Find your Book. Enter Some Keyword such as book title, author, publisher, category, ISBN etc.


Now We Will be Happy

Crossing boundaries of comfort, culture, language, race, and tradition, the characters struggle valiantly to reconcile their fantasies of happiness.

Book Author

Amina Lolita Gautier

Publisher

University of Nebraska

Language

English

ISBN

978-0803255395

Pages

140

Format

Paperback

This product is currently out of stock and unavailable.

SKU: 978-0803255395 Categories: , Tag:

Description

Now We Will Be Happy is a prize-winning collection of stories about Afro-Puerto Ricans, U.S.-mainland-born Puerto Ricans, and displaced native Puerto Ricans who are living between spaces while attempting to navigate the unique culture that defines Puerto Rican identity. Amina Gautier’s characters deal with the difficulties of bicultural identities in a world that wants them to choose only one. The characters in Now We Will Be Happy are as unpredictable as they are human. A teenage boy leaves home in search of the mother he hasn’t seen since childhood; a granddaughter is sent across the ocean to broker peace between her relatives; a widow seeks to die by hurricane; a married woman takes a bathtub voyage with her lover; a proprietress who is the glue that binds her neighborhood cannot hold on to her own son; a displaced wife develops a strange addiction to candles. Crossing boundaries of comfort, culture, language, race, and tradition in unexpected ways, these characters struggle valiantly and doggedly to reconcile their fantasies of happiness with the realities of their existence.

About the Author:
Amina Lolita Gautier

Born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, Amina Lolita Gautier, PhD. is a fiction writer of Puerto Rican and African American ancestry. She is the author of three award-winning short story collections: At-Risk, Now We Will Be Happy and the The Loss of All Lost Things. Now We Will Be Happy was awarded the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Fiction, the Florida Authors and Publishers Association President's Book Award for Short Fiction, a USA Best Book Award, an International Book Award, a Silver IPPY Award, and was named Finalist for the William Saroyan International Prize, the Next Generation Indie Book Award, the National Indie Excellence Award and was Longlisted for the Chautauqua Prize in Fiction and the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. For her body of work, she is the 2016 recipient of the Chicago Public Library’s 21st Century Award. Her work has been supported with fellowships and scholarships from Escribe Aqui at The Betsy Hotel, Breadloaf Writer’s Conference, Callaloo, Casa Libre, Dora Maar, Disquiet International, Hawthornden Castle; Hurston/Wright Foundation, Kimbilio, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center, Key West Literary Seminars, MacDowell Colony, the Ragdale Foundation, Sewanee Writer’s Conference, Ucross Foundation, and Vermont Studio Center.




Reviews/Quotes

"What the stories in Now We Will Be Happy really do so impressively is compel the reader to pay attention to lives of breathtaking complexity"--Jeffrey Condran, Necessary Fiction "The stories in Now We Will Be Happy are about families that either grow together or fall apart, about the strands that weave together a culture, about the desire for a place both real and imaginary, about struggle and community and language. They brim with music, food, and history. They are infused with superstition, myth, magic."--Jaquira Diaz, Los Angeles Review of Books "The 11 linked stories in Gautier's debut collection . . . vividly evoke Puerto Rico's intoxicating, comforting atmosphere—that unbreakable tether binding struggling people in crowded Northeastern U.S. cities to their tropical homeland. . . . Gautier captures the unique experience, and predicament, of Puerto Ricans living in the mainland U.S."—Publishers Weekly "Gautier's linked stories deftly capture her characters' internal struggles for identity and home."—Leah Strauss, Booklist "With a style that feels like a mixture of Junot Diaz and Edwidge Danicat, Gautier is a writer more people should be talking about."—Coleen Muir, Rumpus "Told with respect, grit, and truth, Now We Will Be Happy is a powerful collection about family, identity, and the sacrifices we make in our pursuits of happiness."—Laura Farmer, Cedar Rapids Gazette "Timely as well as beautifully rendered, Gautier's collection breathes life into America's racial and immigrant conflicts, going well below the skin-deep surface of her characters or expose the passions and hopes that unite diverse people."—Sian Griffiths, Georgia Review "Gautier's persistent thematic explorations into the meaning of family and identity make Now We Will Be Happy cohere and resonate in ways that you’ll remember long after the final page."—Leland Cheuk, Kenyon Review "In these richly textured and at times heartbreaking stories, Amina Gautier forges the links between generations and across oceans. She is a builder of bridges as she strives to find that middle ground between the two islands--Manhattan and Puerto Rico--that exert their tug on her characters and shape who they are and what they become."--Mary Morris, author of Revenge "In these moving, dramatic stories about hunger and fullness, Amina Gautier explores what it means to strive and live in the margins of American hope. Her shrewd compassion brings together characters determined to be happy and shows the cost of happiness with vivid, rich intelligence."--Erin McGraw, author of Better Food for a Better World || REVIEWS: Los Angeles Review of Books:https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/when-much-is-at-stake-an-interview-with-amina-gautier/ Philadelphia Tribune: http://www.phillytrib.com/lifestyles/book-explores-afro-puerto-ricans-dual-heritage/article_8fb5d637-f12c-5e2e-8b9f-89ca82d89e51.html The Rumpus: http://therumpus.net/2015/09/now-we-will-be-happy-by-amina-gautier/ The Cedar Rapids Gazette: http://www.thegazette.com/subject/life/books/reviews/now-we-will-be-happy-standalone-stories-are-strongest-together-20141012 Necessary Fiction: http://www.necessaryfiction.com/reviews/NowWeWillBeHappybyAminaGautier KGB Bar: http://kgbbar.com/lit/journal/now_we_will_be_happy_by_amina_gautier/ Kenyon Review: http://www.kenyonreview.org/kr-online-issue/2015-fall/selections/the-tusk-that-did-the-damage-by-tania-james-and-now-we-will-be-happy-by-amina-gautier-738439/ Read Her Like An Open Book: https://readherlikeanopenbook.com/2014/11/06/now-we-will-be-happy-explores-the-lives-of-puerto-rican-americans-navigating-multiple-cultures/

Additional information

Book Author

Amina Lolita Gautier

Publisher

University of Nebraska

Language

English

ISBN

978-0803255395

Pages

140

Format

Paperback

Reviews

There are no reviews yet.

Be the first to review “Now We Will be Happy”