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Article: Our Lady of the Artichokes.(Book review)
- Article from:
- Harvard Review
- Article date:
- June 1, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 Harvard Review. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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OUR LADY OF THE ARTICHOKES by Katherine Vaz
University of Nebraska Press/2008/$17.95 PAPER/ISBN 9780803217904
The full title of this book by Katherine Vaz, which won the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Fiction, is Our Lady of the Artichokes and Other Portuguese-American Stories. The stories are steeped in traditional culture and show how rich and multifaceted its influence on modern life can be. While, at first, her characters seem burdened by the old ways, many of which are rooted in outdated religious practices, in the end each story exhibits a unique freedom that closes the gap between life and death, love given and withheld. Often described as a ...