Evita and Me by Erika Rummel
Publisher: DX Varos Publishing (May 24, 2022)
Category: Historical Fiction, Crime, Women’s Literature
Tour Dates June 21-July 22, 2022
ISBN: 978-1955065320
Available in Print and ebook, 384 pages
Description Evita and Me by Erika Rummel
Like Eva herself, Mona comes from a broken family and has to make her own way. Perhaps that’s why the two women feel close. Evita is at the pinnacle of success but already in the grip of a fatal illness. We see her life through the eyes of Mona and Pierre, two people she trusts — and who betray her in the end. Or can theft and murder be justified?A story of love, adventure, and murder.
Review Evita and Me by Erika Rummel
Review by Suzie
“It was only when she took both of my hands in hers
and pulled me into an embrace that she became human. Her scent mingled with my
breath, we were flesh to flesh, and I felt loved once more.”
The year is 1947-, and sixteen-year-old Mona Ford is
bored of her life. Living in Toronto with an unreliable and self-obsessed
mother, Mona longs to get away from her home and experience new things.
However, when a friend of the family writes to say that they wish for her to
visit them in Argentina, Mona is reluctant to agree. Used to her mother's petty
games, Mona does not want to give in and visit a woman whom she barely
remembers even meeting. However, she eventually agrees when she realizes that
the alternative means spending the next few weeks with her mother and her new
boyfriend.
Traveling to Buenos Aries, Mona finds herself stuck in
a house with a woman she dislikes and bored out of her mind until she agrees to
go to dinner with the woman and meets her boss, Evita Peron. Evita is
everything that Mona wishes that she could be—elegant, intelligent, powerful
and beautiful.
Mona falls in love with her instantly and soon gains
Evita's affection as well. But when the woman asks her to do something
suspicious, Mona must decide how much she is willing to sacrifice for her.
'Evita and Me,' is a fascinating and highly
atmospheric book. As a lover of historical fiction, I couldn't put this book
down and I found myself thinking about it for a long time after finishing.
Rummel's prose is truly magnificent. She pulls the reader into Mona's inner
thoughts with the kind of talent that few authors possess.
I can't recommend this book highly enough for all
historical fiction lovers!
Guest Post by Erika Rummel
8 Things I Learned
About Evita During My Research
HER FASHION SENSE.
Evita had gorgeous
clothes. One outfit consisted of silver-grey satin pants, sky blue
blouse and white peep-toe shoes with cork heels. Her usual “office outfit”
consisted of tailored jacket with padded shoulders, white blouse, and tube
skirt. Her evening gowns were spectacular.
At one state dinner, she wore an off-the-shoulder dress, which
scandalized the cardinal seated next to her. A few weeks later, an actress,
Sofia Bozan, appeared wearing an identical dress with a cardinal (the bird)
perched on her shoulder – a rather cheeky comment on the First Lady’s faux pas.
EVITA AND DIOR
Dior famously
said: “I have dressed only one queen: Evita Peron.”
When Evita
travelled to Paris in 1947, he changed her fashion image: nude make-up, bright
red lips, sternly pulled back chignon. His most spectacular creation for Evita
was a strapless cinched-waist dress of silk. Layers of gleaming taffeta made it
look as if it was sprinkled with gold.
EVITA: THE WORKING WOMAN
Evita’s office was
her stage. She took her social work serious but she also made a show of giving
to the poor and was not above advertising her work ethics, for example, posing
for a photo with a clock in the background showing the time 4 am. The walls of
her office were clad in red damask. Her desk was illuminated by floodlights.
Four secretaries were at her beck and call, as well as a battery of
photographers-- one from her own newspaper Democracia, which published at
least 8 pictures a day, documenting Evita’s working day. The corridor outside
her office was crowded with people waiting to see her. She listened to their troubles
and, at the conclusion of the audience, promised to find a solution to their
problems. Then she reached with jeweled fingers under the blotter on her desk,
where she kept fifty-peso notes to hand out as instant consolation.
EVITA’S DEVOTION TO THE POOR
She raged against poverty: “Sometimes I wish my insults were slaps and lashes,
I wanted to hit people in the face and make them see the poverty.” And she
didn’t just talk. She acted on behalf of the people who came to her. She was
kind to them, calling old men “grandfather”, kissing the leprous and those with
tuberculosis and lips half-eaten away with syphilis, embracing people in rags,
places her fingers on suppurating wounds. “I am nothing,” she said. “My work is
everything.”
SAINT EVA
People called her
the “Lady of Hope”, “Mother of the Innocents”, the “Standard bearer of the
decamisados (shirtless)”, and the “Bridge of Love”. Even children worshipped
her like a saint. One little girl in Jujuy kneeled before her and said: “Mama
Eva, give me your benediction!”
A MUSEUM FOR EVITA
In 1948 Evita had
a historic mansion restored and converted into a shelter for women and children
in need. She offered them “an open door, a table set, and a clean bed” as well
as consolation and encouragement. It is now a museum to commemorate Evita’s
life with some 3000 objects on display, including a picture of her kicking a
soccer ball with high-heeled shoes!
EVITA’S DECLARATION OF LOVE FOR JUAN PERON
“I have passed the
best ears of my life at the side of General Peron, my master. I have no higher
goal in life than to continue to serve him and the people of Argentina.” (1951)
“I want history to
say: There was a woman alongside General Peron, …and her name was Evita.”
A document
supposedly written by her on her deathbed addresses him directly: “I felt your
affection and goodness so much that unto the last moment of my life I will offer
it to you body and soul, since you know I am hopelessly in love with my dear
old man.”
And yet…
HER HUSBAND WAS A PEDOPHILE
Juan Peron was infamous
for visiting schools and give scooter rides to the girls so he could press up
to them. After Evita’s death, he kept a 13-year-old mistress. His comment to
someone asked if this was true: “Yes, she’s thirteen, but I’m not
superstitious”.
An ugly truth, and a question for the fiction writer: Should I leave the hard facts to history books and create for Evita a husband deserving of her love?
About by Erika Rummel
Award winning author, Erika Rummel is the author of more than a dozen non-fiction books and seven novels. Her seventh novel, ‘Evita and Me’ is being published on May 24, 2022.
She won the Random House Creative Writing Award (2011) for a chapter from ‘The Effects of Isolation on the Brain’ and The Colorado Independent Publishers’ Association’ Award for Best Historical Novel, in 2018. She is the recipient of a Getty Fellowship and the Killam Award.
Erika grew up in Vienna, emigrated to Canada and obtained a PhD from the University of Toronto. She taught at Wilfrid Laurier and U of Toronto. She divides her time between Toronto and Los Angeles and has lived in Argentina, Romania, and Bulgaria.
Erika’s Website: http://www.erikarummel.com/
Erika’s Blog: http://rummelsincrediblestories.blogspot.ca/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/historycracks
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I'm so glad you enjoyed 'Evita and Me'! Thanks so much for hosting Erika!
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