Margarita, How Beautiful the Sea

"As he did in Castigo divino (1988), the great Nicaraguan novelist is fascinatingly concerned with creating a cultural context as well as recovering the intellectual templates of Central American mentalities. In 1907, when Darío purportedly writes 'Margarita, the sea is beautiful' on a little girl's fan, and 1956, where a gathering of inexperienced, romantic intellectuals also plots to kill Anastasio Somoza, are the poles of this prize-winning novel. In between, Ramírez subtly weaves a national master narrative that, by emphasizing the humanity rather than the myths that have sustained it, shows readers the hidden side of public figures. He manages to give a modernista, musical tinge to his language, thereby doubling the readers' attempts at deciphering its message. Fifteen years in the making, Margarita, está linda la mar is a masterpiece"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 58.