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Summer
Books
Novel
weaves mundane with macabre in Guatemala
HUMMINGBIRD
HOUSE By Patricia Henley MacMurray & Beck, 1999, $22
hardcover
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By TERESA MALCOLM
Kate Banner, a 40-something
American, has spent years working as a midwife in Nicaragua, and as
Hummingbird House opens she is adrift. Her mental state -- fear,
melancholy, confusion -- is exemplified in a dreamlike encounter she has in the
abandoned Nicaraguan National Cathedral. An old man cackles at her,
Brigadista ... you do not belong here ... Go home,
brigadista, go home.
Kate struggles with her future, in a twilight state, waiting to
return to the United States but always held back. This compelling book tells
the story of her discovery of where she truly needs to be, where she
belongs.
When a young woman dies in childbirth in the aftermath of a
hurricane, Kate decides that it is time for her to return to her native
country. Her childhood friend Maggie, who has been with Kate in the years of
working in war-torn Nicaragua, says she will join her, but Kates lover,
Mark Deaver, will not. The end of that relationship increases Kates
melancholy, and she leaves ahead of Maggie. She will meet Maggie in Antigua,
Guatemala, where Kate will stop and visit her old friends Sunny and Ben.
When Kate arrives in Antigua, Sunny and Ben arent at their
house -- havent been for months -- but an array of distinctive folks are:
Fr. Dixie Ryan, an American priest questioning his vocation; Ginger, an
American student; Lino, a Guatemalan teenager; and a parrot named Posh.
The house becomes the books spiritual center, sheltering the
extended family that coalesces in the story. Lino brings home two street
children, Eduardo and Marta. The household members join in the vigil of
Vidalúz, a Mayan woman whose husband, Hector, has been disappeared.
Dixies sister Jude, herself a nun, wants her brother to return to the
priesthood and fears Kate may be tempting him away.
Meanwhile, Kate waits to go home to the United States. She waits
and waits and waits -- for Maggie to arrive, to see the ever-elusive Sunny and
Ben, to receive money from home. She also pines for Deaver, until more deadly
concerns press upon her mind and a terrible tragedy shatters her hopes that
everything will be OK once Maggie arrives.
Hummingbird House is a terrific read on many levels. The
large cast of characters are vividly drawn, and their struggles are compelling.
Author Patricia Henley convincingly blends the ordinary -- the smell of
tortillas, the sound of jazz, children playing, Poshs fear of rainstorms
-- with the brutality of Guatemala in the late 1980s. The mundane startles the
reader with the realization that life carries on with some semblance of
normality, even with violence and fear around every corner.
The storys weakest link is Kate herself. She is essentially
a reactive character. The stories of fascinating people are happening all
around her -- stories in which she takes a secondary role, when she is not
hiding inside her own pain. Especially in the first half, while I was
completely wrapped up in the narrative, I was often weary of Kates moping
over Deaver -- a man portrayed as unkind, and their relationship primarily a
physical one. The books later tragedy, which I will not give away, is at
least of sufficient magnitude to warrant Kates grief and extreme
withdrawal from those around her.
The love that blossoms between Kate and Dixie and the motherly
relationship Kate develops toward Marta finally bring Kate some peace with
herself. If Dixie seems almost too good to be true, the book at least
acknowledges that. You always try to do the right thing, dont
you? Kate asks and tells him, Im not pure like you.
Its in her care and sheltering of Marta that Kates
character comes most alive. In an early, touching scene, Kate bathes Marta. The
little girl is covered with dirt and sores and she smells like the glue she and
her brother sniff. Kate thought of Mayan women she had seen posing for
tourists. They would insist that the photographer wait while they combed out
their long and shining indigo hair. She whispered, Your hair is very
pretty. We can wash it and make it smell good.
The gentle bath ends with Kate kneeling before Marta, who sits on
the toilet as Kate trims her toenails and rubs lotion into her street-worn
feet, an image evocative of Christ washing the disciples feet.
Scenes such as these make whatever flaws the book may have seem
minor. It is not always easy to share the tragic lives of the characters, but
Henley makes the experience rewarding and brings the reader to share in the
strong peace that Kate finds by the storys end.
Teresa Malcolm is NCRs assistant news editor and a
staff writer. Her E-mail address is tmalcolm@natcath.org
National Catholic Reporter, May 7,
1999
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