Introduction

As irresistible as gossip, as addictive as soap opera, TOMORROW THEY WILL KISS opens up to us the lives of three proud, resourceful women who are unduly buffeted by the winds of fate in their pursuit of happiness.

Like her native Cuba, Graciela Altamira is beautiful, defiant, passionate, and constantly threatened with some kind of trouble.

Day after day she works a conveyor belt in a New Jersey toy factory, assembling baby dolls and watching them roll away to be packaged and delivered into the loving arms of their new owners. And every night before she falls asleep Graciela prays for the same deliverance--to find the loving arms of a man who can help her forget the sins of her past and the haunting memory of her homeland.

But how can she forget when she lives among the ghosts of that little Cuban town? With Caridad and Imperio--two women Graciela has known since girlhood--by her side in the factory, it seems she'll never be free of her past, never able to pursue the chance at true love that she finds quite unexpectedly in the cold, New Jersey winter.

Written with buoyant humor and a sharp sense of human desire, TOMORROW THEY WILL KISS is a story of love pursued at any cost, of how friendship and history unite us for better or worse, and of the hope for that redemptive kiss capable of reconciling estranged lovers and countries.

Caridad on Graciela

Editorial Review

No editorial review at this time.

Excerpt

chapter one



Graciela



Telenovelas can be cruel with that first kiss. I sat in front of my television set and waited for the protagonists to finally find true love, the way farmers waited for the first rains of spring.

“Don’t worry, Graciela. Tomorrow they will kiss,” I sighed to myself with complete certainty as the night’s episode ended. I always watched as the names of the actors rolled across the screen while the romantic theme song played. This was my time. This was when, inspired by the music and the drama I had just watched, I allowed my mind and my heart to merge, just for a blissful moment, just until a screeching commercial message shook me out of my daydream. Used Cars! Used Appliances! Easy Credit! It was 1966 and everything offered to Latinos on the Spanish- language channel was just as used. ... view entire excerpt...

Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions from the Publisher's Reading Guide:

1. What do you think is the significance of the novel's title? What information does the title convey? What function do the telenovelas serve in the novel? What function do they serve for its characters?


2. Graciela's frame of mind changes over time. Identify at least three significant moments of such change. How do you feel about Graciela at these points in the story? Did you sometimes sense your loyalties shifting as you read?


3. Caridad and Imperio rarely describe their own problems, while they focus intently on Graciela's shortcomings and scandals. Did it change your understanding of Caridad and Imperio when, at the end of the novel, Graciela provides a window into the dramatic hardships that they both suffer? What does the author make us understand about Caridad and Imperio by allowing their secrets to come to light in this manner?


4. How does Tomorrow They Will Kiss change or contextualize your understanding of Cuban American identity? Do you see this story as representative of the experience of many Cubans who came to the United States in the early 1960s?


5. What did you know about the Cuban Revolution before reading this book? What do you think you gain from reading a novel built around such an event, as opposed to reading a more strictly historical account?


6. Why do you think the men in this story are so absent from the plot? What do you take from that?


7. In the penultimate chapter of Tomorrow They Will Kiss, Caridad says, "I had never seen Graciela laugh so much, she could hardly stand from laughing. Is that what happiness looks like? I wondered. Like insanity?" What did those few lines make you feel?


8. What lessons do we draw from Graciela - at an individual level, and also in terms of the larger ideas of assimilation and acceptance?

Copyright 2006 by Hachette Book Group USA

Weblinks

»	Publisher's Book Info
»	Author Tour Schedule
»	Book Reviews

Book Club Recommendations

Recommended to book clubs by 0 of 0 members.

Member Reviews

There are no user reviews at this time.
Rate this book