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Summary
Summary
A transporting and brilliant novel narrated by an unforgettable woman: Karen Nieto, an autistic savant whose idiosyncrasies prove her greatest gifts
As intimate as it is profound, and as clear-eyed as it is warmhearted, Me, Who Dove into the Heart of the World marks an extraordinary debut by the award-winning Mexican playwright, journalist, and poet Sabina Berman.
Karen Nieto passed her earliest years as a feral child, left alone to wander the vast beach property near her family's failing tuna cannery. But when her aunt Isabelle comes to Mexico to take over the family business, she discovers a real girl amidst the squalor. So begins a miraculous journey for autistic savant Karen, who finds freedom not only in the love and patient instruction of her aunt but eventually at the bottom of the ocean swimming among the creatures of the sea. Despite how far she's come, Karen remains defined by the things she can't do--until her gifts with animals are finally put to good use at the family's fishery. Her plan is brilliant: Consolation Tuna will be the first humane tuna fishery on the planet. Greenpeace approves, fame and fortune follow, and Karen is swept on a global journey that explores how we live, what we eat, and how our lives can defy even our own wildest expectations.
Author Notes
Sabina Berman is a four-time winner of the Mexican National Theatre Prize for her plays; she also writes filmscripts, poetry, prose, and journalism, and has published several novellas. Me, Who Dove into the Heart of the World , which will be published in twenty-five territories, is her first novel. She lives in Mexico.
Lisa Dillman teaches in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Emory University and has translated numerous works of fiction by Argentine, Mexican, Catalan, and Spanish writers. She lives in Decatur, Georgia.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Classified as a "highly functioning autistic" but known to herself simply as "Me," the remarkable narrator of Mexican poet and playwright Berman's entrancing debut is happiest at the bottom of the sea, among her beloved tuna. Karen Nieto was found as a child living in squalor and taught to speak by her caring Aunt Isabelle, who returns to Mazatlan to resuscitate the family cannery business. Though it becomes clear that Karen's IQ lies, as Isabelle bluntly put it, "between imbecile and idiot," Karen also has vision, specifically to bring humane fishing practices to the cannery, Consolation Tuna Ltd., where she loves watching the fish, or, when that isn't possible, walking around in a wetsuit and diving mask. In college-in scenes that bring to mind Temple Grandin's early struggles to be recognized in her field-Karen butts heads with a professor renowned for his development of humane slaughter techniques. Though higher education isn't for her, the professor's ideas fuel her transformation of Consolation Tuna into the world's first humane tuna fishery, despite protests from radical animal rights groups. The unique voice-lyrical and questioning, is powerful enough to carry the story, but the conservation plot line adds an extra boost. Agent: Thomas Colchie. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Narrated by a savant rescued from a feral existence by a woman who discovers her in the basement of the house she inherits in Mazatln, Mexico, this is a novel of ideas masquerading as a story about sustainable tuna fishing. Preposterous as that sounds, it's an assured and satisfying debut. Isabelle Nieto arrives in Mazatln to collect her inheritance: a tuna-packing company, a fleet of fishing boats and a dilapidated mansion. The company is successful. Isabelle is wealthy, determined. When she learns from the housekeeper, Gorda, that the feral child trashing the basement is a tenant of sorts, Isabelle investigates. She brings the wild thing up, teaches it to read and write. Karen is "born." Suffering from what we call Asperger's syndrome, Karen proceeds to change the world, one tuna harvest at a time. Ideas perfume the narrative as thoroughly as wine does stew. To Karen's way of thinking, Darwin refutes Descartes. How strange "standard human" behavior appears, how bizarre our ideas are, when seen from her peculiar perspective. Karen hates metaphor. Not because she doesn't understand it, but because she experiences it as lying. This leads to conflict, violent and scabrous; also to hilarious comedy and genuine insight. Even if her migration from the cellar to the jet set is too pat, her revelation a bit trite, Karen is a fully realized character. A satisfying novel.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Celebrated Mexican playwright, poet, and journalist Berman has penned a unique, moving, and revelatory first novel narrated by Karen Nieto, a feral, autistic child left alone in Mazatlan when her mother dies. She is raised by her aunt Isabelle, who arrives from Berkeley, California, to take over the family business Consolation Tuna, a cannery and live in the home she's inherited, an insect-infested nineteenth-century mansion in total disrepair. Karen lives in the basement, eats with her fingers, and communicates with grunts, but Isabelle soon perceives the latent capabilities of her niece, an idiot with flashes of genius. In tracing Karen's odyssey from speechless waif to partner in the family business and animal activist, Berman expounds profoundly on a range of animal-rights issues, including tuna fishing that is stress-free for the tuna and safe for the dolphins that feed near them. As Karen evolves while remaining at one with the fish with whom she feels a kinship, the reader can't help but feel increasing empathy for her convictions and her courage to make them a reality.--Donovan, Deborah Copyright 2010 Booklist
Library Journal Review
A prolific storyteller and award-winning playwright (winner of four National Playwriting Awards in Mexico), Berman is one of the most celebrated modern writers in the Spanish language. Her subject matter often skewers traditional Mexican history and masculinity, as in her most famous work, Between Pancho Villa and a Naked Woman. Here, Berman dissects the very substance of knowledge and understanding through the lens of language acquisition. Set in Mazatlan, Mexico, the story follows the maturation of Karen, a young, feral girl who lives near her family's failing tuna cannery. Discovered and educated by her aunt Isabelle and housekeeper Gorda, Karen develops her linguistic apprehension and speech under the veil of autism. It is through this prism that she grapples with the abstract ideas of this world: religion, love, and death. Eventually inheriting the tuna cannery and battling animal rights groups along the way, Karen comes to an understanding of the world as more expansive than the mere words that describe it. VERDICT Berman's use of the first-person narrative effectively entangles the reader in the development of young Karen. Both humorous and touching, this novel ultimately questions whether words are things in or about the world.-Joshua Finnell, Denison Univ. Lib., Granville, OH (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.