The Smell of Old Lady Perfume
A Summary of Claudia Guadalupe Martinez's First Novel
Jan 23, 2009 Melissa Morelli Lacroix
Chela Gonzalez is ready for the best year of her life: grade 6. She’ll be in the top class in the top grade of her school and has dreams of winning the All-School Girl Award at the end of the year. But the first day of school turns all of that upside down.
The Morning Everything Changed
Chela awakes. The sun is up, but something is not right. Her father, Apá, was supposed to wake her up early so she could get ready for the first day of school. Apá never forgot a wake-up call or slept in – something must be wrong.
Chela and her sister rush to their parents’ room and discover their father laying on the carpet, their mother and older brother at his side. Apá cannot move and can barley talk. The ambulance comes for him, and the first day of school becomes a sick day of sorts where Chela and her siblings stay home waiting for their mother to call with news from the hospital.
Amá, Chela’s mother, is afraid and unsure of Apá’s prognosis, so she has the children stay home from school in case things should go badly. Abuelita, Chela’s grandmother, arrives with her suitcase, pious Catholic ways and strong smell of old lady perfume. She stays until Apá’s return 9 days after his stroke.
The First Day of School (Take 2)
Chela feels more like a donkey than a queen on her first day of school. She has to sit at the back of the class on the ugly chair; the teacher forgets to call her for lunch and locks her in the classroom; her best friend has been absorbed into the cool crowd, and she tells Chela they can no longer be friends; no one talks to her.
Life Goes On
Chela hides her disappointment, sadness, loneliness and fear the best she can. She experiences tween girl things – growing breasts, first periods, an older sister’s moods and rejection. She joins an extracurricular class for gifted students. She finds a friend.
As time passes, Chela is accepted by the cool group at school, and everything seems to be turning out the way she had hoped at the start of the school year, but then one day Abuelita and her strong old lady perfume return. Apá has had another stroke, and this time the outcome is very different.
Everything Changes
Apá dies. The Gonzalez family is shocked and overwhelmed, but with time the family members begin to reach out to each other and rebuild the bond that was shattered with Apá’s death. They discover that although Apá was a “strong still oak [that they] hid under” the time has come for them to step out of his shadow and reach for the sun as he had always encouraged them to do.
The End
The Smell of Old Lady Perfume tells the story of Chela’s grade 6 year, the illness and death of her father, the truth about friends and family. It moves between the past and the present, Mexico and America, joy and despair. It is a moving book that will introduce readers to Mexican-American culture and help tween girls struggling with unpopularity at school and the fear of losing a parent.
Book Information
The Smell of Old Lady Perfume by: Claudia Guadalupe Martinez
Cinco Puntos Press
ISBN: 978-1-933693-18-7
Front cover of The Smell of Old Lady Perfume
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