Trapped in a
Circle of Fate

by J. Kevin Cool


If Maria Elena had taken her insulin, none of this would have happened.

In Coconuts for the Saint, the debut novel of Visiting Assistant Professor of English Debra Spark, fate is a main character. Set in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Coconuts is the story of Maria Elena, a hip 30-something art gallery employee who literally stumbles into the lives of a handsome widower and his triplet daughters. When she collapses in a diabetic faint in front of a small bakery operated by the widower, Sandrofo, she is revived by morsels of wedding cake he has prepared. Their chance meeting sets in motion a swirl of events that examines the role fate plays in determining identity.

The story takes place in the late 1970s, 10 years after Sandrofo has moved with his daughters from New York City to take over the bakery, which (we later learn) he inherited from his mother-in-law. He and the girls have lived simple, uncomplicated lives before Maria Elena appears. Sandrofo and Maria Elena begin a courtship, fall in love and eventually plan to marry. But as their relationship evolves, Maria Elena is nagged by doubts. Although she mistrusts her intuition, she is bothered by Sandrofo's shadowy history and his unwillingness to discuss it. Meanwhile, the triplets--Tata, Beatriz and Melone--are dealing with their own fears, desires and insecurities.

Spark uses an unusual combination of first- and third-person narrators, allowing the three girls and Maria Elena to describe the same events in their own voices. The story often backpedals to a new version defined from the perspective of the narrator. Spark says she used this device to draw out the personalities of her four main characters. "None of them were reliable narrators on their own," she said. "I wanted to see the same events through each of the characters' eyes."

The three male characters in the book all are described in the third person. In addition to Sandrofo are Rayovac (yes, like the battery), who lobbies for a job at the bakery to be nearer to Melone, and Angelo, a drunken eccentric who each year selects a different person on the island to imitate. Although the male characters are "losers," Spark says, Coconuts is not driven by a feminist perspective. "I guess you could interpret it that way, but that's not what I set out to do," she said.

The relationships among the triplets articulate Spark's themes about the search for identity. Tata is self-assured and popular; Melone is "the smart one," witty and self-deprecating; and Beatriz is quiet and introspective and more than a little neurotic. All of them understand that their father is an enigma, but while Tata and Melone pass this off casually, Beatriz fears that her family is doomed. Beatriz's anxiety intensifies Maria Elena's attempt to learn the truth about Sandrofo and his family's origins. When Angelo selects Sandrofo as his subject to imitate, Maria Elena plays along, asking him to speculate about Sandrofo's past. Angelo gives a shocking litany of mischief and mayhem--drugs, robberies, family betrayals--that leaves Maria Elena unsettled but no closer to the truth. In fact, Angelo has foreshadowed an ominous revelation.

Even as Maria Elena embraces the role of surrogate mother, she works harder to fill in the gaps in her adopted family's history. The taciturn Sandrofo is no help, constantly repeating, "It's of no importance" when asked about his pre-Puerto Rican days. Finally, a trip to the local library and some investigative work lead Maria Elena to the truth. She confronts Sandrofo, who confesses that he is not who he claims to be.

Sandrofo, it seems, believes one can change identities like coats. But Maria Elena, with Beatriz's help, comes to understand that who we are is a product of the sum of our lives. "Fate is identity," Maria Elena's friend Lucia tells her. "You aren't your choices, but you are the product of what is to happen to you."

In Coconuts lives pivot on single events--such as Maria Elena's decision to forego her insulin--but cannot escape the reach of personal history, as Sandrofo learns. The book's surprise ending closes the circle between the daughters' fates, Sandrofo's true identity and Maria Elena's search for answers.

Coconuts conveys the ambiance of a Caribbean legend, full of imagery and sprinkled with mysticism, romance and sensuality. Spark writes knowingly about the difficulties associated with defining one's self. A twin herself, she says her own experience provided insights into the characters of the book.

"I find the questions and conflicts about identity interesting because of my relationship with my sister," she said.

A veteran short story writer--she edited the anthology Twenty Under Thirty-- Spark says she worked on Coconuts for 10 years. "I wrote a chapter and then another chapter and sort of putzed around for a long time. I knew what I wanted to say and where I wanted to go, but when I started I didn't have an ending in mind."

Spark is teaching three sessions of fiction writing this spring, her first teaching assignment at Colby. "Anything I write helps bring ideas to the classroom, but the short stories actually are more instructive to my students than the novel," she said.

Anestes G. Fotiades '89
Colby College: A Venture of Faith
Alan Sutton Press
A pictorial history of the College from 1813 to 1963, AVenture of Faith focuses on the people and events that have shaped Colby.

Compiled by Anestes G. Fotiades '89, the book contains more than 200 photographs from the Colby archives, including the oldest known photograph of Colby, a daguerreotype taken in 1856 of South College, Recitation Hall and North College on the old campus.

In addition to providing a visual chronology, A Venture of Faith features a colorful and enigmatic cast of characters whose stories are sometimes well known and sometimes obscure. For example, one page of photographs is dedicated to Samuel Osborne, an African-American born into slavery in Virginia who worked for 37 years at Colby as a janitor and whose daughter, Marion Thompson Osborne, in 1900 became the College's first female black graduate.

The book follows the evolution of the Kennebec River campus and devotes several pages to the move to Mayflower Hill, including photographs of dirt paths passing through treeless pastures in what is now Colby's bucolic campus.

Historic and nostalgic, A Venture of Faith is a delightful voyage through Colby's colorful past.

Terry Arendell, Sociology
Fathers and Divorce
Sage Publications
Based on interviews with 75 divorced fathers in New York state, Arendell's study explores the attitudes and actions of men dealing with custody issues, family separation and gender politics.

Arendell interprets the responses of her subjects using a narrative analysis consistent with a feminist perspective. Most of the men perceive themselves to be victimized and their rights violated by divorce. What emerges, according to Arendell, is the perception of a divorce as a battle to be won or lost, with the former wife as the "enemy."

Arendell's examination of "gender strategies" employed by men in her research group reveals the extent to which society influences behavior after divorce. Parenting activities and relationships driven by a "masculine discourse of divorce" is a primary focus of the book.

Arendell says men who were committed to traditional beliefs about gender differences and whose views about men's and women's respective family roles were conventional were most likely to engage in long-term overt conflict with their former wives. She sees this as more evidence of men's reluctance to let go of male prerogative.

An earlier book by Arendell, Mothers and Divorce: Legal, Economic, and Social Dilemmas ,dealt with women's roles after divorce.

Luisa Gonzalez
At the Bottom: A Woman's Life in Central America
Edited by Robert French '70
New Earth Publications
This English translation of the award-winning book by Costa Rican author Luisa Gonzalez recounts the story of Gonzalez's mother, an illiterate woman whose sacrifices made it possible for her daughter to obtain an education.

Set in the squalor of a San Jose barrio in the early 20th century, At the Bottom captures the dignity and vitality of the men and women from Gonzalez's childhood. The story of how she and her family struggled to break the cycles of poverty and illiteracy is especially poignant because the riches they seek are of the mind and spirit and not merely of money.

At the Bottom received the prestigious Costa Rican Aquileo J. Echeverria Award for outstanding achievement in literature in 1970. The book was translated by Regina Pustan, a long-time North American activist who has worked to improve the lives of Latin American people. The book was edited by Robert French, who is director of the United Front Child Development Programs of New Bedford, Mass.

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