Queen Beats Jack (Heirs Apparent) (English Edition) [Kindle-editie] beoordelingen het boek quotes

Queen Beats Jack, by Lisa DelfinoRecently widowed Luisa Maravelle considers her family’s encouragement to “write about us”, appreciating they are trying to help her through the most difficult period of her life. She dreads the ceaseless small talk that will follow. She believes her family will question the accuracy of her recollections. From the onset, she declares that she is not writing a memoir and warns her family to expect distortions in her narration. In telling the Martone family saga, Luisa is reminded of the Italian card playing game, Briscola, and the ranking of cards that places the Jack above the Queen, immediately in succession to the King. She reflects on the subordinate role of women to the male line, seeing it as a continuing order of play in the lives of the women in her family.As her story begins, Luisa recounts how, during the early 1900s, her maternal grandparents, Lucietta and Vincenzo Martone, struggled to raise a large family of six daughters and two sons. She recalls familiar stories of their childhood, describing the concurrence of loyalty and rivalry among the female siblings who forfeited their hopes and desires to further Vincenzo’s ambitions for his sons to become ‘professional’ men. These recollections are related in the unique voices of the Martone women.Luisa resumes the narration with repeated concerns that her recollections will conflict with those of her own generation. Luisa falls in love and marries the handsome and successful Mark Maravelle, who admits his conflicted sexual identity when he proposes marriage to Luisa. Luisa’s relationship with Mark and what appears to be his eventual acceptance of a heterosexual identity, is a puzzling aspect of the saga. Ultimately, Luisa regrets that she has never addressed the veracity of his transformation. She understands that her generation has shared in the desire to fulfill their mothers’ ambitions but was also prone to curtailing their dreams and avoiding confrontations for the sake of family. Although the Queen’s second ranking may now be secure, there are underlying, ambivalent struggles about balancing a new ranking with a selfless commitment. The door is left open for the next generation to meet or beat the King at his game.