| | Our Lives Are the Rivers: A Novel |  | Author: Jaime Manrique
Publisher: Rayo
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $8.79
You Save: $16.16 (65%)
New (4) from $8.79
Avg. Customer Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 2538604
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 368
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6.3 x 1.3
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
ASIN: B00127UKJQ
Publication Date: March 1, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Based on actual events, this sweeping novel tells the life story of a woman who was willing to risk it all for her country and her lover—in whose legacy lies the history of an entire continent. Our Lives Are the Rivers tells the story of beautiful young freedom fighter Manuela Saenz, and the epic tale of her long love affair with liberator Simon Bolivar. A novel of intoxicating love, passion, and adventure, Jaime Manrique vividly captures a dynamic continent struggling for its own identity.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...
 "Our Lives are the Rivers that run to the sea, which is our death." December 18, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Our Lives are the Rivers by Jaime Manrique
Copright 2006 Harper Collins Publishers
This novel is based upon Manuela Saenz, a woman who's daring adventures are embedded deep in Latin American history. Manuela was born an illiegitimate child, an outcast in her very own family as well as society. She was a beautiful woman with intelligence surpassing many men of her time and had fierce will. In society's eyes she was a lowly creature, and they nor she ever forgot that. This drove Manuela to become a freedom fighter, as a means of breaking the chains holding her down. This young lady soon found herself involved in the creation of a free nation as well as in the arms of its liberator, Simon Bolivar.
Manuela was born a poor illiegitmate child, and was looked down upon for the rest of her life. Her mother died when she was very young, and Manuelita was taken in by her less than accomodating relatives who sent her away to a school run by nuns as soon as she was old enough.She was the brighest and most beautiful student there, but because of the circumstances of her birth, school was a miserable institution for her. Her only comfort in life were her two slaves, Jonatas and Natan who soon became her closest friends and confidants. While in school, Bolivar was coming to power, beginning the revolution to free Latin America from Spanish rule. Manuela idolized him, believeing in his cry for freedom, for she felt that somehow he could give her freedom as well.She became a freedom fighter, and recieved much praise for her role in the liberation.
Upon her last days of school she met her father, a traditonal man who had strong ties to the Spanish King and lived withe him and his family for a short amount of time.She ran away with a young lieutenant named Fausto only to return as a woman scorned by love. She was forced into marrying a wealthy English trader named James by her father.her life was miserable. That is, until she met Simon.They met at a ball thrown in his honor.They shared a dance and soon fell in love.Manuela was a married woman but she continued to have an affair with the liberator. She soon moved into his apartments, despite the names she was called behind her back and the scornful looks thrown her way by the other women in the city. As their courtship became more serious, Manuela began to take part in his military activities; sharing with him his triumphs and defeats, and ultimately became a part of history.
I liked this book very much, it told the story of a woman vital to Latin american history, yet little was known about her. Her spirit, actions and attitude were uncommon during that time period for her gender, and I admire her for that. The story was not a happy one during many times, but I have come to admire that the author chose to show things as they were, and did not glamorize war or even love. I liked how the author chose to tell segments of the novel from the point of view of Jonatas and Natan, giving an identity for those characters as well showing the relationship between the three of them.
From reading this book, or rather reading about the life of Manuela Saenz; I have learned to take risks, to be passionate about something I love, to pay no heed to the opinions and comments people make about me and to speak my mind. I came to admire the character of Manuela, both her positive attributes and her flaws, because she was a great woman who was ahead of her times. The mistakes she made only made her a stronger person and did not cripple her emotionally or mentally.
I would recommend this book to someone who was wiling to read somehting that is not sugarcoated or glamorized. It shows the reality of the times, and I would recommend this book to someone who wants a interesting point of view of turbulant time in history.
 Swept Away June 21, 2007
Determination, perseverance, courage, and sheer nerve are just some of the qualities that describe this novel and its main character Manuela Saenz, a strong-minded woman who wins the heart of South America's most famous (and at one point infamous) military general. Told through the perspective of Dona Manuela Saenz and her two African slaves Natan and Jonotas, the novel relates the events that happened to Manuela from her first memories as a child when her mother dies to her own dieing day, along with all the challenges and passions that happened during the course of her life. Manuela goes from being the bastard child of a chance romance to the lover of South America's "Liberator" Simon Bolivar. In between these events Manrique has beautifully related the hard facts of Manuela's life as a bastard child in her house in Quito, Ecuador where she is left in the care of her aunt and grandmother who loathe and despise her after her mother dies, as a student in a the school of the Concepta nuns where she is ridiculed and ostracized for her birth and criolla heritage, and as a wife in a loveless marriage to an Englishman named James Thorne where she is living in wealth with her soul in decay. Yet, despite her "caged" life, as Manuela often describes it, she dares to aid her country in its walk towards independence and is made a Knight of the Order of the Sun for her efforts towards Peru's independence. It is at this crucial point in her life that her world is turned upside-down when she meets the eminent liberator Simon Bolivar in 1822. From this moment on, readers will be swept into a river romance that will leave them breathless with anticipation and sighing with sadness...
Jaime Manrique has created a beautiful blend of history and fiction that will make it very difficult for you to put down this book. This is a wonderful novel that is a necessary addition to any lover of historical fiction's bookshelf.
Mnauelita lover and researcher May 26, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I loved this book, too. It is enthralling. I wanted to read it in one sitting. However, I have to say that it sounds like many amazon reviewers believe the book as historical truth. The basic facts are true because Manrique uses a historical character, Manuela Saenz. But not everything is real. He has writing about thoughts and emotions that no one can prove. From all the research I have done on Manuela, I have never read that she devoured stories about Simon Bolivar as a young woman. This is a romantic notion the makes Manrique's historical romantic novel good.
Manuela Saenz was born with a strong independent spirit. Her mother also had a strong spirit, hence the baby out of wedlock. La Saenz saw the injustice of the sexist classist world from a young age due to the way her aunt treated her like a red-headed step child due to her illegitimate birth. La Saenz work for independence from Spain before she ever met Bolivar. while she lived in Peru. San Martin awarded her a medal for her participation and success in that movement. Afterwards, when she met Bolivar, it was only natural that they worked together as a team because they shared the same dream.
This is not a 100% factual book but it is a GREAT read. I loved it, but be careful you don't believe every detail as truth.
 Romance September 23, 2006
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
In 1808, Napoleon forced King Charles IV of Spain to abdicate and installed his elder brother Joseph Bonaparte as King of Spain. Joseph's five years as king (1808-1813) were a vast improvement in Spanish government: he abolished the Inquisition, put an end to rampant corruption and gave the Spanish their first constitution. The Spanish people, however, resented a "foreign" government and rebelled, demanding the return of the heir apparent, Fernando, whom they called "El Deseado." Goya's painting of rebels before a firing squad ("El Tres de Mayo del 1808") commemorates a date that has become a Spanish national holiday.
The chaos of rebellion in Spain, coupled with English control of the seas, left the Spanish territories in America virtually ungoverned and all of them proclaimed, and eventually earned, their independence. Simon Bolivar, perhaps the greatest hero of South American Independence, had an almost equally famous lover, Manuela Saenz, who joined him on campaign and earned the rank of colonel. Our Lives are the Rivers is the story of their relationship, told in the first person by Manuela herself. Mr. Manrique weaves a story that is closer to romance novel than to scholarly biography, but it is a superior romance novel about real, interesting people.
The "Desired" heir Fernando returned to Spain in 1813, was crowned and turned out to be one of the most corrupt kings in all of long Spanish history. "The Desired One" was lazy, reactionary and suspicious; he abolished the Constitution and reinstated the Inquisition.
Francisco Goya also painted (1800) a huge portrait of the family of Charles IV, which someone described as looking "like the corner grocer and his wife after having won the lottery." The king looks as vacant as he was and the queen is smirking. The future Fernando VII is the nice-looking boy in blue who became a brute.
History in the Form of Art August 22, 2006
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Never disappointed with the work of Jaime Manrique it was a joy to open his attractive new novel. I discovered Manuela Saenz whose vibrant life progressed from measure to measure with an intensity that was believable and certainly palpable. As in many art forms, the margins reveal more than the center. Manrique gives a voice to Manuela's slaves whose words create different images and perspectives allowing the reader space to ponder what actually happened.
There is a tension like a taunt thread that pulls one from one page to the next. There is also a psychological tension here that makes one aware of Manrique's pathos and his rapport with his subject. This is a novel that will have more than one life in your hands.
|
|
|
Wildlife, nature and the Environment
Sponsored Links
Learn how to get your own Amazon Book shop | |
