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Weaving Dreams in Oaxaca Paperback – May 13, 2023
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Frankie, hoping time spent with children will bring clarity, volunteers at a children’s center and orphanage run by Enrique’s uncle. As a feisty little girl tugs at her heartstrings, Frankie is forced to reconcile the personal and professional. Frankie also helps Mac by acting as his interpreter as he discovers a deep connection to a healer, a curandera, and her family. This sets him off on a quest to Mexico City. As he explores more deeply, Mac begins to understand the spiritual and mysterious experiences he’s been having. Meanwhile, his wife, a scientist, misses him and struggles with his newly developing identity and relationships. Fleeing family drama after his dad throws him out of the house, Enrique makes a trip to Juchitán where he finds friendship and a unique cultural group, the muxes. They open up his world in wonderful ways.
By the time they need to head back to the United States, Mac and Frankie, like Enrique, have changed in fundamental and surprising ways. And, back in the States, their Oaxacan odyssey continues to reverberate and change the course of their lives.
- Print length348 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication dateMay 13, 2023
- Dimensions5.25 x 0.87 x 8 inches
- ISBN-13979-8218127138
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Editorial Reviews
Review
--Mary Rowen, author of Leaving the Beach, Living by Ear, and It Doesn't Have to be That Way
In Samuelson's rewarding, richly woven novel, Weaving Dreams in Oaxaca, about longing and identity, three characters cross paths in Mexico while searching for themselves, only to discover that the journey to self-discovery begins with connection. This is a deeply satisfying read.
--Sandra A. Miller, author of Wednesdays at One
Every scene is bursting with energy and incisive prose. Complicated family ties is a familiar topic, but Samuelson heightens the narrative by exploring three distinct--and riveting---perspectives. Each character possesses their own charm and voice to enhance the storyline, and even the supporting cast add individuality to the book. Samuelson depicts their pain, search for meaning, and moments of beauty exceptionally well.
--The BookLife Prize Publishers Weekly review
Reviewed by Grant Leishman for Readers' Favorite
Weaving Dreams in Oaxaca by Karen Samuelson is an intricately plotted romance that takes the reader into the mysterious world of shamanism and pre-Columbian myths and mystique. Frankie is a professional dancer from New York who is undergoing a crisis of direction and purpose. She is torn between continuing her successful dance career and an overwhelming desire to have a family. Needing space to think and decide her future direction she takes a break from everything in Oaxaca, Mexico. While in Oaxaca she meets Enrique, a mechanic and DJ, who is struggling to come out as gay to his conservative and deeply religious father. Frankie pretending to be Enrique's girlfriend for his family gives the young man the space and time necessary to decide to tell the truth to his beloved father. Mac, a university professor in pre-Columbian history, receives a shocking announcement from his parents that sends him to Oaxaca on a personal quest. The lives of these three will become intertwined in Oaxaca and beyond as each seeks their peace and direction in life.
Weaving Dreams is a wonderfully rewarding and satisfying read. Author Karen Samuelson has created several readily identifiable characters that readers will immediately empathize with and cheer for in their different ways. The difficulties of gay men and women to live their true lives in societies that are dominated by the church and tradition are vividly displayed in this narrative. This will elicit not only sympathy but also some degree of frustration at Enrique's lack of courage and belief in himself at times. I particularly appreciated the links to shamanism, mystical beliefs, and natural remedies that the narrative encompasses and was thrilled by the sympathetic manner in which the author expounded on these areas. The potential romance between Frankie and Mac was the highlight of the story for me and their slow but seemingly certain drift together, although fraught with difficulty and doubt, was a pleasure to read. The orphanage as the setting for the meeting and relationship between Frankie and Mac was perfect, as adoption was indeed a key element in both characters' lives and the two children, Esme and Leonel, became critical to the thought processes of both characters. I love reading about and absorbing other cultures and this story immerses the reader in the local culture of Oaxaca and Mexico from both a current and historical perspective. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and can highly recommend it.
From the Author
In the winter of 1993, I did a teaching internship/homestay in San Cristobal de las Casas in Chiapas, Mexico as part of a Master's degree in TESOL. (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). That summer I went back to Guatemala to work on my thesis studying the Mam language in Todos Santos.
On February 9, 2000 my husband, Gary, and I flew to Guatemala City to meet our infant son, Nicolas, a moment that sparkles forever. He is now an amazing young man, still lighting up my life.
When he was six, in the fall of 2005, Gary and I decided having a Latin American adventure would be good for the whole family, especially Nick. The three of us and our aptly named dog, Rio, climbed into a green Honda Odyssey and made the ten-day trek south to Oaxaca, Mexico. The seed for this book, planted decades earlier, blossomed and thrived in earth of Oaxaca. We rented a house in San Felipe de Agua nestled in the foothills of the Sierra Madres and visited pueblos every weekend. We made many ex-Pat and Mexican friends, ate tons of enchiladas, drove over thousands of topes (speedbumps), attended posadas, and soaked in the colors and textures of this magical city and state. We also volunteered at a Children's Center and for Libros para Pueblos.
Footnote: My mother, in her eighties, had diabetic retinopathy and could no longer read, so every two weeks I sent her tapes describing our journey so she could feel she was with us. When we returned, I transcribed the tapes which became the source for many of the descriptions in this book. LuciaPress is named for her, a lifelong reader and beloved mother. She died on August 25, 2006.
From the Back Cover
Together they weave a colorful, complex tapestry of adventure, deceit, discovery, love and pain. Frankie volunteers at an orphanage run by Enrique's uncle. She hopes spending time with children will help her make a decision about family versus performing, but her endeavor is interrupted by an earth-shattering event. Simultaneously, her relationship with a feisty, little girl tugs at her heart as she's forced to reconcile the personal and the professional.
Enrique's father throws him out of his house, and Enrique flees on his motorcycle to Juchitan. There, he meets Marcos and his muxe friends who crack his world wide open. Back in Oaxaca, Enrique's life continues to be woven into Mac and Frankie's in unexpected ways. Mac is on a mission to the pueblo of Lachatao with Frankie as his interpreter, and what he learns there affirms mysterious experiences he's been having and sends him on a quest to Mexico City. As Frankie and Mac get closer, Mac's wife, back in the States, struggles with his newly developing identity and relationships.
When it's time for Mac and Frankie to make their respective trips home, like Enrique, they have changed in fundamental ways. But back in the States, their Oaxacan odyssey continues to reverberate and change the course of their lives.
About the Author
Product details
- ASIN : B0C51PCQB6
- Publisher : LuciaPress (May 13, 2023)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 348 pages
- ISBN-13 : 979-8218127138
- Item Weight : 14.1 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.25 x 0.87 x 8 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,896,044 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #811,042 in Literature & Fiction (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
I am a career/life coach and writer. I'm also a former English and ESL teacher, and have taught in high school, community college and college. I went to film school in my early 30's where my commitment to writing was cemented. I've continued to write my whole life. I came to career/life coaching later on, so you never know what's around the corner. I find it an honor to hear people's stories when I work with them.
I love nature, especially mountains and lakes; dance and any kind of movement or exercise; playing the piano, my extended family, my dog, friends and life in general. I've been lucky to have a loving family and lots of friends to see me through the inevitable difficulties in life. As I've gotten older, I've tried to stop rushing. I notice and appreciate more that way.
In terms of writing, I've created a play, three screenplays, dramatic scripts for Sunburst Productions in NY, and the Teacher’s Guide for episodes of Degrassi Jr. High. I was a quarter-finalist in the Cynosure Screenwriting competition in 2015 and 2016 for my screenplay, Sanctuary. In 1987, I received a Certificate of Recognition from the City of Boston for producing City Roots, a documentary about high school dropouts. In 2018, Arlington Friends of the Drama stage-produced my play, Circling Back. I live with my husband, son, and dog outside of Boston and spend quiet time in Vermont.
Weaving Dreams in Oaxaca is my first novel and I'm currently working on my second.
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Well done Karen!