The writing is fluid, the details brisk and vivid as newcomer Jaime-Becerra reveals his characters without judging them...
Ten connecting stories, set mostly in 1980s California, deftly pursue a loosely connected family of Mexican-Americans with little money or education.
Jaime-Becerra’s protagonists are ice cream vendors, tattoo artists, and teenagers navigating American values in El Monte, California, while their old-world parents glower uncomprehendingly at the new ways. In “The Corrido of Hector Cruz,” a young father-to-be is sent out for food to satisfy the cravings of his pregnant wife, whom he adores. The two are barely scraping by on low-wage jobs when they learn that Hector’s nephew—his dead brother’s young son, Lencho, fresh from reform school—must come live with them. Yet what might have been disastrous turns out—as happens often here—a kind of salvation for both the couple and for Lencho, who has no real skills but a lot of heart. Subsequently, in “Riding with Lencho,” we learn that he becomes an auto mechanic, then gets by on disability when his ex-girlfriend scalds him with boiling coffee after growing enraged at his going to night school. In another familial tangent, the young narrator of the fine first story, “Practice Tattoos,” watches in sad resignation as the fights between his mother and sister, Gina, over her boyfriends eventually propel her out the door forever. Later, Gina and her tattoo artist steady, Max, resurface in another eponymous story, trying to stay in love despite the louche types who supply Max’s trade. The characters here want more than anything to do the right thing—fall in love and steer a better course, for example, though in a couple of stories, like “Media Vuelta,” we’re given a glimpse of the earlier generation back in Mexico: mariachi guitarist Jose Luis’s courtship, for instance, and loss of his sweetheart.
The writing is fluid, the details brisk and vivid as newcomer Jaime-Becerra reveals his characters without judging them harshly. Learn Spanish in richly affecting narratives from a strong new talent.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2004
ISBN: 0-06-055962-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Rayo/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2003
Lighthearted vignettes from a senior’s point of view.
A collection of upbeat, quasi-fictional tales geared to seniors.
Retired aerospace engineer Epps composed most of the selections between the age of 68 and 88–his brush is broad, covering sports, ghosts, politics, religion, marital life, crime and the adventures, and misadventures, of youth. “An Unlikely Hero” concerns childhood friend Sam Perkins, who hit two grand-slam homers in a baseball game, earning a measure of fame and the undying interest of high school girls. “Amazing Visitors Come to Leisure Village” is about extraterrestrials and is dedicated to the author’s nephew, Dr. Steven Greer, who established the Center for the Study of Extraterrestrial Intelligence and spearheads the effort for government disclosure of UFOs. Some stories are fables, as in the case of “Reform School,” in which boys who take their lumps are justly rewarded and boys that avoid them get an appropriate comeuppance. In “An Old Shoe,” a senior teaches a young man valuable life lessons. Occasionally the author addresses a story to a particular audience. In “World Peace–At Last!” the author asks if Ted Turner, Bill Gates or Warren Buffet might be interested in his ideas for improving our world. “A Tunnel To….?” demonstrates the resourcefulness of seniors in a precarious situation, while other stories are what might be characterized as “gray” fantasies. Throughout, the tone is appealingly earnest, with the author moving easily between reality and fiction. A few stories are gems from the golden years, but not everything here glitters. At times, the point of a story is elusive and plots formulaic–as when Epps takes an event or well-known personality (e.g., the oft-married Thomas Manville) and works backwards to create a tale with a twist. Once the reader catches on, the gimmicky endings become tedious and more likely to produce smiles than guffaws. Still, seniors may enjoy reading about the younger generation getting their just desserts from the silver-haired set.
Lighthearted vignettes from a senior’s point of view.Pub Date: Dec. 30, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-4404-4203-2
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
In this haunting debut, Bumas explores the defining of relationships and how the quality of human intimacy reveals much about the places we call home. All eight stories in this collection lend an ethereal element to situations that at first glance seem familiar, depicting men and women attracted and confused by friends and lovers and who find themselves equally lost in their given time and place. As the characters struggle with conflicts that range from forbidden sexual attraction to making a new best friend to unplanned pregnancy to expressing solidarity with Chinese students shortly before the uprising at Tiananmen Square, the question of where and how we live in Manhattan's East Village, a provincial Chinese city, and a conservative college campus become inextricably linked. Sometimes a story revolves around the importance of human relationship and demonstrates that without it, any possible connection to society at large, the psyche of the population, even culture and history and hope for the future, is thwarted. For example, a young Western scientist studying water quality in canals in Hangzhou, China, likes to think of this small city as a home she has come to know well; but when a Chinese co-worker she feels especially close to gets relocated for suspected sexual involvement with her, the customs, food, and the purposefulness of her work become inconceivably foreign (``Head in Fog on Water''). At other times, it is the success of a human relationship that makes an environment bearable: A gay man poses as his lesbian friend's fiancÇ to get her through a sticky family gathering (``Your Cordially Requested Presence''). Bumas woos with strong characters, wry tones, political complexity, and a unique voice. This collection doesn't bowl you over—it gets under your skin.
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-87023-930-9
Page Count: 208
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1994
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