On Earth as It Is in Heaven: Religion in Modern Latin America (review)
tion of Poniatowska's work, as well as the refusal of the reader by Jesusa Palancares, whose life story is the subject of the book. After showing how Poniatowska's text avoids partnership with reader, she moves on to the analysis of a Toni Morrison novel. Insisting on the distance established between the novel and its readers, Sommer shows how silence plays an important role in Beloved; creating an expectation for the readers throughout the narrative by holding back, until the end of the story, the revelation of truth. She also makes a cross-cultural attempt to read Morrison's novel in light of the Jewish tradition, bringing together the historical similarities between Jewish and African-American culture.