The Flower in the Skull

by Kathleen Alcalá

A riveting novel from acclaimed author Kathleen Alcalá, this second edition of The Flower in the Skull, from Raven Chronicles Press , begins in the Sonoran Desert in the late 19th century, where an Ópata village is attacked by Mexican soldiers. Her family scattered, Concha makes her way to Tucson, where the stories she tells her daughter lead to Shelly—a troubled Latina in modern-day Los Angeles, increasingly fascinated by her ancestry. A powerful tale of heritage, loss, and acculturation, Alcalá spins her most lyrical and moving work yet. The Flower in the Skull stands perfectly apart even as it continues the epic begun with Spirits of the Ordinary .

The second part of a planned trilogy that began with Spirits of the Ordinary (1997), The Flower in the Skull spans more than a century in offering a view of three women linked by Indian blood and their dreams, and seared by the violent transgressions of men. Childhood comforts in her Ópata village in Sonoran Mexico cease for Concha when her father is seized by Mexican soldiers and never seen again. First abandoning home with the remainder of her family, then herself abandoned by her mother, Concha walks in a daze across the desert to Tucson, where she's taken in as a nanny by a prospering Mexican family. A measure of peace returns to her. But when she's raped by an Anglo and bears his child, nothing can ever be the same. A brief marriage to the family doctor fails to produce more children, so her husband abandons her for someone else, leaving Concha and daughter Rosa to fend for themselves.

Over the years, Rosa picks up the burden when her mother grows too weak to continue the dawn-to-dusk housecleaning work that has sustained them, but then Rosa catches the eye of a young minister and receives Concha's blessing to marry him just before Concha dies. Busy starting her own family and keeping her own house, Rosa still wonders about her mother's past—Ópata and the father she never knew. Two generations forward, Shelly, an editorial assistant for an L.A. publisher, jumps at the chance to escape her stalking, harassing boss by going on a research trip to Tucson, where she finds not only a mystery involving her mother's family and her people in a broader sense, but also the will to survive the horror waiting for her when she returns to Los Angeles.

Genres: Fiction, Magical Realism, Historical

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Kathleen Alcalá's most recent book is a republication of Spirits of the Ordinary: A Tale of Casas Grandes by Raven Chronicles Press (see book giveaway!) The Deepest Roots: Finding Food and Community on a Pacific Northwest Island, is now in paper from University of Washington Press. Combining memoir, historical records, and a blueprint for sustainability, Alcalá explores our relationship with food at the local level, delving into our common pasts and cultures to prepare for the future.

With degrees from Stanford, the University of Washington, and the University of New Orleans, Kathleen is also a graduate and one-time instructor of the Clarion West Science Fiction and Fantasy Workshop. Kathleen Alcalá has received a Western States Book Award, the Governors Writers Award and two Artist Trust Fellowships. She is a recent Whitely Fellow, a previous Hugo House Writer in Residence, and teaches at Hugo House and the Bainbridge Artisan Resource Network. Her sixth book, The Deepest Roots: Finding Food and Community on a Pacific Northwest Island, explores our relationship with geography, food, history, and ethnicity.

“Not one tale is like another, yet all together they form a beautiful whole, a world where one would like to stay forever.” Ursula K. Le Guin on Mrs. Vargas and the Dead Naturalist.

“Alcalá’s life work has been an ongoing act of translation… She has been building prismatic bridges not just between the Mexican and American cultures, but also across divides of gender, generation, religion, and ethnicity.” —Seattle Times

Reviews

[Liz Logan]

Very, very good. I enjoyed the movement from generation to generation and the descriptive language. I love the magical realism genre and this book does not disappoint. The last portion of the book, Shelly, was especially good and brought the reader into modern times and was simultaneously frightening, beautiful and poignant.

[Dani Lopez]

A haunting story of inter generational families. My only complaint is it could have been longer.

[Daisy Rivera]

This book made me feel a little strange. It tries to make some kind of connection between the 3 main characters but it is difficult to completely feel that connection. And all 3 characters seem to feel so hopeless from disdain and discrimination. However, I feel it is all too exaggerated...I don't really know how to feel about it.

[Sherry Brown]

This book was emotional, touching, heartfelt moments,and some of characters that I definitely felt compassion for.

[Megan]

I think my one issue with the book was I wanted more. I wanted to see more of their lives and more of how everything was shaped. I think the Shelly section also confused me, I wasn't sure if she was related or just the one to discover the story. It was heartbreaking to see how many horrors each of these women went through and I'd definitely want anyone reading this to go in prepared. However, it feels like that's the point. When a person loses their cultural identity, it's not gentle. They're usually ripped from it and that is horrific. It becomes lost and every generation after is impacted by that. I think there were a few moments of hope that the people still existed, but they had forgotten themselves and their history, so bittersweet. I definitely think this story will stick with me.

[Brigid Hughes]

I loved the multigenerational aspects of this story but wish it dug deeper into the lives of the characters rather than only giving short anecdotes about their lives. I loved hearing about the indigenous people pushed out of Mexico and their experiences in the southern US where I am now living.

[Kaara]

Alcala es una escritora evocativa; sus descripciones tienen mucha vida y calidez suave, y leer el libro es una manera interesante de aprender una parte de la historia del suroeste Norteamericano y el norte de Mexico. Pero la narracion brinca bastante, a lo mejor a veces a proposito y como una clase de realismo magico, pero parece a veces por falta de revision o redaccion. Puede ser que espanol no es mi lengua nativa, pero encontre la narracion disconnectada.

[Kimberly Peterson]

I loved the multigenerational aspect of this story, as well as the focus on women and what it means to be female in a male-dominated world. But I did not like that so many interesting topics were given only superficial coverage. There was so much more I wanted to know about the characters' lives, or about the traditions of women, or how it felt to have family and tradition ripped away by horrible circumstance. This book could have been a trilogy, with much more depth and detail.

[Marissa]

This novel follows three generations of Opata Indian women, from Mexico to Tucson and New York. It is a tragic, but ultimately uplifting, story.

[Haley]

What a beautiful book.