Lovesick (1995)

Set in Puebla, a village in Mexico, this quintessential Latin American story embraces three generations in the life of a country. As in many other such tales, the smaller story of love and family is enhanced and challenged by the larger story of politics and war, with a few delightful twists. At the heart of the tale is the daring, fearless Emilia, the second generation of pharmacist Diego Sauri’s freewheeling, politically astute family. His daughter Emilia is torn between two loves in a classic Wuthering Heights conundrum: choose your childhood friend, the rough and tumble radical who is unreliable and tortured, but makes your body sing? Or choose the gentle, steady doctor who can provide a home and a family, and never leave your side? As her nation and her village, her family and her career waver, Emilia sorts through this problem of the heart. In the end, her solution is so simple that we all wonder why we never thought of it. Well-written and adeptly plotted, this book is peopled by such a large number of endearing characters that you may go away with a virtual photo album of people you will always want to remember. I know I will. ( )

There are plenty of reviews of this book on amazon, in Spanish and English (for me, the one who best sums up this novel with a strong & 'muy mexicana' heroine is a male reviewer from Colombia), so I'll just reiterate the sentiment of those who said they loved it (I also really LIKED all the characters, in a way that doesn't happen often.) And, I'll mention a few aspects that didn't seem to come up in other reviews: Emilia is a doctor: the unfolding of her life as a healer is fascinating, and timely even now. Her parents' love story, their verve as individuals and as a pair, is a fabulous part of the story. And, the accounts of travel, within revolutionary- era Mexico and between Mexico and the U.S., are also likely to delight the mind's eye. ( )