Lovesick.

Angeles Mastretta. Margaret Sayers Peden, tr. New York. Riverhead. 1998 ([C] 1997). 374 pages. $13. ISBN 1-57322-062-0 (655-6 paper).

In 1985 Angeles Mastretta won the Premio Mazatlan for her first novel, Arrancame la vida (see WLT 67:4, p. 785), the story of a young Mexican girl who marries a high-ranking military officer much older than she and, after years of mistreatment, boredom, and resentment, obtains her freedom by giving him an overdose of a potent herb. Lovesick (orig. Mal de amores, 1996), Mastretta's second novel, also portrays an assertive heroine, in this case one who defies the social conventions of her time and, like her predecessor, emerges unscathed.

Emilia Sauri is the daughter of a prominent pharmacist in the provincial capital of Puebla (Mastretta's birthplace), the site of important events - the Aquiles Serdan rebellion, for example - leading up to the Mexican Revolution. Fed up with the Porfirio Diaz regime, Emilia's father Diego joins a group of liberals sympathetic with Serdan and eager for Francisco Madero to assume the presidency. Less political than her father, Emilia becomes fascinated with medicine, having worked in the family pharmacy and having learned a great deal about herbal medicines. A talented caregiver despite her lack of a medical degree, she soon finds herself immersed in the treatment of the sick and, with the uprising against the dictator, the wounded soldiers and civilians.

Emilia's two lovers are the impulsive Daniel Cuenca, whom she has known since childhood, and the more rational Dr. Antonio Zavalza, in whose clinic she is employed. When Daniel, a journalist and soldier in the Revolutionary Army, flees to the United States, Emilia joins him and eventually goes to Chicago on her own to study medicine. But she returns to Mexico to practice her profession and, predictably, renews her relations with Daniel and Antonio. The eventual solution to her dilemma (which man she will choose) is not only one of the plot threads that keep the pages turning, but also an indication of Mastretta's feminist agenda.

Numerous stylistic echoes of One Hundred Years of Solitude suggest Mastretta's admiration for the Colombian master: "She discovered her true worth, leapt several times across the chasm of her fears, and learned that affection is never spent even though it is fully given."

Lovesick has more than likely been well received in Mexico for several reasons: It tells a compelling love story; it displays a gallery of believable characters (including Emilia's and Daniel's family members as well as well-known historical figures); it realistically describes daily life in a city Mastretta knows well; and its background depicting the Mexican Revolution greatly enhances its dramatic impact. It should appeal to the unsophisticated reader who enjoys a good plot sprinkled with action and replete with dialogue.

Mastretta is one of an increasing number of successful women writers to appear on the Latin American literary scene. Her novel has been smoothly rendered by Margaret Sayers Peden, one of the ablest translators to English of Spanish American fiction.

George R. McMurray Colorado State University