When I first started this, I thought, “Oooh, Mexican Gothic! My favorite jam!” But then it turned out to be a fictional/true story that, yes, was set in Mexico and had definite goth vibes. But I’m ashamed to admit that it took half the book until I twigged as to what was really going on.
So let’s start at the beginning. The year is 1952. Penelope is a young wife and mother with two children and another on the way. She and her husband are struggling to keep their literary journal going, and now it looks like the husband has some drinking issues. Out of the blue, she receives a letter from two elderly sisters by the name of Delaney, which happens to be her maiden name. They are invited to join the other possible inheritors of the spoils of their family’s silver mine, located near the town of Fonsca, Mexico. The sisters are elderly and it looks as if the inheritance is up for grabs. Desperate for some cash, she grabs her older son and books it out of New York to scope out the situation.
What she finds is not at all what she had expected. Doña Elena and Doña Anita (actually sister-in-law) are the queens of their domain, and Penelope has just unwittingly joined their court at Mirando. Mandatory cocktails of an astonishing variety are served in their daily evening salon, and it’s a wonder there is any inheritance at the rate these two are going at it. Others join the soiree, like Edward Hopper and his wife Jo, and then there is a new guest, the Delaney. Imposter? True descendant? Who knows.
Spoiler alert, this was no fictional account. Penelope was actually the writer Penelope Fitzgerald, who wrote her first novel in 1977 when she was 60 years old, and went on to write eight more. Only the name of the town, Fonseca AKA Saltillo, was changed to protect the innocent.
What a trip.
