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Tivolem
Goa, on the western coast of India, is an isolated area settled by Portuguese fishermen. It is the blending of old-world Christian culture with traditional Indian society that makes life in Tivolem, a village in Goa, so unique.
Against this backdrop, Rangel-Ribeiro focuses on young Marie-Santana, who finds sanctuary in the quiet daily life of Tivolem after her family moved abroad many years earlier. Returning home from the heartbreak and betrayal inflicted by her former fiance, Marie-Santana finds Tivolem filled with eccentric personalities and a multitude of unexpected adventures. While caring for her elderly grandmother, Marie-Santana becomes attracted to her next-door neighbor, Simon Fernandes. But a past deceit involving Simon's far-flung brother and the censure of village gossips threaten the lovers and remind them that they - like the village - are inexorably tied to their pasts.
Against this backdrop, Rangel-Ribeiro focuses on young Marie-Santana, who finds sanctuary in the quiet daily life of Tivolem after her family moved abroad many years earlier. Returning home from the heartbreak and betrayal inflicted by her former fiance, Marie-Santana finds Tivolem filled with eccentric personalities and a multitude of unexpected adventures. While caring for her elderly grandmother, Marie-Santana becomes attracted to her next-door neighbor, Simon Fernandes. But a past deceit involving Simon's far-flung brother and the censure of village gossips threaten the lovers and remind them that they - like the village - are inexorably tied to their pasts.
400 pages, Hardcover
Published May 11, 1998
1 person is currently reading
61 people want to read
About the author
Victor Rangel-Ribeiro
14 books15 followersVictor Rangel-Ribeiro, the award-winning author whose debut novel, Tivolem, was named one of the twenty notable first novels to be published in America in 1998, was born in Goa, India, in 1925, then a Portuguese colony.
First published in Bombay, his short stories have since been featured in three top American literary magazines---the North American, Iowa, and Literary Reviews. Other pieces appeared in The Indian-American. HarperCollins, India, published his short fiction, Loving Ayesha and Other Stories, in 2003, with illustrations by the celebrated Mario Miranda; it promptly made the bestseller lists in that country.
He loves to share his knowledge of writing techniques with aspiring authors and his workshops in Goa and Bombay are invariably oversubscribed. In June 2002, he was invited by the University of Mauritius and a Mauritian presidential commission to conduct a weeklong writing workshop in that distant island republic. He has conducted workshops two workshops at the South-Western Writers’ Association Conference in Tucson, Arizona.
In 2003, Sewanee University in Tennessee assigned Tivolem as required reading for a course in international literature, along with works by Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy, and Chinua Achhebe. Tivolem has been studied at Yale University, and is currently part of the MA curriculum at Goa University. Until 2011 he was on the International Online Creative Writing Faculty of Fairleigh Dickinson University’s MFA program in Madison, New Jersey.
Now 89 years old and writing daily, Rangel-Ribeiro’s spare time interests include reading voraciously, listening to and making music (he conducts the Goa State String Orchestra in concert each time he now visits Goa), history, travel, photography, and playing impish games with his five grandchildren. He speaks Konkani fluently, and reads both the Romi and the Devanagari script. He also speaks Hindustani and various European languages, and can be easily misunderstood in all of them.
First published in Bombay, his short stories have since been featured in three top American literary magazines---the North American, Iowa, and Literary Reviews. Other pieces appeared in The Indian-American. HarperCollins, India, published his short fiction, Loving Ayesha and Other Stories, in 2003, with illustrations by the celebrated Mario Miranda; it promptly made the bestseller lists in that country.
He loves to share his knowledge of writing techniques with aspiring authors and his workshops in Goa and Bombay are invariably oversubscribed. In June 2002, he was invited by the University of Mauritius and a Mauritian presidential commission to conduct a weeklong writing workshop in that distant island republic. He has conducted workshops two workshops at the South-Western Writers’ Association Conference in Tucson, Arizona.
In 2003, Sewanee University in Tennessee assigned Tivolem as required reading for a course in international literature, along with works by Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy, and Chinua Achhebe. Tivolem has been studied at Yale University, and is currently part of the MA curriculum at Goa University. Until 2011 he was on the International Online Creative Writing Faculty of Fairleigh Dickinson University’s MFA program in Madison, New Jersey.
Now 89 years old and writing daily, Rangel-Ribeiro’s spare time interests include reading voraciously, listening to and making music (he conducts the Goa State String Orchestra in concert each time he now visits Goa), history, travel, photography, and playing impish games with his five grandchildren. He speaks Konkani fluently, and reads both the Romi and the Devanagari script. He also speaks Hindustani and various European languages, and can be easily misunderstood in all of them.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 3, 2017
Once Upon a Time in Goa
The ship engines throbbed through the night as we chugged down India's west coast to the tune of several guitars with swallows of cashew feni and beer to help the trip pass by. I chatted all night in the moonlight with a whole group of young Goans heading home for the holidays. I was a 22 year-old Peace Corps Volunteer travelling to Goa for the first time. Next morning, slightly worse for the wear, I saw the unbroken line of palms along the shore, I marveled at the old fort as we rounded the point into the Mandovi River, passed Reis Magos church and slowly pulled up at the Panjim dock. I took a gasolina across to Betim the next day. The damp pink ticket was still printed in Portuguese. That was 52 years ago; Goa did not appear on the tourist map of the world. As Marie Santana, the main character of this colorful novel of Goa, arrives home, so did I arrive there, little suspecting that my fate would be forever more linked with that small land below the Ghats.
I should, in the name of transparency, reveal that the author of TIVOLEM is a friend of mine, and I know he would not be offended if I suggested that perhaps he is not an author of the calibre of Turgenev, Hemingway, Mishima, or Pamuk. However, if you want to read a novel about Goa that gives you the flavor of the old life there, before mining, tourism and real estate speculators spread their ugly tentacles over the place, a novel that OK, does not deal with social or political questions, but provides a gentle, often humorous picture of village life back in the 1930s, you could not do better than read this book. The slow pace of the story emulates life back in those days, a life that still may exist away from the tourist-haunted beaches and the commercial bustle of the towns of today. I saw Goa before the merger with India really had time to take effect and reading this picturesque, well-crafted novel brought it all back. I am very glad to have read TIVOLEM and highly recommend it to anyone who has loved Goa or who wants to know what it once might have been. The characters, their emotions and behaviors, all ring true. To tell the truth, I was sorry to reach the end. Alas ! That Goa is no more. Hurrah ! Goa offers much more to her sons and daughters now, but something still was lost. There is nothing wrong with nostalgia, especially if your memories are beautiful. TIVOLEM is a book of memories, a Goan look at Goa, even as it is a touching love story.
The ship engines throbbed through the night as we chugged down India's west coast to the tune of several guitars with swallows of cashew feni and beer to help the trip pass by. I chatted all night in the moonlight with a whole group of young Goans heading home for the holidays. I was a 22 year-old Peace Corps Volunteer travelling to Goa for the first time. Next morning, slightly worse for the wear, I saw the unbroken line of palms along the shore, I marveled at the old fort as we rounded the point into the Mandovi River, passed Reis Magos church and slowly pulled up at the Panjim dock. I took a gasolina across to Betim the next day. The damp pink ticket was still printed in Portuguese. That was 52 years ago; Goa did not appear on the tourist map of the world. As Marie Santana, the main character of this colorful novel of Goa, arrives home, so did I arrive there, little suspecting that my fate would be forever more linked with that small land below the Ghats.
I should, in the name of transparency, reveal that the author of TIVOLEM is a friend of mine, and I know he would not be offended if I suggested that perhaps he is not an author of the calibre of Turgenev, Hemingway, Mishima, or Pamuk. However, if you want to read a novel about Goa that gives you the flavor of the old life there, before mining, tourism and real estate speculators spread their ugly tentacles over the place, a novel that OK, does not deal with social or political questions, but provides a gentle, often humorous picture of village life back in the 1930s, you could not do better than read this book. The slow pace of the story emulates life back in those days, a life that still may exist away from the tourist-haunted beaches and the commercial bustle of the towns of today. I saw Goa before the merger with India really had time to take effect and reading this picturesque, well-crafted novel brought it all back. I am very glad to have read TIVOLEM and highly recommend it to anyone who has loved Goa or who wants to know what it once might have been. The characters, their emotions and behaviors, all ring true. To tell the truth, I was sorry to reach the end. Alas ! That Goa is no more. Hurrah ! Goa offers much more to her sons and daughters now, but something still was lost. There is nothing wrong with nostalgia, especially if your memories are beautiful. TIVOLEM is a book of memories, a Goan look at Goa, even as it is a touching love story.
May 23, 2020
A little politically naive at times and a little corny at others, but overall an enjoyable and easy read. The ending was a little abrupt for me though, the conflict a little too easily resolved. It would have been much more interesting if the estranged brother came back, especially during their wedding.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 24, 2017
Marie-Santana returns to her native village in Portuguese Goa after the death of her parents and the loss of the family business in Mozambique. The year is 1933. The strict rules of village life after one of freedom make it hard for Marie-Santana to adapt to this world she left as a child. When jealousy comes to the fore and Marie-Santana is rumored to have the evil eye, she finds ways to challenge the rumors that are both surprising and effective.
The men who have deputed themselves the elders of the community gather regularly to discuss the news from the outside world--England, that upstart Hitler, and troubles in America--as well as the goings-on in their village and the activities of the newcomers Simon Fernandes and Eusebio. Simon is a violinist who can use his talent to charm or annoy. The villagers cope with the usual problems including the nefarious deeds of one of their own gone bad, a young man who steals calves, disrupts homes, and generally angers everyone.
This is a warm-hearted story of life in a mostly Christian village in Goa, where the Portuguese still rule but Gandhi is on everyone's minds. The novel brings the reader into a vanished way of life, and tells a love story simply and beautifully.
The men who have deputed themselves the elders of the community gather regularly to discuss the news from the outside world--England, that upstart Hitler, and troubles in America--as well as the goings-on in their village and the activities of the newcomers Simon Fernandes and Eusebio. Simon is a violinist who can use his talent to charm or annoy. The villagers cope with the usual problems including the nefarious deeds of one of their own gone bad, a young man who steals calves, disrupts homes, and generally angers everyone.
This is a warm-hearted story of life in a mostly Christian village in Goa, where the Portuguese still rule but Gandhi is on everyone's minds. The novel brings the reader into a vanished way of life, and tells a love story simply and beautifully.
December 10, 2016
vignettes of the inhabitants of Goa, an isolated area on the western coast of India. Oh what characters some of them be!!! Not a gripping story but one that held my interest to the end. Not the greatest of Milkweed National Fiction Prize winners; Berea Library hardback, 1998, 344 pgs., 1998 Milkweed…Fiction winner; read Mar. ’13, #13.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews