Jennifer Clement Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Jennifer Clement is an American-Mexico author of biographies & memoirs, literature & fiction and poetry books. She is known for not only her excellent books but also her poetry both in America and Mexico. A couple of awards are attributed to her writing among them the New York Times editor’s choice in 2018 for the book gun love, HIP Giver Honor and the Irish Times Best Books List 2014. Her books have received translations into over thirty languages. From 2009-2012 Clement served as the president of PEN Mexico, a worldwide association of writers. Serving as the president, her work included investigating the vanishing and the murder of journalists.

Born in the year 1960, she started school in Edron Academy and later moved into the New York University where she studied English literature and anthropology. In 2000 Clement published her first non-fiction book Widow Basquiat. She has since published some standalone novels such as The Poison That Fascinates, Prayers for the Stolen and A True Story Based on Lies, in 2014 and a collection of poems. Her book Prayer for the Stolen has been listed in many books of the year lists. Clement is also in charge of San Miguel Poetry Week which she co-founded with Barbara Sibley, her sister.

Gun love

Gun Love introduces the reader to contemporary American life where they are made to see the society and more so about the use of guns in the area. The story introduces the reader to a 14-year old Pearl France and her mother Margot, the two main characters. It goes on further to have a setting in Florida and to point out a trailer’s park and exposes America’s love affairs with guns and its hurting consequences.

The author introduces a teenager pearl who are forced to live in a broken car with her mother known as Margot at a trailer park. They live in a tough time where they survive on powdered milk, stolen cigarettes, and bug spray. This identifies the hardship that they have to go through to survive. The two move past the difficulties and are able to adjust with the environment and even manage to make friends.

Eli Redmond comes into play later when there is the introduction of “Guns for God” programme but this only makes Pearl’s life of the more complicated. The regular visits that Eli pays are the reason behind her finding a life that is out of their home. Margot is given a gun as a gift by Eli which she keeps it tucked under the driver’s seat.

Clement shows the reader the actual picture that exists in an area where the focus is on firearms, family, comity and the violence that engulfs the area and its residents. Additionally, the author makes you understand the perspective of all this from the point of a teenager who only understands the society, through the gun violence involved and love affairs since she happens to experience in first hand.

Reading Gun Love drags the reader into the reality of things from what seems ordinary in daily life. It’s a book that one will want to read sentence after sentence as the different facts unfold about this teenager and all that surrounds her and most importantly her mother.

Overall, this is a book that is worth reading and which has received so much praise and awards among them The New York Times Editor’s Choice earlier in 2018. Since its publication, it has won numerous readings since it is thrilling and engaging where an individual gets to view things from a different perspective exposing the hard truth in society.

Prayers for the Stolen

Prayers for the stolen is another of Clément’s series that has been honoured with the Sara Curry humanitarian award gives the reader a story of a heroine having its background in Mexico. This is set in a time where cartels are in so much control of the community making life very hard for the residence. It’s a tough time for the residents who have to deal with all the deaths, hardships and brutality to live.

Ladydi Garcia Martinez is the main character in this book. She is described as a funny, fierce and also smart lady. The setting, mountains of Gurrero have a huge problem in that women are their fenders as their men have already moved out to search for better opportunities far from home. The area has a huge control by drug lords who have a very negative impact on making life even harder for the people.

While her mother awaits the return of her husband- she has high hopes that he will come back some time and this is also seen in Ladydi who is profoundly hopeful and dreams of a positive future. She lands a job as a nanny in Acapulco working for a wealthy family.

It takes a twist when she falls in love with a caretaker in the midst of all that is happening around her and her world. However, fate sets in when there is a murder implicating one of her friends. The cartel is behind this, but she gears on to give hope to those who are affected by the same and also find justice.
The book tries to show the world the picture of what comes upon women in the rural part of Mexico and what they have to go through to survive. It has received awards by from Irish Time’s book of the year from its great way of exposing the unjust war in this part and also empowering people in the area showing the fruits of friendship and determination.

Prayers for the Stolen is a story worth reading for as it creates the reality of what not many people have dared to give a trial but of which many are aware of to have been happening. “A lost woman is just another tree leaf falling “…This book commemorates all the missing women in Mexico
Jennifer Clement articulately reveals the bad side of life in Mexico, especially in the countryside on the mountainous border, when all evils become possible by force, money and weapons.