Could the Devil be a sweetheart? Sure, in a topsy-turvy fantasy
like this one, where fruited breads and fine salamis are almost as
important as the love triangle at its heart. Schonstein-Pinnock
sets her second novel (but first to appear here) in post-apartheid
South Africa, in a Cape Town enclave of first-generation Italians
and Jews. The story, short on plot, focuses on Primo Verona, an
Italian Jew, his wife Beatrice, and another Italian Jew, Pasquale
Benvenuto, the three having been best friends since childhood.
Primo is a soothsayer and magician (good magic only), while
Pasquale owns a deli and is known as the best baker and salami
maker in Cape Town. Beatrice and Pasquale were lovers before the
shy, virginal Primo proposed to Beatrice, and, after their
marriage, the three still remained friends. Then, 20 years later,
Pasquale pressures Beatrice to leave Primo and return to him. The
magician is devastated. His spells go awry. Without meaning to, he
ruins Pasquale's business, and then, intending to summon Beatrice
home, he produces the Devil instead. Surprise! Lucifer is as
angelic as before his fall: Beautiful in appearance, serene in
nature, still working for God, and setting limits to man's
destructiveness, he corrects Primo's spells and restores the
deliciousness of Pasquale's breads and meats. While
Schonstein-Pinnock celebrates the kitchen, she also acknowledges
man's inhumanity through flashbacks (too many of them). Primo was
raised by his father and aunt, both Holocaust survivors, while
Pasquale's father, in Rome, was forced into hiding from the
Gestapo. Later, Primo and Pasquale, as conscripts, witnessed
atrocities during a war in Angola. A journalist enabled Aunt Lidia
to survive the journey to Auschwitz by whispering stories of
angels; Pasquale's father survived confinement by listening to the
food fantasies of his comrades in hiding, a butcher and a baker.
Somewhat glibly, Schonstein-Pinnock sprinkles these memories like
gold dust over the brutal realities faced by young woman and small
boy. An agreeable confection. Enjoy it for its glittering artifice,
but don't look for depth. (Kirkus Reviews)
When Primo Verona's wife, Beatrice, left him for Pasquale
Benvenuto, their close friend who ran the delicatessen on the
corner of Long and Bloem Streets, Primo cast a spell on Pasquale's
shoes so that ever afterwards their laces would spring undone as he
walked out of his front door. It was an easy enough spell to
sidestep. Pasquale, unaware that it was magic he was dealing with,
merely cursed the quality of modern laces and thereafter wore shoes
that did not need them.
Primo Verona, a professional magician and soothsayer, is born
with a gift of clairvoyance so strong that he is able to predict
his own mother's death while still in her womb. He is brought up on
a rich diet of astronomy, philosophy and storytelling by his
watchmaker father and widowed aunt, both survivors of the death
camps in Auschwitz. Primo accurately reads the futures of the local
Long Street community of Italians and Jews, who pay him in wads of
money, honey cake, tiramisu and other delicacies.
Pasquale Benvenuto, his close friend since childhood and fellow
soldier in the Angolan war, is the owner of a bar and delicatessen
favored by local businessmen and gamblers alike. Pasquale is
passionate and headstrong, his culinary reputation resting on the
recipes for the fruited breads and salamis his father taught him to
make -- a love of which he acquired while hiding from the horrors
of the Holocaust.
Together Primo and Pasquale form an easy friendship triangle
with the beautiful Beatrice, Primo's wife and Pasquale's former
girlfriend, but when she leaves her husband for her old love, Primo
is devastated. He casts spells to spoil Pasquale's creations and to
win back Beatrice, but he inadvertently conjures up an unexpected
visitor.
Patricia Schonstein delivers a dazzling and evocative novel that
mixes magical realism with the big themes -- war, love, death,
betrayal and the afterlife -- to entertaining effect. A Time of
Angels is spellbinding storytelling that no reader will soon
forget.
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