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Heartthrob: Del Balboa Cafe al Apartheid and Back
On a wintry Thursday night in San Francisco, Susana Chávez-Silverman catches her first glimpse of a handsome stranger through the window as he passes the infamous Balboa Cafe. She knows immediately he is the man of her dreams. His eyes meet hers, he turns and enters the bar . . .
Their attraction was intense, but the social and political climate of South Africa, still in the grip of apartheid, threatened to tear them apart. Describing the vicissitudes of the Latina migratory experience, Chávez-Silverman struggles to overcome the hostility of a place that is so unwelcoming to nonwhite persons and outsiders.
Heartthrob, a love story for the ages, implores us to consider how things could have been. In these romantic crónicas based on detailed diary entries and confessional letters to family and friends, Chávez-Silverman weaves together English and Spanish to lay bare the raw intensity and true fragility of love. Anyone who has wondered about the-one-that-got-away or sought out the true meaning of happily-ever-after will be enraptured by this intimate exploration of love, loss, and regret.
Their attraction was intense, but the social and political climate of South Africa, still in the grip of apartheid, threatened to tear them apart. Describing the vicissitudes of the Latina migratory experience, Chávez-Silverman struggles to overcome the hostility of a place that is so unwelcoming to nonwhite persons and outsiders.
Heartthrob, a love story for the ages, implores us to consider how things could have been. In these romantic crónicas based on detailed diary entries and confessional letters to family and friends, Chávez-Silverman weaves together English and Spanish to lay bare the raw intensity and true fragility of love. Anyone who has wondered about the-one-that-got-away or sought out the true meaning of happily-ever-after will be enraptured by this intimate exploration of love, loss, and regret.
336 pages, Hardcover
Published October 15, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
July 14, 2020
HEARTTHROB: a contemporary “Romeo and Juliet” love story
In this extraordinary autobiographical account, Susana Chávez-Silverman opens her heart and bares her soul to tell the moving story of a romance which transcends national and cultural boundaries, but which, for many reasons, is unable to overcome them. She tells the story in a unique combination of English, Spanish, and, unlike in her previous books, a smattering of Afrikaans, producing a unique multicultural mixture of Anglo, Latino and Afrikaner which both grips readers emotionally and forces them to face their most basic attitudes—and perhaps prejudices, hopes, and, indeed, fears—towards some of the most basic questions of life itself.
Chávez-Silverman constructs her narrative in the form of diary entries (which she calls “crónicas”) and letters to and from the panoply of characters who are part of the story. Her whirlwind romance with Roland (which certainly dispels the notion that “love at first sight” is something that does not happen in real life!), a South African, is an exhilarating but all-too-brief experience that ends when he returns home; but such are the depths of her feelings for him that she decides to follow him halfway around the world and hopefully make a life with him. However, she feels extremely out-of-place, and more importantly cannot, and will not, live under South Africa’s apartheid system. Upon also discovering over the space of a year that Roland is content to live under this system and is unable and/or unwilling to make any meaningful changes to his life for her sake, she continues for another year but eventually and disconsolately returns home and moves on with her life.
However, her romance with him and memories of all that had happened are rekindled an incredible 24 years later, and is carried on through off-and-on correspondence for the next several years, during which time she discovers that, if anything, the depths of her love for him have only become even more profound. Finally, she has the opportunity to journey to South Africa again; and she and Roland reunite 30 years after their initial encounter. Her account of this last meeting is bittersweet, a mixture of joy and sorrow; joy at being together again, yet sorrow that the same barriers that separated them 30 years previously are still there and continue to keep them apart. The book concludes with a touching meditation on “what might have been” as she returns home yet again.
Far from being just another exercise in maudlin sentimentality, this book tells a compelling story that draws the reader in—and on—to an admittedly melancholy denouement. Whatever readers’ own circumstances may be, Chávez-Silverman’s account is a tremendously moving experience and cannot be read without a high level of emotional involvement; and the realization that eventually a journey of self-discovery will have to be made; and honest (sometimes very difficult) answers given to fundamental questions such as what it truly means to love another person, by anyone who hopes to relate to others in a meaningful and spiritually uplifting way. (South Africans call this concept ubuntu or menslikheid.)
Highly recommended.
Two films which will give readers and viewers an approximation of the sort of relationship described in this book are On the Beach (1959) and Somewhere in Time (1982).
In this extraordinary autobiographical account, Susana Chávez-Silverman opens her heart and bares her soul to tell the moving story of a romance which transcends national and cultural boundaries, but which, for many reasons, is unable to overcome them. She tells the story in a unique combination of English, Spanish, and, unlike in her previous books, a smattering of Afrikaans, producing a unique multicultural mixture of Anglo, Latino and Afrikaner which both grips readers emotionally and forces them to face their most basic attitudes—and perhaps prejudices, hopes, and, indeed, fears—towards some of the most basic questions of life itself.
Chávez-Silverman constructs her narrative in the form of diary entries (which she calls “crónicas”) and letters to and from the panoply of characters who are part of the story. Her whirlwind romance with Roland (which certainly dispels the notion that “love at first sight” is something that does not happen in real life!), a South African, is an exhilarating but all-too-brief experience that ends when he returns home; but such are the depths of her feelings for him that she decides to follow him halfway around the world and hopefully make a life with him. However, she feels extremely out-of-place, and more importantly cannot, and will not, live under South Africa’s apartheid system. Upon also discovering over the space of a year that Roland is content to live under this system and is unable and/or unwilling to make any meaningful changes to his life for her sake, she continues for another year but eventually and disconsolately returns home and moves on with her life.
However, her romance with him and memories of all that had happened are rekindled an incredible 24 years later, and is carried on through off-and-on correspondence for the next several years, during which time she discovers that, if anything, the depths of her love for him have only become even more profound. Finally, she has the opportunity to journey to South Africa again; and she and Roland reunite 30 years after their initial encounter. Her account of this last meeting is bittersweet, a mixture of joy and sorrow; joy at being together again, yet sorrow that the same barriers that separated them 30 years previously are still there and continue to keep them apart. The book concludes with a touching meditation on “what might have been” as she returns home yet again.
Far from being just another exercise in maudlin sentimentality, this book tells a compelling story that draws the reader in—and on—to an admittedly melancholy denouement. Whatever readers’ own circumstances may be, Chávez-Silverman’s account is a tremendously moving experience and cannot be read without a high level of emotional involvement; and the realization that eventually a journey of self-discovery will have to be made; and honest (sometimes very difficult) answers given to fundamental questions such as what it truly means to love another person, by anyone who hopes to relate to others in a meaningful and spiritually uplifting way. (South Africans call this concept ubuntu or menslikheid.)
Highly recommended.
Two films which will give readers and viewers an approximation of the sort of relationship described in this book are On the Beach (1959) and Somewhere in Time (1982).
July 19, 2020
I was just blown away by this book. What a masterpiece! I guess I'd heard of autobiographical writing work, but not in this way - in the author's own words, "working the edge between memoir and fiction," revisiting her own (remarkable) life experiences through a process to rediscover and reconnect with, and liberate, herself. And in a way that quite possibly helps the reader connect with something similar in their own life.
Among that many things that fascinated me - as the book is largely based on experiences reconstructed through letters and journal entries - was that it really made me rethink the value of written communication, and of more profound communication in general.
The love story at the center of the book is both wonderful and devastating, spanning decades and two continents. Among many other things, Susana Chávez-Silverman is a master of language, and she mixes words in a way that is clever and often leaves the reader having discovered a new meaning - whether or not in a language you're already familiar with. I was challenged by this book in a very satisfying way, and it left me reflecting upon my own experiences of relationships and love - as well as political consciousness. It was hard to put down!
Among that many things that fascinated me - as the book is largely based on experiences reconstructed through letters and journal entries - was that it really made me rethink the value of written communication, and of more profound communication in general.
The love story at the center of the book is both wonderful and devastating, spanning decades and two continents. Among many other things, Susana Chávez-Silverman is a master of language, and she mixes words in a way that is clever and often leaves the reader having discovered a new meaning - whether or not in a language you're already familiar with. I was challenged by this book in a very satisfying way, and it left me reflecting upon my own experiences of relationships and love - as well as political consciousness. It was hard to put down!
July 25, 2020
An intercontinental, intralingual, multivalent chronicle of love, loss and learning that leaves the heart beating faster.
April 30, 2020
Completely blown away by this bilingual* memoir of lost-and-found love spanning decades, continents, and cultures. Beautiful, passionate, and bittersweet.
*Trilingual, actually - the book is written in Spanglish with Afrikaans sprinkled in.
*Trilingual, actually - the book is written in Spanglish with Afrikaans sprinkled in.
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February 1, 2020Fiction C5126h 2019
March 11, 2021
it’s not just the use of several languages, but the story Chavez-Silverman tells wraps you up and takes you along with her over the years. At points it feels like you can hear, smell, or touch the people and places she describes, from the clubs of San Francisco, to the jacaranda trees of South Africa. Your heart will be in this book from the opening pages, and you will hang on every last vignette, every letter. The book is chock full of references to movies, books, and events, so you will wind up learning a lot by osmosis! You will also laugh! This is a wonderful book that challenges the reader intellectually and emotionally, yet you can’t put it down. I read it three times, and got more from it with each reading. Chavez-Silverman’s life/love story is a masterful work.
December 17, 2021
Heartthrob is an impossible love story, and Chavez-Silverman recognizes its impossibility and density before jumping into it. She takes the reader on a journey, moving from an impassioned epistolary account de un amor bajo el apartheid to an artful recollection. This is a memoir that is as much about the craft of memory as it is about the events themselves. Chavez-Silverman’s prose is contagious. This more than a tale de un solo heartthrob. the occasional orgy, intercalary episodes in the English countryside, and deep reflections on language and love, race and romance, and how to live a seemingly impossible story and then retell it in a way that is capacious and imaginative, make this a world-making (and word-making) read.
December 16, 2020
This book is of its own genre. The author creates both the narrative itself and its language from ambiguity, the unknown, buried and retrieved memories... What's "real" or not doesn't matter, because she writes to evoke empathy as the reader witnesses a story that spans decades in real time alongside the author (letter/diary format). It's an epic reckoning of love and worldview/rootedness. Chávez-Silverman articulates relationship to place as powerfully as she articulates her true love. This is a masterpiece!!
January 3, 2022
With highly intimate and rich prose, Chavez-Silverman takes the reader on a twisting journey across continents and cultures, politics and personalities. Readers will find addictive her one-of-a-kind bilingual voice that invents nicknames, word plays, and (mis)translations at every turn. Despite the unique circumstances she describes living in Apartheid South Africa, readers will find the love story of Heartthrob relatable and instructive. I would recommend this memoir to anyone, monolingual folks included.
August 7, 2020
The author's most audacious work yet: heartfelt, lyrical, moving, and beautifully complex. Chavez-Silverman merits a wide audience; newcomers to her unique writerly voice will be astonished by her creative code-switching and bilingual turns of phrase, her linguistic punning and playfulness, and the nuances with which she explores her recollections and memories.
May 18, 2021
Susana Chavez-Silverman takes the reader on a rollicking ride — erotic, linguistic and poetic— in this white hot love story where a coup de foudre romance comes to its inevitable demise in the cold and rocky waters of cultural mismatch and stubborn misogyny, and then reignites 25 years later. I couldn’t put it down. Enjoy!
February 22, 2021
This is an excellent and creative text that employs a beautiful illustration of US Spanish/English codeswitching in its most radical form. Highly recommended for Professors, students and readers who have a love for Spanish and Latinx studies.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews