September 10, 2015
2015-09-29
Two expatriate writers from other parts of Mexico, Merida and Puerto Vallerta, will present their books during the September reading.
One is a humorous and entertaining view of life in Mexico by Gil Gevins; the other is the moving story of a famous Dutch painter who risked her life hiding Jews in her apartment during World War II.
The painter, Gisèle van Waterschoot van der Gracht, is well known in Holland, both as a painter and as a World War II hero. The book about her, entitled Circles, was written by her neice, Joanna van der Gracht de Rosado, who will present the book at the Sala gathering.
Joanna van der Gracht de Rosado
Joanna is visiting the Literary Sala from Merida on the Yucatan Peninsula. She has published four books. Two are about cultural adaptation for foreign residents of Mexico, Drinking from the Well (2008) and Magic Made in Mexico (2010).
The third is a novel, The Woman Who Wanted the Moon (2012), and the fourth is her recently published book about her famous aunt, Circles.
Gil Gevins
Gil Gevins, in contrast to Joanna, is a satirist with no writing discipline at all. His greatest influences have not even been writers, but the Marx Brothers and Abbott and Costello!
He confesses he tends to write when the mood strikes him. However, he does turn out a weekly column for the PV Mirror, Puerto Vallarta’s English language weekly.
During the winter season, he spends a few mornings a week writing his column. The other six months, he works on whichever book he is currently struggling with.