University of Wisconsin Press, 2005 eISBN: 978-0-299-20413-6 | Paper: 978-0-299-20414-3 | Cloth: 978-0-299-20410-5 Library of Congress Classification PS3563.A768B66 2005 Dewey Decimal Classification 813.54
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
ABOUT THIS BOOK Approaching midlife, after rising to comfortable suburban life, Edgar Bonjour becomes involved with a drug-trafficking Puerto Rican motorcycle gang from his old neighborhood and is brought down by an affair with a woman in the gang. News of his murder leads to introspection among other members of the Puerto Rican Bonjour clan, all descended from three now nameless French brothers remembered only by their surname. Though extended generations of the Bonjours dispersed, some settling in New York, they remain connected by the shared lore of their ancestry, that starting with the three original Bonjour brothers—all rampant adulterers—every descendent Bonjour male carries a reckless, womanizing gene.
Interconnected like the Bonjour family itself, this novel is a tale of unpredictable and unforgettable characters that transports readers to a plane where ethnicity becomes universality.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
J. A. Marzán is a poet, fiction writer, and author of the landmark The Spanish American Roots of William Carlos Williams. His fiction has appeared in journals including The Kenyon Review and the anthologies Current from the Dancing River and Iguana Dreams: New Latino Fiction. A former poet laureate of Queens, New York, he has published the books Translations without Originals and Puerta de Tierra as well as poems in, among others, Parnassus, Ploughshares, Tin House, and Harper's Magazine.
REVIEWS
"Most families are complicated, but the French-originating, Puerto Rican, USA-bound Bonjours, with their inclination to father children both in and out of wedlock, are maybe the most complicated of all. . . . The ‘bloodline,’ as J. A. Marzán terms it, flings Bonjours out across the island of Puerto Rico and up into North America, but then it reels them back—to the fathers, to the source, to the family."—from the introduction by David Huddle
"Marzán sets a new standard for Latino fiction."— Lisa Paravisini, Vassar College
"That in Puerto Rico everyone is somehow related, that if you search a little under the plantain leaves, the stranger you meet in the street will turn out to be your blood cousin—this idea, in essence, is the impetus for Marzán’s novel and the inspiration behind its title. Writing in a style that combines poetic nuances with humorous touches, Marzán adds a new dimension to our understanding of what it is to be a Latino today. The ‘bonjour gene’ he evokes is a positive gene, a gene on the verge of a new day."—Rosario Ferre, author of Papeles de Pandora
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Narrative Structure and Family Complication:
An Introduction to J. A. Marzán’s The Bonjour Gene,
by David Huddle
Prologue
B-Movie
The Bonjour Gene
Tying the Knot
What We Should Know about the Climb to Heaven
Unforgettable Tangos, Indelible Pagodas
Cappuccino
Zaxxon
The Ride
PC
The Duck
The Flowering of Isabel
The Inheritance
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
University of Wisconsin Press, 2005 eISBN: 978-0-299-20413-6 Paper: 978-0-299-20414-3 Cloth: 978-0-299-20410-5
Approaching midlife, after rising to comfortable suburban life, Edgar Bonjour becomes involved with a drug-trafficking Puerto Rican motorcycle gang from his old neighborhood and is brought down by an affair with a woman in the gang. News of his murder leads to introspection among other members of the Puerto Rican Bonjour clan, all descended from three now nameless French brothers remembered only by their surname. Though extended generations of the Bonjours dispersed, some settling in New York, they remain connected by the shared lore of their ancestry, that starting with the three original Bonjour brothers—all rampant adulterers—every descendent Bonjour male carries a reckless, womanizing gene.
Interconnected like the Bonjour family itself, this novel is a tale of unpredictable and unforgettable characters that transports readers to a plane where ethnicity becomes universality.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
J. A. Marzán is a poet, fiction writer, and author of the landmark The Spanish American Roots of William Carlos Williams. His fiction has appeared in journals including The Kenyon Review and the anthologies Current from the Dancing River and Iguana Dreams: New Latino Fiction. A former poet laureate of Queens, New York, he has published the books Translations without Originals and Puerta de Tierra as well as poems in, among others, Parnassus, Ploughshares, Tin House, and Harper's Magazine.
REVIEWS
"Most families are complicated, but the French-originating, Puerto Rican, USA-bound Bonjours, with their inclination to father children both in and out of wedlock, are maybe the most complicated of all. . . . The ‘bloodline,’ as J. A. Marzán terms it, flings Bonjours out across the island of Puerto Rico and up into North America, but then it reels them back—to the fathers, to the source, to the family."—from the introduction by David Huddle
"Marzán sets a new standard for Latino fiction."— Lisa Paravisini, Vassar College
"That in Puerto Rico everyone is somehow related, that if you search a little under the plantain leaves, the stranger you meet in the street will turn out to be your blood cousin—this idea, in essence, is the impetus for Marzán’s novel and the inspiration behind its title. Writing in a style that combines poetic nuances with humorous touches, Marzán adds a new dimension to our understanding of what it is to be a Latino today. The ‘bonjour gene’ he evokes is a positive gene, a gene on the verge of a new day."—Rosario Ferre, author of Papeles de Pandora
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Narrative Structure and Family Complication:
An Introduction to J. A. Marzán’s The Bonjour Gene,
by David Huddle
Prologue
B-Movie
The Bonjour Gene
Tying the Knot
What We Should Know about the Climb to Heaven
Unforgettable Tangos, Indelible Pagodas
Cappuccino
Zaxxon
The Ride
PC
The Duck
The Flowering of Isabel
The Inheritance
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
It can take 2-3 weeks for requests to be filled.
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE