Let Their Spirits Dance

By Stella Pope Duarte

Book Overview

"Stella Pope Duarte is a writer who will not be stopped. Her story takes its power from a larger love, and the quest here is as pressing as any I've read. This is a novel that looks at a rocky, uncertain time, with the intention of helping. It does." -- Ron Carlson, author of The Hotel Eden and At the Jim Bridge

An inspiring novel about family, the memories of war, and a woman who valiantly rallies herself and those she loves into reconciling with the past

Stella Pope Duarte's strong and musical voice is reminiscent of Laura Esquivel and Alice Hoffman. Let Their Spirits Dance is a moving, spirited story of a family who takes a trip to the Vietnam Memorial thirty years after the war, and whose trip evolves into a spiritual journey, towards healing and redemption.

Teresa Ramirez, is a schoolteacher from El Cielito in Arizona. Still haunted by the death of her brother Jesse in the Vietnam War. Her mother cherishes the memory of her son's words to her as he boarded the plane for Vietnam, when he told her she would hear his voice again. When Teresa's ailing mother sees a photograph of the Vietnam War Memorial, she makes a vow to touch his name on the Wall, and this begins a journey that changes the lives of Teresa and her family forever.

In this powerfully evocative novel, Pope Duarte connects family, friends, and an entire nation with the names on the Wall, honoring the men and women who served in Vietnam as well as those who watched and waited, but never forgot.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060089482
• ISBN13: 9780060089481
• Release Date: November 2003
• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Length: 312 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.3" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Great for the spirit

Vietnam stayed bottled up in me until I read this book decades after the war. I had a well of tears that had to come out. The book helped do that. The book is very touching, sweet, and startling. One family's journey to the Wall is a movie in itself and it should become a screen play. I hope people learn from this book. Every elected official should have to read it and those debate moderators ought to ask them if they have read it, especially if they are trying to run for the presidency.

MARAVILLOSA

Recomiendo esta novela a cualquier persona que tenga familiares o amistades que estuvieran en las fuerzas armadas y que hayan fallecido o a personas que les guste novelas llenas de esperanza. Es una novela llena de esperanza, de humor, de conflictos, de comprensión y entendimiento, una novela muy humana. No hay otra palabra que la describa mas que simplemente maravillosa!

Score one for the teacher!!!

Stella Pope Duarte's bio says she is a university instructor and a high school counselor. I'll bet she took a lot of writing and/or literature classes during her school years, because her debut novel is nothing short of a miracle, considering how publishers continue to release poorly constructed, poorly edited books. From the first sentence -- "The passion vine bloomed until late November the year Jesse died." -- until the last paragraph -- ". . . No one knows if a spirit can balance on the point of a pin, or send light beams when we least expect. I looked down at the Wall. Light shone from it like a laser beam reaching us flying overhead. It's OK that I knew my brother wasn't coming home. I was supposed to. It got me to write this book, to tell his story to the world." -- Ms. Duarte's elegant, mystical prose casts a spell on her reader. Duarte weaves the story of a Chicano family torn asunder by the death of its beloved son/brother/cousin Jesse Ramirez during the Viet Name War in 1968. Before he boarded the plane, Jesse promised his mother that she would hear his voice again. When she finally hears his voice one night, some thirty years after his death, she cannot rest until she visits the Viet Nam Memorial Wall to touch his name. Jesse's family has not fared well since his death. One of his sisters, Teresa, is in the middle of a difficult divorce. Another sister can't find Mr. Right, although not from lack of effort. His brother is an ex-con trying to connect with his estranged son. His buddies who returned from the war have had their share of struggles, too. Riding herd on this rag-tag group is Jesse's mother, Alicia Rodriguez. She alone has not lost faith and despite her fragile health and lack of money, she is determined to make the long trek to Washington to see the Wall. I look forward to many, many more books from Stella Pope Durate. She's got all the skills necessary to teach us about quality writing and to entertain us for years to come. Enjoy.

profoundly moving!

Jesse A. Ramirez was killed in action in Viet Nam on June 7, 1968. His mother & sister have learnt to live with their grief.Until that Christmas when Senora Ramirez hears her son's voice. When a letter arrives soon after explaining how the military had made a mistake & now owes the family some serious money, the mourning matriarch becomes inspired. She herds her surviving children & theirs into a convoy of autos, to drive from Pheonix so she can touch her son's name upon the Vietnam Memorial Wall, & know some peace.It is Teresa, the adult sister to whom Jesse often wrote, who tells the story, taking us into her Mexica past where a holy man gives healing & ancient spirits dwell. Where fathers & husbands wander from their marriages. Where sisters squabble & children grow up in the raza barrios of Arizona. Where honor is thwarted, bureaucrats bicker & clues are strewn like petals from a passion flower.As the family sets out into the sunrise, Teresa's nephew creates a website & America joins them on their pilgrimage, gathering up Jesse's army buddies, attracting the attention of the military. & then someone from Little Saigon in California makes contact, & Jesse's spirit finally comes home.RebeccasReads recommends LET THEIR SPIRITS DANCE as profoundly emotional, deeply spiritual & intensely rewarding.

A powerful, important novel

Let Their Spirits Dance introduces both a newcomer to fiction writing and the first novel to address the topic of Latin soldiers during the Vietnam War. A Latino son drafted to Vietnam is killed soon after, and his family never quite succeeds in confronting the meaning of his death. Three decades later a mother will seek to understand, setting in motion events which will change the family. A powerful, important novel.