¡Jíbara!

By Carmen de Monteflores

Carmen de Monteflores brings her intimate knowledge of Puerto Rican culture and history to this story of a rural mountain girla jbarastruggling to become a teacher during the turbulent changes of the 1930s in the island. After a devastating hurricane, Juanita and her mother, Cisa, to whom she is fiercely attached, are forced to move to San Juan to find work. Like many others arriving from the country, they end up living in a slum. Unexpected circumstances introduce Juanita to Clara. They become close, but their lives take different paths. Juanita enters the university to be tested both by violent politics and her mothers illness. Claras influential relatives introduce her to society life and her husband-to-be. Relationships become strained and lies and secrets explode when Juanita asks for help from a former teacher and from a close friend of Claras as Cisa gets sicker and Claras marriage collapses.

skillfuldescribes heart-rending poverty without sentimentality from the point of view of a child who has never known anything else.excels at rendering the thick accents of both Spanish and English speakersa flair that is likely to trigger knowing laughter from bilingual readersworth the read
Kirkus Reviews

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Aug 21, 2014
• ISBN: 9781496930972

Carmen de Monteflores

Carmen de Monteflores, a native Puerto Rican, came to the United States at the age of sixteen to study art. Her rich experiences growing up in the island, her extensive research on the history of Puerto Rico, and training as a visual artist contribute depth and beauty to her narratives. In addition, her training as a psychologist and study of shamanism bring complexity and wisdom to her characters. ¡Jíbara! is de Monteflores’ third novel, after Cantando Bajito / Singing Softly (Aunt Lute, 1989) and Possessions (Dog Ear Publishing, 2009). She wrote and produced a play, Blood Lines (1995), and has written poetry, essays, and professional articles. She studied with Susan Griffin (Woman and Nature) and earlier attended the Art Students League of New York and the Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris. De Monteflores is currently working on interrelated stories (Seña Alba Stories) as well as a spiritual memoir (A Shaman Notebook) illustrated with her own pen drawings.

Book preview

© 2014 Carmen de Monteflores. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 08/19/2014

ISBN: 978-1-4969-3098-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4969-3097-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014914997

Copyright of cover art and author photo on last page of book.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

PART I

One

Two

Three

PART II

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

PART III

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

PART IV

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Epilogue

Glossary

Acknowledgments

My appreciation goes to all the people who supported and encouraged me during the writing and publishing of ¡Jíbara! Special thanks to my longtime writing companions, Betsy Kassoff and Rachel Wahba, our shared time has been precious to me. I am grateful to the two of them and my daughter Harbour Fraser Hodder for reading the manuscript and giving useful and insightful suggestions. Nena (as I call Harbour) has also been a deeply generous and sustaining presence as well as a skillful guide in the formatting of the manuscript. I also have enjoyed the support of my Writers’ Circle: Stacy Malkam, Sheila Pyatt, Emily Lardner and Maria Fraser, another daughter, whose thoughtful comments always enliven the group’s conversations. To my copy editor, Laurie Werbner, I owe for many hours of patient corrections always peppered with humor and for her continuing faith in my writing. Finally, I have to thank Rain Carlson and Nova Cage, my consultants at Author House, for their responsiveness in answering my many questions and their help in navigating the publishing process.

Dedicated to my aunts who taught me that the more possibilities are used, the more are created.

PART I

One

The grass next to the rutted clay road stirred in the wind. Juanita noticed, as she looked through the open window of the schoolroom, that it was going to rain. She leaned her forehead on her hand. She was tired of trying to imitate the sounds the americana made. Misi Davis was the teacher they sent from San Juan to see if the jíbaros were learning to speak English. That’s what Cisa, Juanita’s mother, said. She had an opinion about everything.

Misi Davis was going to be at the school for only a few days. Juanita could tell that Misi García, their regular teacher, had been nervous about the visit. She had made the children scrub every inch of the room, the long benches and tables, the blackboard, the uneven floor, the window frames and the front steps that were usually covered with dirt. But, Misi García was not happy because they couldn’t scrub the books, which were old and dirty. She had already written letters to the Department of Education in San Juan to try to get new ones but they said that the municipio had to pay for them. Misi García got angry because she said everyone knew that the government was supposed to provide the books and that the municipality had no money. And all the money went to San Juan anyway. It was injusticia, that’s what it was. Misi García’s cheeks got pink when she was angry, especially about unfairness.

When Juanita came to school for the first time, just a few weeks earlier, she thought that Misi García was much too young to be a teacher. Juanita’s mother said that nobody wanted to teach jíbaros like them that’s why they always sent people who were just out of school themselves to the most remote rural areas. Someone had told her they just gave these teachers a piece of paper that said they could teach, but they didn’t know a lot and didn’t have any experience. But nobody cared because el gobierno thought the jíbaros were stupid anyway, or weren’t going to stay in school long enough to learn anything. So every year the government sent a new teacher. As soon as they got a little experience they left to make more money in the towns.

Misi García would probably leave too, Juanita thought at first. But she probably would get married. She was much too pretty and fina to stay in a small town. Her skin was white and soft as if she had never been in the sun. Juanita never tired of looking at Misi García’s hands. They didn’t look as if they had ever washed a shirt or dug the dirt. But it didn’t take long for Juanita to see that Misi García was very different from how she looked. She knew as much as any jíbaro about how to plant yautías and what to put in the ground to make things grow bigger. She had a tala behind the school with rows of batatas, beans, corn and peas, as well as a couple of plantain trees. The children helped look after the plants and learned to keep pests away. They were going to pick the vegetables soon for the school lunch.

Misi García was fina but she worked with her hands. She was not like the ladies in town who just sat around on their porches fanning themselves. And she looked like her students, with her brown hair and eyes. But Misi Davis, the americana, she looked very different. She was old enough to be Misi García’s mother, which wasn’t very old because Misi García was practically as young as her oldest students. Misi Davis was rubia, had blue eyes and her hair was blonde and curly. Juanita had never seen anybody that looked like that. Not even the gringa missionary lady who helped some of the women in the town make hats. Juanita had stared at Misi Davis for a long time trying to figure out her color, how she could make her hair curl like that and how she seemed so stiff and straight. So, mostly she didn’t hear what Misi Davis was saying.

Nou, nou, Misi Davis kept saying when Juanita made mistakes.

Misi Davis sounded very different from Misi García. Misi García sounded like she was speaking Spanish when she was speaking English, except that they were different kinds of words. Juanita tried to figure out why their sounds were so different. Perhaps it was that Misi Davis hardly opened her mouth when she spoke. Perhaps her mouth was shaped differently.

When Misi Davis first came, a couple of days earlier, Juanita and her friend Francisca had made fun of the americana’s Spanish behind her back, when she said, Bueinous díes instead of buenos días, or ¿quei horai eis? instead of ¿qué hora es? when saying good morning or asking what time it was. She seemed to like adding extra sounds to every word. But today Juanita’s friend Francisca was sick. Not only was it boring at school—having to repeat the English words over and over again—but Juanita would have to walk all the way back home by herself. Her barrio, El Alero, so named because there were many birds in the trees of the area, was far away on the other side of the river. And it looked like it was going to rain soon. Dark clouds were gathering over the hills to the East.

Juanita had just learned where east was the day before. Misi García said that the East was where the sun came up and she showed them a compass she carried in her bag with a little wiggly needle that always pointed towards el norte. And it was true. No matter how much you turned it around the needle always went back to the North. And Misi García said that she would never be lost if she carried her compass. Juanita thought it must be like the San Cristóbal medal that her mother always carried, that protected her when she walked from town to town carrying the clothes she washed. But Juanita didn’t think that San Cristóbal told where north was.

Everything seemed to point to el norte, or come from el norte. El norte was where Misi Davis came from and shoes too. The shoes Juanita wished she had that afternoon, because for sure by the time she left school the rain was going to make the road into big puddles of mud. She was glad the americanos had built a little bridge over the river. She usually didn’t mind the squishy mud between her toes but Misi Davis had been saying for three days now she wished Juanita would wear shoes to school. And that she was going to talk to the Red Cross to send shoes to the barrio. Cisa said La Cruz Roja came when there were disasters. It made Juanita feel ashamed.

Misi García didn’t make her feel bad, she just had a bucket and rags for the children to wash their feet before they came into the schoolroom. Those who didn’t have shoes. There were only three of them who didn’t: herself, Francisca and another girl by the name of Marisa who was very pale and was always crying. Misi Davis put Marisa at the back of the room and told her to cry quietly so that she wouldn’t disturb the other children. Juanita thought Marisa probably had bad lombrices. She had them once but Cisa had given her an awful tasting mixture that had castor oil, rum and some other stuff in it that made the worms come out in piles. Or, maybe Marisa was just hungry. Juanita cried like that herself when they didn’t have enough food at home. But, at least they had food at school during the week.

Sometimes Juanita didn’t have much food at home when her mami didn’t get enough clothes to wash from the alcalde’s wife. The mayor in the nearby town and his wife were tight with their money, Cisa said, and they would rather go dirty than spend the little it cost to have clean and starched clothes. Cisa had been a maid for the Martínez family too, but they got rid of her because they said she stole from them. They must think that, she often said, because they stole from everyone else. But, before that, before she got pregnant, Cisa reminded Juanita, she was a tobacco stripper. She was proud of it. It was a real job. And she made a lot of money then. A lot compared to now. That’s why Juanita should never get pregnant, she said. If you get pregnant, you’ll always be poor and after you get pregnant you get sick easier too.

Juanita didn’t know whether Misi Davis had been pregnant, but she talked about sickness a lot. It made her afraid that Marisa was going to die because Misi Davis showed them pictures of the lombrices that got into their bellies through their feet and made them so sick they could die. That’s why she wanted the children to always wear shoes. And she also talked a lot about llermes. They were little creatures, even smaller than lombrices that you couldn’t see and that could give you tuberculosis and some other terrible sicknesses Juanita couldn’t remember the names of. Doña Ana and their neighbor Jesus had tuberculosis. That’s what happened to people if they didn’t wash their hands before eating, Misi Davis said, if they coughed and didn’t cover their mouth, if they spit on the ground, if they walked barefooted in the river, or if they didn’t wash their food before eating it. Llermes were everywhere.

Juanita told her mother that llermes must be as bad as being pregnant and poor, because there were sure a lot of sick people in her barrio.

Her mami was surprised.

"¿Llermes? Sounds like spirits to me. I didn’t think those people from el norte knew nothing about spirits. Llermes must be el mal de ojo, that’s what I think. That’s why the americana wants you to wash so much, to wash away spells," she said conclusively.

Juanita didn’t like to argue because her mother got mean and sometimes beat her when Juanita disagreed with her. But, she was sure Misi Davis was talking about something else, not spirits, because Misi Davis showed them pictures of the llermes too. Juanita couldn’t figure out at first how her teacher could show them pictures of something that couldn’t be seen. So, she raised her hand and asked. Then Misi Davis told them about microscopes, how they made teeny tiny things bigger and how they took pictures through them too.

Juanita didn’t say anything to Cisa because she already knew that her mother was angry about her going to school. Cisa sounded pleased when she talked to other people about it but, at home she complained that Juanita was lazy and never helped her with the washing anymore. She said Juanita’s head was getting too big, that she thought she knew more than her mother. And besides, what good was school going to do? So what if she could read and count? There were no jobs anyway. Not even for men.

You think you’re going to be a teacher? her mother said laughing.

Run, Jane, run.

Juanita suddenly heard Misi Davis repeating the words while pointing to the blackboard.

Rrun, Llein, rrun, the children were saying in unison.

"Nou, nou, Misi Davis said, tapping her pointer on the desk. Nou hagan así lais eres. Nou eis ingléis. La gentei va a reir. Van peinsar son tountous. Nou leis dan trabajou." Misi Davis told them that people would laugh at them, think they were stupid and not give them work if they pronounced their r’s like that. It wasn’t English.

Juanita didn’t know anyone who spoke English in her barrio. And according to Cisa nobody could get work. English wasn’t going to help. Except perhaps if you were Misi García. Maybe she got her job because she could speak English.

The rain had begun and it started to come in through the windows and the open door. Misi García asked Jaimito to close the door while she closed the windows, but it was too dark inside so she turned on the ceiling light. Everything looked yellow to Juanita, even her skin.

"Iuviai. Rain. Can you say rain?"

Misi Davis made exaggerated shapes with her mouth. Rain. Rain.

Rrein. Rrein, the children chanted.

Misi García chanted with the children, as if she were one of them,

Rrein. Rrein…

The small room was very warm with all the windows closed. Misi Davis forehead was wet with sweat and the underarms of her dress were beginning to stain. Misi García was fanning herself with a notebook. The rain on the tin roof kept rhythm with Misi Davis words. Juanita had to pee, but she was not going out to the outhouse in the rain, besides, it leaked and everything got stirred up and smelly in there.

"Okay, eistai biein. Let’s stop. Muchou calor. It’s too hot. Miss García, isn’t it time for their lunch?" Misi Davis asked.

Jess, Misi Davis. Gui jab to eet eensai tooday becos eet rreins, Misi García responded. Then she added in Spanish, "Girls, you can help me set out the food inside because it’s raining. Boys, if you need to go to the letrina you go first."

Any mention of the outhouse always got a giggle from most of the children.

Did any of you bring umbrellas today? No? Misi García shrugged her shoulders.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Misi Davis said while wiping her neck with a small flowered handkerchief. "Children, ¿sabein quey quier deicir?"

Juanita raised her hand.

"¿Un anuncio? ¿Un cura?"

Misi Davis laughed, "Nou, nou. An ‘ounce’, not an ‘announcement’. ‘Ounce’ is ‘onzai ‘. And it’s a ‘cure’ not a ‘coora’. Tell them, Miss García, that I wasn’t talking about priests. Tell them it means that if you think ahead, then you don’t have problems afterwards. If they had thought of bringing umbrellas, then they wouldn’t have anything to worry about when the rain came."

Misi García translated,

"Misi Davis quiere decir que si piensan por adelantado lo que van a hacer no tendrán problemas en el futuro. Que si hubieran traído las sombrillas no tendrían que preocuparse si iba a venir lluvia."

"Mami has the umbrella," said one of the boys in Spanish.

Ours broke and didn’t get fixed yet, said Marisa from the back of the room.

"E’ mejol prevenil que tenel que remedial, said Juanita, who had been deep in thought. Is that what it means, Misi García? Mami says that all the time."

That’s right, Juanita! Misi García was surprised at Juanita’s quick grasp of the meaning.

What did she say? Misi Davis wanted to know. I didn’t understand what she said.

Eet ees betterr to prrevent than to rremedy, Misi García said.

That’s very good. Smart girl. What’s your name? Misi Davis asked Juanita.

Juanita looked at Misi García blankly.

"Your name, name, noumbrei?"

"Tu nombre." Misi García translated.

Misi García seemed a little embarrassed.

Juanita, Juanita said smiling.

She liked that Misi Davis was pleased with her. She decided then and there that Misi Davis was nice and that she liked school very much.

* * * *

It was getting darker and darker outside, even though it was just the middle of the day. Juanita peeked through a crack in the window, and she got her nose wet from the water dripping in. It made her giggle. It also reminded her that she had to pee. She wished Francisca were there. She felt braver when her friend was around.

The children were quieter than usual. There was not the usual giggling and jostling among the boys as they came in from the latrine. They stomped the mud off their shoes on the outside steps under the roof overhang and wiped off the water with rags. Each left a trail of water drips to their places on the benches. Misi Davis looked disapprovingly at the mess the boys were making. Misi García tried her best to keep some semblance of order. Today her voice was louder and harsher than usual.

The girls had begun to put the food on the long tables that also served as desks. Misi García had gone begging to the richer residents in the town asking for their old plates and tableware, the ones that were chipped or had been burnt. She wanted students to have their own plate and spoon. The municipio provided a few plates to each school and some spoons. But there were not enough, especially with some children coming in the morning, like Juanita, and others coming to the afternoon session. Misi García said that there were not enough school buildings for all the children. She was not happy about the double sessions. She said that the children did not get enough schooling in just three hours a day. That either it took them a long time to learn very little because they didn’t get to spend enough time at school, or they just quit because the parents thought it was a waste of time. It sounded like she was angry both at the gobierno and at the parents. Juanita was glad she didn’t get angry with the children that much. She had heard from Cisa and some of the older women that some of the men teachers at schools in other barrios hit the children and made them kneel for a long time on rice spread on the floor. Cisa beat her sometimes. Juanita didn’t like to think about it. But, just then she remembered that once when she lied about breaking one of the gourds where they kept their drinking water, her mother beat her with a stick, and it made welts on her legs. Cisa screamed at her and said that lying was the worst thing she could ever do to her. And then there was that other time when she told her mother that she was wrong about saying that only boys should go to school. That last time, her mother slapped her a few times. But then, a few days after that, she had both of them wear their good dresses, the ones they kept up on the shelf above the bed, for when they had to go to church, and they marched the two miles to the one-room school.

Misi, Cisa said to Misi García, here’s my Juanita. She want to learn something. Don’t know what for. School learning don’t feed you. You hit her if she need it. She has big mouth. Here’s two pennies for food. Don’t have no more.

Without saying anything else she turned around and left.

That was a few weeks before. Misi García had asked Juanita to wash her feet in the horse trough next to the building and helped her dry them as they went inside. Then Juanita had to wash her hands, and Misi García gave her a small twig to get the dirt from under her fingernails. Juanita felt ashamed because all the children were looking at her, but she was happy to see that there weren’t just boys in the room. There were several other girls.

Today, as she looked at the plates Juanita remembered Misi García’s face when she realized there was no good way to mark the plates and spoons and that they kept getting mixed up especially in the turnover time in the middle of the day. That was when the afternoon children came in for their lunch while the morning children were still finishing theirs. Misi García was not happy about that. Juanita didn’t understand at first what all the fuss was about. At home, she and her mother and whoever stopped by when they were eating, would share whatever utensils they had: gourd bowls, coconut cups, two plates they kept up on the shelf with their good dresses, two spoons Cisa bought way back when she was a tobacco stripper. The one fork they saved for a special visitor, Don Paco, who brought Juanita and Cisa candy and sometimes stayed overnight.

But when Misi Davis started talking about llermes and showed them pictures Juanita became a convert to jaillín. That is what Misi García called it. Jaillín was what all the washing was about. It was only years later that Juanita realized that it was hygiene that had caused the beginning of her separation from her

Reviews for ¡Jíbara!

[jennie_103 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is actually my favourite Christie but probably because it combines my love of school stories with my love of detective stories! yes, it is a little predictable at times but there is still a classic Christie twist at the end.

[aprildt_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I bought a box full of her books for $12; a bargain! So, now I am slowly working my way through them. She stumps me every time! I didn't see this one coming at all. I love her wit and her characters. She always has a lot of foreign characters, and I find them interesting, appalling, amusing, baffling. She is really the Queen of Mystery. This mystery describes the murder of teachers at a prestigious girls school, and the abduction of a Middle Eastern princess.

[aliceanna-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I haven't read any Agatha Christie in a long while. Either I don't like her as much as I used to or this wasn't one of her better books. A Hercule Poirot, but he doesn't show up until about 3/4 of the way through. Okay, but just not that good a plot. Meh.

[mrtall_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It’s obvious Cat Among the Pigeons isn’t going to be a run-of-the-mill murder mystery, since it begins with a lot of backstory emanating from a mythical middle eastern country, where a revolution threatens the rule – and life – of a sympathetic prince. But it just so happens that a couple of girls with connections to this unstable little land will be attending Meadowbrooks, an exclusive girls’ school in England, to which the scene shifts. And soon there’s a crime: the energetic, ‘athletic’ games mistress has been gunned down in the school’s new Sports Pavilion.In terms of plotting Cat Among the Pigeons is one of Agatha Christies’ poorest efforts – Poirot isn’t introduced till the book’s two-thirds complete, and after a very, very brief investigation he unravels things in one of his longest and most prosaic monologues. In spite of this, Cat Among the Pigeons is a lovely read. The charm of the setting and several of the characters more than offsets the lack of structure. Recommended.

[pussreboots · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The political intrigue bit of the book was interesting but the actual murder mystery at the girls' school was rather obvious.

[ashraks · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

One of the best works by Agatha Christie and the best among Hercule Poirot series. Set against the backdrop of Meadowbank school the revolution at Ramat lays heavy upon this plot. The ruler of Ramat and his friend/confidant Bob Rawlinson are murdered by the rebels. Rumors are abound that the jewels of Ramat have reached Meadowbank through Jennifer Sutcliff, Rawlinson’s niece. Cut onto Meadownbank, the scene opens with the summer term where Miss Bulstrode and her teachers are busy welcoming new and old students. The atmosphere though is rife with an implied sense of doom. As term starts, Jennifer Sutcliff confides in Julia Upjohn her best friend and tennis partner about the robbery at her home. While Julia suspects that this maybe due to the Sutcliffs’ association with the Ramat events, Jennifer dismisses it as usual. This is soon followed by a murder at Meadowbank where the Sports Pavilion is ransacked and its sports mistress is murdered. The school’s image takes a further hit with the occurrence of 2 more murders involving the deputy headmistress and the french mistress . Julia pieces together the events and reaches out to Poirot for help. The question becomes – who is the cat among the pigeons?

[katcoviello · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

a good book for an essay- enjoyable with a good plot and charcters. The ending was somewhat suprising and easy to summarize.

[riverwillow · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Poirot, who comes to this story rather late, investigates two murders and a kidnapping at a girl's boarding school. Somehow the murders and kidnapping are linked to a revolution in a Middle Eastern State and a cache of jewels belonging to the murdered Emir. As always the plot is peppered with disinformation and red-herrings and, as usual the identity of the murderer is surprise

[deltaqueen50 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Set in the posh girl’s boarding school of Meadowbank, Cat Among the Pigeons is a Hercule Poirot mystery. Dealing with political intrigue, missing jewels and murder, this was an interesting read, but I felt the book suffered a little from the late arrival of Poirot. The mystery was all but solved when he was brought into the story to place the final pieces of the puzzle together.I enjoyed the girl’s school setting and the interesting character sketches that were provided for many of the characters, both students and teachers. There appeared to be a feeling among the various characters that something at the school was off, that someone was there who didn’t belong, a cat among the pigeons so to say. Christie throws down plenty of false leads and red herrings but eventually Poirot has his big reveal.Written with her usual flair and style, Christie also gives her readers a fair amount of wit and humor to go along with the murder and mayhem making Cat Among the Pigeons a fun and enjoyable read.

[superphoenix_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

what a pleasant book to read. Really ingenious of Agatha Christie. The fairly harmless girl's school, the turn of events- murder, kidnapping and unlikely reveal. Love the way everything is smoothly tied together in the end. The introduction of Hercules Poirot into the investigation, comes in very late in the book and takes one by surprise. The climax itself catches you off guard. A well knit mystery and surely one of Agatha's best. Highly recommended for everyone.

[ladyofthelodge · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Even though I read this one before, I did not remember the ending. I am usually good at detection, but this one totally threw me off. Dame Agatha is the best! Hercule Poirot rules!

[bookmagic_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This was one of the first Christie books I ever read. I was craving mystery books but too cool to read ones with older detectives like Poirot or Miss Marple, so my mom gave me this one to read. This is a Poirot book but he doesn't make an appearance until near the end.This mystery takes place at Meadowbrook, a prestigious girls' school in England. But all is not well when murder strikes three times. Julia Upjohn is a student at Meadowbrook and when things start happening, she takes notice of some peculiarities. But she eventually calls upon the great Hercule Poirot to solve these murders.my review: Though I have read many Agatha Christie books, this remains one of my favorites, a book I can read over and over again.As usual, Christie has loads of interesting and suspicious characters, so much so that I am usually halfway through a reread before I remember who the guilty ones are. It is told through the perspective of many characters, but fifteen year old Julia is my favorite. I always thought she should have made an appearance in another Christie novel. No matter the time period, Christie mysteries are ageless. And what does a revolution and priceless gems have to do with a girls' finishing school? Read it and find out!rating 5/5

[souloftherose · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is one of the Agatha Christie mysteries that involves a dash of international intrigue and I always have a soft spot for these. It's set at a girls' boarding school in the UK but involves hidden jewels and the female heir to the sheikdom of a fictitious Middle Eastern country which has fallen to a revolution. But what makes the book standout from the other stories of international intrigue (which whilst I enjoy, I wouldn't say they are generally AC's best works) are the characters of the various mistresses and schoolgirls who find themselves in the middle of all this and the inevitable multiple murders which follow. It's a Poirot but he doesn't turn up until almost the end of the book after one of the schoolgirls figures out what's going on and asks for his help.

[bugs5 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

good book.

[bnielsen_30 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Ramat og Meadowbank, ca 1950I den lille rige ørkenstat Ramat er der revolution og kongefamilien bliver afsat. Herskeren, prins Ali Yusut, og hans privatpilot og ven, Bob Rawlington, dør i et flystyrt. Forinden har Bob anbragt nogle værdifulde ædelsten i en tennisketsjer, som tilhører hans søster Mrs Sutcliffe eller rettere hendes datter Jennifer. Bob bliver uden at han opdager det, tilfældigvis iagttaget af en kvinde i naboværelset, men denne kan ikke nå at gøre noget, før alle engelske statsborgere bliver evakueret fra Ramat.Tilbage i England går Jennifer på den fine pigeskole Meadowbank, sammen med ca 150 andre elever. Jennifer har en god veninde Julia Upton.Udover kvinden i naboværelset, har andre også gættet på at ædelstenene er smuglet ud via Mrs Sutcliffe, men de ved ikke hvordan.Blandt eleverne på Meadowbank er også prinsesse Shaista, kusine til afdøde prins Yusuf, så det er et godt gæt at ædelstenene måske dukker op der.Den engelske udenrigsministerie kender også til ædelstenene og sætter efterretningstjenestens Oberst Ephraim Pikeaway på sagen. Han planter en agent, "gartner" "Adam" "Goodman" på skolen.Skolen ledes af Miss Honoria Bulstrode. Blandt lærerne er Miss Chadwick, der har været der siden skolens start og nærmest er en del af dens fundament. Andre lærere er Eileen Rich, Eleanor Vansittart, Ann Shapland, Miss Blanche, Miss Banon, Miss Blake og gymnastiklærerinden Grace Springer.Miss Springer bliver skudt, da hun overrasker nogen, der leder efter noget i gymnastiksalen. Senere bliver Vansittart slået ihjel samme sted med en sandpose.Julia Uptons mor genkender en af personerne på skolen, men desværre tager hun på bustur i Anatolien inden politiet når at udspørge hende.Julia Upton gætter hvor ædelstenene er skjult og opsøger Hercule Poirot, der tager affære. Mademoiselle Blanche har set noget og forsøger at afpresse morderen. Det var dumt for morderen slår prompte til igen.Til sidst bliver Mrs. Upton bragt til veje og kan udpege Miss Shapland som morderen. Hun bliver anholdt, men når at skyde Miss Chadwick, hvilket får regnskabet til at gå op, for Miss Chadwick havde slået Vansittant ihjel af raseri over at denne så ud til at blive den nye leder af skolen.Ædelstenene leverer Poirot videre til en Hr. Robinson, som leverer dem videre til Alice Calder, der er Yusufs hustru og har en søn, Allen, med ham. Julia Upton får en enkelt af stenene som en slags findeløn og alle de andre får Robinson i opdrag at sælge.

[rubyscarlett-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I absolutely loved the setting of this - I'm a real sucker for school stories and though Poirot makes a very small appearance here, I deeply enjoyed young detective Julia and the various characters in the story. Most illuminating remarks made about teaching and managing a school, too. The plot is a bit of a departure for Christie as it involves espionnage and some of the action takes place in a foreign non-European country but the whole thing felt very logical and smooth. Very good installment.

[navelos · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This wasn't my favorite Agatha Christie. I did get to like some of the characters, but they all seemed very detached, not relating to each other, just a list of suspects. By the end, when all was revealed, I found I didn't much care who the culprit was. So far though, Agatha Christie never disappoints entirely, it was still a good read.

[flanneryac · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I love this book for the memory it evokes:

Scene: 8th grade English class. The assignment, as it nearly always seemed to be in junior high, was to read a novel of my choice and present a book report to the class. I picked this book but did not read it. Instead, I made a ridiculous poster board with all kinds of crap on it as a visual aid (I know, right? I was one of "those" kids. I'm positive this poster board included feathers) and planned on pretending I had it done. This was primarily because I was last on the list of those who might go during Friday's class and I was pretty much banking on the other presenters going overtime so I could actually read the book over the weekend.

With about 10 minutes left in class, the presenters are finished and I am called to go. I can still remember the feeling of my stomach dropping as I walked to the front of the class, trying to dredge as many minute details as I can from my memory of reading THE BLURB ON THE BACK OF THE BOOK. My pulse is racing and, at least in my outlandish memory of this event, I am sweating. (Closely followed up with a dramatic wipe of the brow and nervous laughter) I hold up the poster and say, "Hi. For my project, I read Agatha Christie's Cat Among the Pigeons."

CUE THE FIRE ALARM GOING OFF.

You better believe I read that book over the weekend. And you better believe that I still remember where Poirot found the object he was looking for--THIRTEEN YEARS LATER.

[bontley · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Got the distinct feeling I've read all the good Poirot's, and know I'm reading the throwaways.

[nliederbach_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Hercule Poirot becomes involved in a mystery at an exclusive girls's school.

[bcquinnsmom · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

don't worry! no spoilers. Just a synopsis.I wouldn't rank it up there among my favorites, but Cat Among the Pigeons was quite good. Quite late in the Hercule Poirot series (1959), the great Belgian detective only appears toward the end of this one. Basic synopsis: Ramat, a fictional country somewhere in the Middle East, is poised on the edge of revolution. The leader at the time, one Ali Yusuf, knows that revolution is coming, and entrusts his friend and private pilot with a cache of jewels, giving him instructions to get them out of the country and into safe hands. Rawlinson cannot think how he's going to do this, then settles on the idea of hiding them with his sister, who his there with her daughter on holiday. But he can't think of a place that won't be searched, so he goes to her hotel room while she's out, and hides them in the best place he can think of: in the handle of his niece's tennis racket. The revolution comes, Ali and Rawlinson fly out, and both are killed when their plane is sabotaged.We then learn that the niece, Julia Upjohn, has enrolled at the Meadowbank school, an exclusive, upper-class establishment. After school starts, there are some strange happenings there, none the least of which are two murders. Another student, Jennifer Sutcliffe, had switched rackets with Julia, and thinks it odd when a strange woman comes to Julia and gives her a new raquet, supposedly sent to her by her aunt. After the murders, though, Jennifer begins to put two and two together and goes to seek help from M. Poirot, who doesn't take long to realize that they are dealing with a clever mind.I still cannot read any Hercule Poirot mysteries without hearing and seeing David Suchet in the Poirot role! The book was very well written and the mystery a surprise -- and I enjoyed it very much.

[auntie0nanuuq · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A Crown Prince who has brought Democracy to his country & his pilot (a chum from school days) are forced to flee the country.... Their plane is found downed in the mountains and a thorough search is made for the sparkling "insurance"..... but the pilot was seen hiding them in order to get them out of the country lest they fall into the wrong hands.......

At an elite girls school in England the term has just begun and there is a new sports mistress, French mistress, school secretary, & gardner..... Dropping her daughter off at school a former employee of the CID sees someone from the past and as she tells the Headmistress (who is about to retire & name her successor), who the person from her espionage days is, they are interrupted by another mother in midst of a binge seeking to bring her daughters home.

Then the sports mistress is murdered in the new sports pavillion, as is the French mistress, and the to be successor..... Homes are ransacked, the cousin of the Prince is kidnapped, and a frightened little girl runs to M. Hercule Poirot.

Very interesting, I would have liked it to be a bit longer, even though in some places it was difficult for me to tell whom was speaking to whom...

And once again, Dame Agatha showed her unending prejudice; this time it was of the two Italian school girls, whom she dedicated a paragraph to in order to refer to them as "Eye-Ties", and then there was nothing more in the book about them... otherwise it was a very enjoyable story.

[kaethe_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

When this was published Christie had already been a best-selling author for more than three decades. She's got it down. Certainly she has fun with the format. Hercule Poirot doesn't appear, isn't even mentioned, until the final act. The girl's school setting is fun: it gives her rein to use all the stereotypes and to demolish them.

This particular book was on Natasha's shelf, which is why I didn't get to it during my Christie run. Saturday night she comes to tell me goodnight and to ask if I know why the book is there. And even though I can't remember what day it is, I was able to tell her that she picked it out at a library book sale, because she recognized the author. Alternatively, every bookcase is required to have at least one Christie. Or, maybe, a book is just a clever disguise for aliens who've come to observe us. After two hours of increasingly random speculation about space, and teleportation, and replicators, she finally went off to bed, leaving the book with me, because now it felt slightly sinister.

Subtle evil plan to acquire all the books is working. "Maniacal laugh, maniacal laugh, maniacal laugh." Personal copy now.

[cmbohn · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Meadowbrook is a very superior sort of girls' school. So when the games mistress is found murdered, even the police are surprised. At first, it seems a burglary gone wrong. But when a hint of political intrigue pops up, they call in the services of Hercule Poirot.

[alexthehunn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A fine example of Christie's ability to spin a whodunnit. This is among her better later works.

[amphipodgirl · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I think Christie does better at country-house murders than at spy stuff like this. It still held my interest, though. I'm unsure whether I admire her misdirection, or am annoyed by it.

[antiquary_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The murder of the (in American terms) gym teacher at an exclusive British girls' school is linked to the valuable package of gems dispatched by a Middle Eastern rule just before he died during a revolutuib, and also to intrigues over the succession to the retiring head of the school itself. The final choice is a little subversive by the standards of the time.

[janicseblen · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I had forgotten what a good writer she was. Really enjoyed revisiting an author I had not read in years and years.

[bellafoxx · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This story takes place in an English Girl's Boarding School. However, it contains a foreign revolution, a young prince with a fortune in jewels and a young English pilot. The jewels are smuggled out of the country and end up in the girl's school, where someone who knows they are there and is willing to kill comes after them.The plot seems to progress slowly at first, but the players and setting are being carefully and skillfully arranged. I was soon involved in the characters and by the way they were described could 'see' them in my mind. I figured out before it was revealed how the jewels were smuggled and where in the girl's school they were, but it was not an obvious revealing, just putting a couple of clues together. The end was a surprise, especially when someone I was sure was involved was murdered!Cat Among the Pigeons is a perfect example of why Agatha Christie is called the Queen of Crime.Category: Mystery# pages: 292Challenges: Naming Conventions Challenge - Challenge: RYOB 2009