En Maldito amor, ella explora las luchas de clases y la evolución política de su Puerto Rico natal a través de la historia de una familia, los aristocráticos y belicosos De la Valle, y su lucha por la dominación y control del vecino ingenio azucarero.

El cuento titular narra la vida del pirático Don Julio; su hijo, el astuto político Nino Ubaldino; y los hijos de Ubaldino, Arístides y Nicolás, envueltos en una lucha a la muerte por el control de la fortuna familiar y por la mujer que ambos quieren. Los tres cuentos siguientes relatan las vidas de las nuevas generaciones de los De la Valle, creando un drama en cuatro partes que presenta las cuestiones fascinantes de la independencia, la religión y la raza, con todo el ingenio y energía característicos de Ferré.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

"Hypnotic... should not be missed."--Lucy Stark, Voices from the Gaps

Originally published in Spanish under the title Maldito Amor ("Cursed Love"), Sweet Diamond Dust introduced American readers to a voice that is by turns lyrical and wickedly satiric. A finalist for the National Book Award with her 1995 novel, The House on the Lagoon, Ferre here uses family history as a metaphor for the class struggles and political evolution of Latin America and Puerto Rico in particular. The result is writing of the highest order--provocative, profound, yet delightfully readable.

The "sweet diamond dust" of the title story is, of course, sugar. In this tale the De La Valle family's secrets, ambitions, and passions, interwoven with the fate of the local sugar mill, are recounted by various relatives, friends, and servants. As the characters struggle under the burden of privilege, the story, permeated with haunting echoes of Puerto Rico's own turbulent history, becomes a splendid allegory for a nation's past. The three accompanying stories each follow the lives of the descendants of the De La Valle family, making the book a drama in four parts, raising troubling issues of race, religion, freedom, and sex, with Ferre's trademark irony and startling imagery--a literary experience no reader would want to miss.