In 1910, Mexico was in the throes of revolution. In this painful period of exchanging old values for new, the upheaval was felt everywhere. This is the story of a private revolution—a conflict between father and son whose family estate extends for more than a million acres in the western part of the country. Raul Medina, with liberal ideas he gathered at school in Europe, determines to take over control of the hacienda. His bedridden father, Don Fernando, is among the last of a governing class for whom possession had been a law unto itself. With the support of a vicious servant, Don Fernando inflicts great cruelties on the workers. Raul is able to withstand the opposition of his father, but, from the beginning, his ideals are powerless against the realities of hunger and disease.
Woven into the large scale panorama of Mexican life and landscape is Raul's personal story: the failure of his marriage with Angelique, a delicate city woman who hates and fears hacienda life; his friendship with his loyal aide and servant Manuel; his love for Lucienne, the sole inhabitant of a neighboring plantation, who is strong enough to accept romance along with realities of life.
Along with his narrative skill, the author has lent this novel a great love: love of the land in all its variously colorful details; love of the people, their weaknesses and their strengths, their dreams and their disappointments. This is a novel of haunting significance, published in the year of the fiftieth anniversary of the Mexican Revolution.
PAUL BARTLETT
Paul Bartlett is well-acquainted with the country he describes so vividly in When the Owl Cries. He has spent over eight years in Mexico, living in desert areas, mountain villages, tropical islands and remote haciendas.
He has had over forty short stories published in magazines such as Accent, The Kenyon Review, The Literary Review, The Chicago Review and New Story. Nine of his stories have received honorable mention in Martha Foley's Best American Short Stories of the Year. He is a recipient of a Huntington Hartford Writing Fellowship for 1960, has taught creative writing at Georgia State College, and has conducted Writer's Conference Workshops.