What a daunting task for a writer - a novel dealing with the life and work of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. Sor Juana is considered by many to be the finest poet that Latin America ever produced - she is also a hero to many, and for good reason. In her day - the 17th century - women were looked upon pretty much as chattel. They were expected to make a home for their husband and children, to sew, to cook - and little else. They were certainly not expected to seek an education - indeed, they were not deemed capable of benefiting from one. Juana, from the time she was a child, knew better - she sought out ways to feed her hungry intellect from the time when she was three, tagging along with her older sister to school and insisting to be taught to read.

As she grew older, fame of her learning spread, and she moved to Mexico City, where she became a favorite at the court of the Viceroy and Vicereine - the attention she received there fanned the flames both of her intellect and her emotions. She joined a religious order and took her vows believing that it was the only way to further her in her quest of knowledge, and in her pursuit of literary expression. She didn't count on the incredibly, rabid opposition that she met - not only from the Church hierarchy, but from within her order, from other nuns who were jealous of the attention she received, and terrified of her intelligence. She was a threat to too many people who held power. Change frightens people - especially those who see it as a threat to their own position and influence. There's an old saying that 'absolute power corrupts absolutely'. I think in the case of Sor Juana's persecution by the Church, one could observe that 'absolute power breeds absolute paranoia'. If she had not, finally, succumbed - at least in part - to the will of the Inquisition, she would no doubt have been martyred. Some might say - and it's a valid observation - that, without her books, her writing materials, and her scientific and musical instruments, without any contact with the outside world, she died a martyr without being subjected to the gibbet or other tortures. The intellectual torture of repressed expression, imposed on one who had so much to express, was a death sentence in itself.

Sor Juana's sexuality has been discussed in many forums - it is, after all, a valid and vital part of anyone's personality and life. The film concerning her life - I, THE WORST OF ALL - is based on SOR JUANA, or THE TRAPS OF FAITH, by notable Mexican poet and author Octavio Paz (he being another treasure of Latin American literature), and approaches the subject of her sexuality very obliquely (I'm amazed that the film bears an 'R' rating). SOR JUANA'S SECOND DREAM, on the other hand, tackles the subject head-on, in a very open - but tasteful - manner. The author discusses her viewpoint briefly in her afterward, with a couple of references to Paz and others - she sees their attitudes as 'homophobic', that they distort truth of Sor Juana's life and work by turning a blind eye to her sensuality. She makes it very clear that she respects Paz and his work - but that she disagrees with his assessment of Sor Juana, as well as that of some other scholars.

What emerges from the author's viewpoint is a very readable, engrossing work. The sections of the novel that deal with Sor Juana's sexual orientation - her relationships with other women, her views of men in general, and the lifelong, ongoing struggles within herself - make this a very LIVING work, bringing to life the subject in a very human way. Given the prejudice that still exists in matters of sexual orientation, one can only imagine how much this was magnified in 17th century Mexico. Sor Juana's story is a testament to her achievements in literature and science, as well as to her own courage - courage in facing not only her accusers and enemies, but in her own psychological and emotional self-examinations. She was an amazing woman - an amazing human being, an amazing scholar - and she would be thus in any day.

The book is a long one - at over 400 pages - and goes a long way in bringing to life the everyday routine of the convent, as well as the atmosphere and intrigues in the court and Church. The characterizations are well drawn and patiently, carefully created - none of them come across as flat or stereotyped, which is a great relief in a novel of this length and scope. I found it to be both entertaining and enlightening - and I would recommend it to anyone interested in a story of a heroic, intelligent woman - or, for that matter, anyone in search of a good read.

In "Sor Juana's Second Dream," Alicia Gaspar de Alba unveils the "other -- sensual, human side" of an extremely intelligent and profoundly passionate monja/mujer -- who suffers from "unnatural, unnameable, pleasurable aches" until she comes to believe, in the depths of a hurting heart, that "love, our very soul, has no gender and is never a sin" -- and into another's orbit lets herself go!

Sadly -- however, Juana's comet soon loses its glow -- a victim of envious others and timely circumstance, she is forced to spend her short life struggling with/against the temptations of: the tender touch of an hermana's hand, the (al)lure of a soulful "cell-mate's" lips, and the unforgettable "chiaroscuro of an unspeakable love."

It has taken Gaspar de Alba's courage, creativity, imagination and interpretation to "kick the habit" off this "patron saint of rebellious women" and offer her well-rewarded readers a fresh, new look at a mujer who poured passion onto her written pages, using a quill that drew both ink/blood and inspiration from a heart's well of loneliness and love!

Juana's "re-creator" (Gaspar de Alba) gives us with her: calla lilies, comets, a meaningful medal and a long lost letter of professed and requited love -- significant symbols of very beautiful sentiments -- in juxtaposition to a hauntingly powerful and disturbing storybook tale of a young Juana's innocence/childhood lost.

I cannot find the words to sing the author's praises loudly enough! After my third reading of these pages, the passages still move me! --- perhaps that, in itself, says it all.

Sor Juana's Second dream, by Alicia Gaspar de Alba, is a must-read text by anyone who is interested in the major figure from Colonial Latin America, Sor (Sister) Juana Inés de la Cruz. I have taught for many years about the life and work of this Mexican nun, and never before has a work of historical fiction captured what I believe renders a true portrait of Sor Juana. Most works of the past, even academic ones, have avoided addressing Sor Juana's personal life; in Sor Juana's Second Dream, we see, as we should, an anguished personal experience that appears in many of Sor Juana's most famous texts. Bravo! Well done!