Fragile Night

My favorite story is "The Remedy" and I laughed until I could not breathe when those girls got sent to the curandera. The rest of the stories made me laugh and cry. This author never wastes your time. It is worth the time to read this whole book. You will be richer for it.

Duarte opens a window into the soul of the barrio as she explores the hearts and minds of her beautifully rich characters. A multifaceted collection of colorful tales that impressively displays Duarte's literary talent. This book envokes a myriad of emotions as the genuiness of her Hispanic charcters irresistably draws you into the depths of human experience. "Fragile Night" is a true cultural journey.

This fabulous compilation of short stories comes across to me as one big collective, yet subtle, transmittal of coping mechanisms and strategies during a crucial time of adversity in a person's life. It is definitely informative and dares to venture into the category of inspirational, spiritual and academic texts. To make it fit into the category of fiction, certainly took careful planning, sound structuring and incessant premeditation/implementation. This, is an ability acquired only by hard labor and a natural ability acquired only through birthright. The author is certainly brimming with expression awaiting to openly manifest and emerge. I would certainly support, assist and encourage this vehicle of enlightment that she can be through more publications or any other vehicle wherein in-depth expressions of this sort can be shared. keep up the great work Stella (Telita).

The stories are collectively, a provoking subtle inducement into a personal examination of the in- trinsic realm experiences each of us in our humaness, compiles throughout life's till and toil. Yet, this is superbly accomplished, masterfully even! Making the stories so humanly palatable by transmitting the striking similari ties that exist in each one of us, by virtue of our humanity, most effectively, clinicaly, methodically yet warm and down to earth thereby enabling the reader to easily relate to and enjoy. Uplifting to the point that it dares to inspire hope, under the guise of fiction. Excellente!!!