Joie Davidow

I Wouldn't Leave Rome to Go to Heaven
In this wise and funny short novel, three single women, all expatriates living in Rome, face middle-age: Margaret walked out on her husband as soon as her son was old enough leave home, and she’s never regretted it. She relishes her solitary lifestyle until illness threatens her independence. Katja, a former model, still believes that Mr. Right will come along, and she fights hard to stay beautiful until he does. Francesca has recently ended a relationship with a man she hopes will be her last big mistake. She wants to slink into a cozy old age alone, but the dark-eyed men of Rome are impossible to ignore.

Marked for Life,
Harmony
June 2003
Marked for Life is the story of growing up with a purple/red birthmark that covered most of the left side of my face and eye. It is the story of learning to cope with feeling that I was grotesque — first because my face was emblazoned with a stain so bright and large it was impossible to ignore and, later, because I lived behind a mask of heavy makeup, harboring a face I dared not show. It is also the story of how, late in life, I was able to resolve some of those feelings and came to understand that despite being “marked for life,” I am really just another face in the crowd, no different than anyone else.

Mine is the story of a little girl who grew into a young woman with the stigma of a big red-purple mark, trying, against all odds, to be pretty enough to attract a boyfriend, thinking she had to be perfect on the outside in order to deserve love. I believe that all of us, however physically flawless, have felt at times that we were hiding some defect, that we were only pretending to be “normal.” So my story is shared, at least in part, by anyone who ever felt unable to fit in, who felt that he or she was looking at life from the outside,

Infusions of Healing: A Treasury
of Mexican-American Herbal Remedies
Fireside/Simon and Schuster 1999
From Mountain Valley Growers:
Joie Davidow's telling of Aztec history is mesmerizing. When she draws her conclusion that had the Aztecs survived, their herbal medicines would rival those of the Chinese, I was totally convinced. Finding this book while looking for books on herbal tea was a stroke of luck. . . Easy to use and handy to have this book is also fascinating just to read.

Las Mamis: Favorite Latino Authors Remember Their Mothers
Alfred A. Knopf 2000
Spanish edition, Vintage 2001
From Booklist
"I didn't come to this country so you could quit." The immigrant experience is at the heart of these 14 memoirs that speak with guilt, rage, humor, and love about mothers who came here from Latin America. A few of the sons and daughters are sappy and pretentious, but most tell moving stories of discovering their mothers as women, fellow adults. The voices are so personal that you keep turning back while you're reading to look at the photo at the start of each story. Maria Escandon is angry, struggling to free herself from her image-obsessed mom. Junot Diaz tells how one comment his mother made about herself shocked him out of his role as a hard, cold high-school dropout. Francisco Goldman knows he's "going to get it" for spilling family secrets, but he tells his mother's story, or rather his discovery of that story, with a profound sense of her loneliness and dignity. It's that combination of family folklore and self-discovery that makes these stories universal.
-Hazel Rochman

Las Christmas: Favorite Latino Authors Remember the Holidays
Alfred A. Knopf 1999
Spanish edition, Vintage 2000
From the New Yorker:
Las Christmas (Knopf) is a timely collection of reminiscences by Latino authors, edited by Emseralda Santiago and Joie Davidow, that conjure up holiday goings-on in Miami, where snow is sprayed from a can onto sliding doors; in the Dominican Republic, where people tango on tabletops and throw themselves into swimming pools on Christmas Eve; and in Puerto Rico, where the Thanksgiving turkey is stuffed with plantains.

Freelance Journalism:
Click here to read excerpts of articles from Town and Country and Westways.