The lamentable journey of Omaha Bigelow into the impenetrable loisaida jungle / Edgardo Vega Yunqué.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Vega, Eduardo, 1938-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Puerto Rican women.

Young men--Fiction.

Young men.

Triangles (Interpersonal relations)--Fiction.

Triangles (Interpersonal relations).

Lower East Side (New York, N.Y.)--Fiction.

Lower East Side (New York, N.Y.).

New York (State)--New York--Lower East Side.

Puerto Rican women--Fiction.

Magic--Fiction.

Magic.

Genre:

Humorous fiction.

Love stories.

Fiction.

Physical Description:

350 pages ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Woodstock, N.Y. : Overlook Press, 2004.

Summary:

Irrepressibly exuberant and boundlessly imaginative, Edgardo Vega Yunque's third novel is a hilarious picaresque tale that stretches our perceptions of life, love, and politics in these United States. Just laid-off from Kinko's, dumped by his girlfriend, failed in all his career aspirations, and burdened with a particularly frustrating anatomical shortcoming, Omaha Bigelow finds salvation on the streets of New York's Lower East Side in the form of Maruquita Salsipuedes, a nubile young Nuyorican homegirl equipped with an array of magical powers to cure his problems. Their misbegotten romance transforms him from perpetual loser to overnight success, but magic may have a price; soon he must struggle to remain faithful, as he becomes ensnared in the world of an irresistible WASP law student and a sinister ex-CIA agent who just happens to be her father.

Writing with a pitch-perfect ear for the American idiom in its elevated and grotesque extremes, Vega Yunque challenges the received wisdom of contemporary life and the politics that underpin it-everything from preventive war to "compassionate conservatism"-in expressly salient parallel commentary that invites readers to engage with his unsparing assessment of how we've gotten ourselves so 'plexed up. Informed by an acute consciousness of the author's Puerto Rican heritage, anger over injustice and hypocrisy, as well as an incomparable vitality, humor, and abiding affection for pop culture, youth, and American optimism, The Lamentable Journey of Omaha Bigelow into the Impenetrable Loisaida Jungle is both a fantastic adventure through the social strata of contemporay New York and a daring foray past the limitations of the modern novel. Through it all, perhaps despite it all, Vega Yunque takes chances-daring readers to agree or disagree with his bold and provocative statements and to risk having their perceptions radically altered.

Contents:

1 East Village 101 9

2 Borscht 16

3 Reacquaintance 21

4 The Identity of Pigeons 28

5 The Peacock 35

6 The Puerto Rican Navy and the Theater of the Absurd 42

7 The Projects 50

8 Clown Castle 58

9 Sushi 64

10 A Return to Kinko's 72

11 Hot Cocoa and Sultana Crackers 79

12 Acquiring a Big Bohango 84

13 The Phone Call 94

14 The Ceremony of Enlargement 102

15 Immigration vs. Counterinvasion and a History Lesson 108

16 Show and Tell 115

17 The Premonition 123

18 Family Values and Predilections 132

19 Gossip 142

20 The Political Metaphor of Spermatozoon Number 54 149

21 A Weakening of Resolve 158

22 Jealousy 166

23 Social Facilitation 174

24 The Bluebird of Happiness 180

25 Paternity 188

26 Pilgrim Progress Report 197

27 Baseball vs. Bombing 203

28 Hubris 212

29 Reflections on a Tarnished Mirror 218

30 Transitional Chapter 225

31 A Sisyphean Task 233

32 An Indie Film Treatment 238

33 The Advantages of the Internet 245

34 A Confirmation of Horns 253

35 Passing as J-Lo and a Confrontation 261

36 The Author and a Protagonist Strike a Deal 265

37 Confession at the Harvard Club 272

38 Visiting the Enemy 280

39 Showdown 288

40 April in Paris 296

41 Machinations, Authors and Characters, and an Analysis of the Play 302

42 A Birth, Two Escapes, and a Transformation 306

43 DNA Testing and Political Alternatives 315

44 Aboard the Aircraft Carrier Dejalo Que Suba 325

45 The Wedding 334

46 A Supplication 340

47 The Lamentable End of the Journey 349.

ISBN:

1585676306

OCLC:

56413005