"You like to look at our ruins, you and your friend, but
what is it you've seen?" Jenna is asked by the colonel in
charge of the region around the archaeological site of
Piedras Coloradas. In The Lost Art of Desire the travelers
discover they are the ones being observed in a place where
appearance and reality do not readily agree. Jenna and her
lover Sam arrive at the Mayan ruins of Piedras Coloradas,
aware that there has recently been trouble over land issues
between rebels and the government. While Sam takes pictures
of the ancient stonework, Jenna goes out with her binoculars
to look for birds. She does not expect to find the rare
resplendent quetzal, but she will accept what she finds, hoping
that by the end of this trip she'll be able to make a decision
about the rest of her life.
At first everything appears safe, although the posada where
they're staying is almost empty. They hear sounds at night
that Sam believes to be gunfire, but are told the noises are
only fireworks in a neighboring village. An American woman
staying at the posada goes out for a walk and doesn't return.
Soldiers station themselves in the town plaza. Jenna does not
consider herself a risk taker, yet she now finds herself in
a situation where everything she's believed stable is threaten-
ed, and she must act in ways she's never anticipated. In spare
and luminous prose, this novella examines the lives of two people
who set out to explore a foreign land and discover what they must
actually explore are their own assumptions about themselves.
"Part political thriller, part meditation on the contingencies
and dangers of love, Robin Beeman's The Lost Art of Desire
confirms the novella's standing as our great underrated literary
form, capable of combining all the compact urgency of the short
story with the deeper probings of the novel. From the book's
voluptuous, dream-like opening to its final dash across the
border, Beeman parades an extraordinary ear for language and a
seasoned thriller-writer's knack for plot. This is writing of
the highest achievement."—Justin Cronin, author, Mary and O'Neil
"In a style both highly distilled and lushly textured, The Lost
Art of Desire contains worlds within worlds: Mexico and California,
present and past, passion and safety. The plot is complex and
suspenseful, the emotional life of the characters deeply plumbed,
yet this slender novel never rushes. How does she do it? The prose
remains sure and sensuous, lingering over an embrace, a red
hibiscus, or a sunset in the Mayan ruins—even as shots resound
in the jungle and an old life gives way to the new." —Noelle
Oxenhandler, author, The Eros of Parenthood
_________________________________________________________
ROBIN BEEMAN grew up in Louisiana. She studied and taught in
Mexico and now lives in the hills of Sonoma County, California.
An Iowa Writer's Workshop graduate, she has had stories in such
places as The Gettysburg Review, Puerto del Sol, The North American
Review, and Crazyhorse. She was a 1990 PEN Syndicated Fiction
winner. She has two books, a collection of novella and short stories,
A Parallel Life and Other Stories, and a novella, A Minus Tide, both
published by Chronicle Books. Last year A Minus Tide was selected for
inclusion in The Readers' Choice: 200 Book Club Favorites.
