Familiar Heat - Softcover

In quick succession, Faye Rios, the focus of this wonderful first novel set in a small Florida town, becomes the victim of two calamities. First, she is taken hostage during a bank robbery and raped by one of her captors. When her husband, Vic, a taciturn Cuban charter-boat captain, abruptly leaves her, she is comforted by her old boyfriend, Cristo, now a major league ballplayer. Then, when she is riding with Cristo, they have an accident: Cristo is killed instantly and Faye is severely injured, losing her memory completely. The reader roots for the slowly recovering Faye, learning who she is and getting to know a host of marvelous characters: the formidable Se?ora Rios, Vic's mother and the widow of a Cuban revolutionary; Palma, Zeb, and their precocious son, Elven, a black family who take Faye under their wing; and Vic's brother, Tom Rios, who protects Faye while slowly falling in love with her. Hood, the author of two previous story collections?including How Far She Went (Univ. of Georgia, 1992), a winner of the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction?has written a delightfully assured novel, with much to say about the inexplicable nature of love.?Patricia Ross, Westerville P.L., Ohio
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Hood's densely textured narrative is a wonderfully told, spirited story, pivoting around the thoroughly likable character of Faye Perry and overflowing with a colorful, appealing cast of characters who dwell in Faye's small Florida town. As Hood advances Faye's tale, she shifts perspective to reveal myriad details that connect all these intersecting lives. But the events befalling Faye remain at the heart of the story. Her marriage to Vic Rios suffers a great blow when she is kidnapped and assaulted during a bank robbery. Then a freak accident leaves her without memory, in a childlike state of mind. As this first novel unfolds, it requires the reader's close attention but rewards that with its gentle luminousness. Alice Joyce