Discretion
(Libby/OverDrive eBook)

Oufoula is a lucky man. He is plucked from his African village by the president of his country to become an assistant to the ambassador; in return, he agrees to marry the president's daughter, Nerida. And for a time, the two are very happy. But when he meets and falls in love with New Yorker Marguerite, he seals his fate as a man with a dual existence. He cannot give up the security provided by his wife, but he also cannot give up the passion he has found with his lover. He wants to keep them both, and for a time, he does. Marguerite finally breaks it off, but 15 years later, they reconnect, only to reenact the same sad dance. Nunez, winner of the American Book Award for Bruised Hibiscus (2000), has such a lush style that reading her prose is a heady experience. By constantly repeating certain key events and emotions, she emulates the intensity and self-absorption of the lovesick. A complex portrait of a love triangle by a gifted writer. --Joanne Wilkinson

Right from the start of this haunting novel, Nunez adopts the mesmerizing, myth-spinning voice of an oral storyteller, assuming the identity of an African-born male. When Oufoula Sindede becomes his unnamed country's foreign ambassador to the U.S., he is a happy husband and father, married to the daughter of his country's president. Yet he's aware of an unfulfilled need, and it comes as no surprise when he falls in love with Marguerite, an artist in New York. Their subsequent relationship spans a quarter of a century, most of it spent apart after Marguerite balks upon learning Oufoula already has a wife. By the time their final meetings occur, tragedy has befallen both. Always torn between his responsibilities to Africa, family and passion, what will Oufoula now choose to do? In unaffected prose, Nunez (whose Bruised Hibiscus won an American Book Award) explores self-deception, envy, Christian monogamy vs. African polygamy and the very real dilemma of loving two people at once. Her nonjudgmental exploration of the simple/complex nature of marriage, love and fidelity enriches her portrayal of Oufoula, allowing the reader to feel sympathy for a decent man who cannot deny his passion. To some extent, the code of his profession is to blame: Oufoula is told, early on, "to be a successful diplomat you will have to learn how to lie." At the end, a broken Oufoula contemplates the lessons of his life and wonders what really constitutes the better part of valor, behaving discreetly or choosing the truth? This rich, multilayered narrative is powerful in its sweep and moving in its insight. Agent, Ivy Fisher Stone. 5-city author tour. (Mar.) Forecast: Though aimed at African-American audiences (Ballantine will advertise in African-American venues online and in print), this novel has the potential to reach all readers appreciative of fine prose and an emotionally resonant story. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Man gets married, man has an affair, man returns to wife, man has another affair years later with the same woman, man again returns to wife and suffers for the rest of his life. Nunez's fourth novel aims to put a new spin on this tried-and-true soap opera by interjecting lectures about African traditions and liberation. Oufoula is an African diplomat who lies as part of his job and who lies to his wife, his lover, and himself. He has the seemingly perfect life the African wife and family and the "second wife," the Jamaican artist who awakens his passion yet he wants more. In the end, he chooses tradition and reputation over love. While Nunez's prose is strong, her characters are flat and uninteresting, and her novel becomes just another story about a man who agonizes because he can't have everything he wants. For libraries that don't already have the author's works in their collection, this is a marginal purchase. Ellen Flexman, Indianapolis-Marion Cty. P.L. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

A story of obsessive love, in a fourth novel from the American Book Award winner (Bruised Hibiscus, 2000). Though the blood of tribal warriors runs in his veins, Oufoula, an ambassador from an unnamed African country, is eminently civilized. His father, who had two wives, would never understand why Oufoula is content with only one: the lovely and loyal Nerida. Actually, though, Oufoula pines only for Marguerite, a talented artist, wife of a politician, and mother of a young son. Given that they rarely meet as he and his family move around Europe, New York, and Africa over the next 25 years, the love amounts to little more than hopeless yearning and the occasional tryst. Tragedy strikes when Oufoula and Nerida lose a son and unborn daughter to a car accident. In spite of consoling herself that her children's spirits are now with the ancestors, Nerida grows ever more noble, plump, and remote. A friend advises Oufoula to take a mistress and spare his wife, but the idea troubles him. After all, his young mother ran away when he was only a child and starved herself to death when her lover cut his throat; clearly, following one's heart can have dire consequences. Many more pages are devoted to repetitive explorations of Oufoula's feelings and frustrations, but little happens. Even the collapse of South Africa's apartheid regime (Oufoula is sent in on a mission for the UN) has small significance compared to Oufoula's lifelong passion for the eternally out-of-reach Marguerite-who, eventually, divorces her husband, allowing Oufoula to take his friend's advice at last. He visits Marguerite at her small house on Long Island, where she points out, somewhat confusingly, that they can make love without rage, as her eggs are all used up. Oufoula swears to adore her forever, in wildly pretentious prose: "These were the breasts I had loved. . . . I had drunk from these chalices, I had received her sacrament of love." Much ado. Author tour

Oufoula is a lucky man. He is plucked from his African village by the president of his country to become an assistant to the ambassador; in return, he agrees to marry the president's daughter, Nerida. And for a time, the two are very happy. But when he meets and falls in love with New Yorker Marguerite, he seals his fate as a man with a dual existence. He cannot give up the security provided by his wife, but he also cannot give up the passion he has found with his lover. He wants to keep them both, and for a time, he does. Marguerite finally breaks it off, but 15 years later, they reconnect, only to reenact the same sad dance. Nunez, winner of the American Book Award for Bruised Hibiscus (2000), has such a lush style that reading her prose is a heady experience. By constantly repeating certain key events and emotions, she emulates the intensity and self-absorption of the lovesick. A complex portrait of a love triangle by a gifted writer. ((Reviewed January 1 & 15, 2002)) Copyright 2002 Booklist Reviews

Man gets married, man has an affair, man returns to wife, man has another affair years later with the same woman, man again returns to wife and suffers for the rest of his life. Nunez's fourth novel aims to put a new spin on this tried-and-true soap opera by interjecting lectures about African traditions and liberation. Oufoula is an African diplomat who lies as part of his job and who lies to his wife, his lover, and himself. He has the seemingly perfect life the African wife and family and the "second wife," the Jamaican artist who awakens his passion yet he wants more. In the end, he chooses tradition and reputation over love. While Nunez's prose is strong, her characters are flat and uninteresting, and her novel becomes just another story about a man who agonizes because he can't have everything he wants. For libraries that don't already have the author's works in their collection, this is a marginal purchase. Ellen Flexman, Indianapolis-Marion Cty. P.L. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Right from the start of this haunting novel, Nunez adopts the mesmerizing, myth-spinning voice of an oral storyteller, assuming the identity of an African-born male. When Oufoula Sindede becomes his unnamed country's foreign ambassador to the U.S., he is a happy husband and father, married to the daughter of his country's president. Yet he's aware of an unfulfilled need, and it comes as no surprise when he falls in love with Marguerite, an artist in New York. Their subsequent relationship spans a quarter of a century, most of it spent apart after Marguerite balks upon learning Oufoula already has a wife. By the time their final meetings occur, tragedy has befallen both. Always torn between his responsibilities to Africa, family and passion, what will Oufoula now choose to do? In unaffected prose, Nunez (whose Bruised Hibiscus won an American Book Award) explores self-deception, envy, Christian monogamy vs. African polygamy and the very real dilemma of loving two people at once. Her nonjudgmental exploration of the simple/complex nature of marriage, love and fidelity enriches her portrayal of Oufoula, allowing the reader to feel sympathy for a decent man who cannot deny his passion. To some extent, the code of his profession is to blame: Oufoula is told, early on, "to be a successful diplomat you will have to learn how to lie." At the end, a broken Oufoula contemplates the lessons of his life and wonders what really constitutes the better part of valor, behaving discreetly or choosing the truth? This rich, multilayered narrative is powerful in its sweep and moving in its insight. Agent, Ivy Fisher Stone. 5-city author tour. (Mar.) Forecast: Though aimed at African-American audiences (Ballantine will advertise in African-American venues online and in print), this novel has the potential to reach all readers appreciative of fine prose and an emotionally resonant story. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.