Primer Amor = First Love

This fluid book of essays reads like one long commentary on passion. Utilizing fairy tales and other children's stories (which the author sees as ""an authentic catalog of advice""), Freire presents the strong connection between first loves and the good fortunes and tribulations in the fictional lives of well-known characters like Rapunzel, Cinderella, the Little Mermaid, Robin Hood, and Little Red Riding Hood. Here, however, the princes and princesses are ordinary people in the year 2000 who repeat many of the behaviors observed in the fairy tales. Freire, who won the 2001 Premio Planeta for Melocotones helados (Frozen Peaches), cleverly integrates her social analyses into reimagined plots, showing how old tales constantly evolve and can thus mirror modern relationships. Freire frequently alludes to the society in her native Bilbao, but her observations will apply to all Spanish-speaking countries. Ultimately, Freire wonders whether we will eventually create new stories with happy endings that will reflect our society and whether it would have been better for us to write our own stories instead of listening to these sometimes outdated ones. Recommended for campus bookstores and library collections with literary and sociology sections. Liliana Wendorff, Fayetteville Technical Community Coll., NC