor of English and Creative Writing Emerita at the University of Georgia. She is also the author of The Latin Deli: Telling the Lives of Barrio Women, An Island Like You: Stories of the Barrio, Woman in Front of the Sun: On Becoming a Writer; and many other books. The University of Georgia Press published her first novel, The Line of the Sun, in 1989.

Editorial Reviews

Puerto Rican emigres try to adapt to life in the U.S. while maintaining island culture in a Spanish-speaking tenement. ``Though weakened by clumsy plotting, arbitrary shifts in points of view and sometimes pedestrian prose . . . Cofer's novel paints a colorful, revealing portrait of Puerto Rican culture and domestic relationships,'' said PW. (May)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

This first novel by an accomplished poet flavors the U.S. immigrant experience with a hint of magical realism. The story of Guzman, black sheep of a Puerto Rican village, is here told by his assimilited niece. Adventurous from childhood, the wild youth is ostracized because of an affair with a notorious older woman whose reputation as a spiritist does not save her from the wrath of righteous neighbors. Heading for New York and the American dream, Guzman wanders for more than a decade until he confronts his island roots in a violent, resonant denouement. A shaky transition between the novel's two main sections is offset by well-realized characters and vibrant depictions of Puerto Rican folk culture. Recommended.-- Starr E. Smith, Georgetown Univ. Lib., Washington, D.C.

Library Journal

Puerto Rican-born author Cofer's first novel, set in the 1950s and 60s, moves from a rural Puerto Rican village to a tough immigrant housing project in New Jersey, telling the story of a Hispanic family's struggle to become part of a new culture without relinquishing the old. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

Remarkable . . . Cofer is a fine storyteller. Her prose conveys all the energy and mystery of anticipation.

Women's Review of Books

The writing in this superb novel stuns and surprises at every turn. Its sensuality and imagery . . . are riveting.

San Juan Star

Cofer . . . reveals herself to be a prose writer of evocatively lyrical authority, a novelist of historical compass and sensitivity. . . . One recognizes in the rich weave and vigorous elegance of the language of The Line of the Sun a writer of authentic gifts, with a genuine and important story to tell.

New York Times Book Review

Poetry . . . what distinguishes the book finally are the images, the phrases, the simple scenes that catch the ear like a sparkle catches the eye.

Washington Times

The Line of the Sun reads like a dream, from the beautifully realized description of the deceptive Paradise Lost, to the utterly different but equally vivid world of the urban North. . . . This is a splendid first novel.

The State (Columbia

In this extraordinary first novel, Judith Ortiz Cofer bridges two cultures, giving voice to people who are seldom heard from. . . . Cofer invites us into a climate where the settings are authentic and richly textured, and whose lives bound in cultural mythology are particularized through the strengths and gifts of language, fully realized characters, and a multi-dimensional narrative. There is great strength in the way Cofer evokes the fierce, loving, and brave Latin spirit that is the novel's real theme.

Joyce Johnson

A remarkable story, written from the heart as only the best stories are.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch