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Title: The Good Works of Ayela Linde
Subtitle: A Novel in Stories
Author: Charlotte Forbes
Narrator: Roxanne Hernandez
Format: Unabridged
Length: 7 hrs and 8 mins
Language: English
Release date: 01-25-13
Publisher: Audible Studios
Genres: Fiction, Contemporary
Publisher's Summary:
From an O. Henry Prize-winner, this dazzling novel in stories marks the arrival of a powerfully original and beguiling new voice in American fiction. The linked stories that make up this spare and beautifully written novel follow the life of Ayela, the illegitimate daughter of a Mexican dressmaker, and create a portrait, composite yet intriguingly incomplete, that captures the complexity of who she was.
Editorial Reviews:
Charlotte Forbes The Good Works of Ayela Linde: A Novel in Stories is a strange and lovely work of fiction, a selection of 16 stories which follow enigmatic protagonist Ayela Linde through her life, each employing the point of view of a different acquaintance, each reflecting a new facet of her elusive personality.
Performed by deft voice actor Roxanne Hernandez, this audiobook is an easy and enchanting listen. Hernandez has a hoarse, lilting voice which lends a certain whimsical quality to her performance; and as she gives voice to the many friends and lovers attempting to describe Ayela, you begin to feel that Hernandez may be the only person who truly understands this rich and complex character.
Members Reviews:
Beautiful
I loved this book- rich with imagery and language and interesting characters, it flowed through the lives of people I came to care about. I was reminded throughout of the captivating, earthy characters I met in the works of Erdrich and Marquez. I slowed my reading toward the end, not wanting it to be over, but found the last words moved me, leaving me feeling satisfied and expanded.
a portrait painted in words
Reviewed by April Sullivan for Reader Views (10/06)
As the subtitle tells us, "The Good Works of Ayele Linde" is "A Novel in Stories." This book is composed of sixteen stories told from the viewpoint of several characters. Ayele Linde is the main character, but she never tells us her own story. We read about her through the voice of her travel agent, her housekeeper, her husband, her son, her granddaughter, and other townspeople in Santa Rosalia.
Santa Rosalia is a small border town, just north of Mexico. It has the fairytale feel of a small Mexican village full of superstition. Charlotte Forbes uses well-crafted descriptions of the place and people and transports the reader to this colorful, magical world. An arrangement of parasols looks like "a flock of strange and lovely birds that had flown up from the jungle and touched down in Santa Rosalia on their way up to heaven". A cow standing in the rain has "heavy brown cow eyes that bore with dignity the burden of keeping the world awash in milk."
Most compelling are the descriptions of Ayele Linde by the people who surround her. She is described as "a black horse galloping alone through a field", "as variable as the weather", and a "woman who wore privacy like a mark across her brow even as she flitted like an Amazonian butterfly from the grand room to the patio." She was a woman hard to get close to, as Forbes carefully shows through not being able to get close enough to her own character to tell her story outright.
"The Good Works of Ayele Linde" is a portrait painted in words. Not just one portrait, but a gallery of portraits by different artists with different points of view. Charlotte Forbes writes in thick layers and textures to create vivid images -- images so vivid that I wanted to create paintings of several of the scenes.
