cover image Coconuts for the Saint

Coconuts for the Saint

Debra Spark. Faber & Faber, $22.95 (283pp) ISBN 978-0-571-19846-7

Spark, author of a previous short-story collection not published here and editor of the innovative compilation Twenty Under Thirty (1986), offers an excellent debut novel that examines the nature of love, the power of family and the inexorable pull of the past. In 1977, Maria Elena is 35 and single, living in self-imposed exile in San Juan. She meets the man of her dreams when she faints on the doorstep of a bakery and is assisted by Sandrofo, the shop's proprietor. But the quiet, taciturn baker comes with lots of baggage: three daughters who are identical triplets; the ghost of his late wife, who died during childbirth; a sordid and hidden past. Spark deftly tracks the gentle courtship and new relationship, primarily through Maria Elena's voice but also from the perspectives of Sandrofo and his daughters. The subplot involving the influence of the past is equally well-wrought as one sister predicts imminent disaster when the family moves into a hacienda with a tragic history. Other material reflects minor first-novel flaws, particularly a flashback into the 18th century and ongoing episodes of unrequited love regarding a local layabout who falls for the middle sister. Overall, though, the emotional material is remarkably accomplished, and Spark uses her intricate, multilayered structure to deliver a myriad of entertaining scenes and marvelous insights. (Nov.)