My Life as a Long Shot: From Cuba to Rye

Vivien Goodman Malloy’s life as a “long shot” began years before her life as a horsewoman and horse breeder—in fact, her long-shot die was cast before she was born. It begins in 1909, in Spain, with the surprise birth of her mother, an unexpected and premature twin of a baby brother who doesn’t live. Maria Consuelo Candida Francisca Catarina de Siena Robato y Mañach­­— “Nena”—does. She grows up in Cuba, falls in love, and marries Rafaele “Lello” Matacena, learning she is pregnant while he is back in Naples tending to his disapproving Italian family. Lello never returns. Nena gives birth to Vivien and three years later marries Andrew Goodman, heir to the Bergdorf Goodman department store. Little Vivien Matacena becomes Vivien Goodman, trading her abuelita’s home in Havana for a penthouse above the family store in Manhattan. A Cinderella story of sorts, but life is more complicated, and this is just the start of twists and turns, triumphs and tragedies that make up Vivien Goodman Malloy’s My Life as a Long Shot: From Cuba to Rye.

 

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