A second collection, mostly set among the Chicanos of the American Southwest. Perhaps Cesar Chavez has a novel in him. It would be a good thing, frankly, since Candelaria (The Day the Cisco Kid Shot John Wayne, not reviewed, etc.) doesn’t exactly have the old Steinbeck touch when it comes to sketching out the lives of the downtrodden masses along the Mexican border. All of the seven stories gathered here depict the frustrations experienced by Hispanic Americans struggling against Yankee injustice and duplicity. The title piece describes how an unemployed artist involves himself in the Sanctuary movement of the early 1980s in an attempt to win back some measure of self-respect (“First they steal your country, Alfonso thought. Then they steal your language so you can’t even think naturally. . . . Then, when you can’t or won’t talk gringo, they call you stupid”) The corruption of politics is also at the center of “A Whole Lot of Justice,” where a shady small-town sheriff kills a local for his lowrider Chevrolet. “The Dancing School” is a young girl’s rather nasty reminiscence of her half-Anglo classmate, who (naturally) turns out to be quite untrustworthy. In “Family Thanksgiving,” a former district attorney, who now represents sanctuary refugees, argues through the holiday dinner with his brother, a sellout cop, while “The Border” describes the obsessive, almost mystical search of a young man for his father in Mexico. Bad agitprop: Although the politics that run through all these pieces may be annoying to some, it is the inverted racism (“Some Anglo TV guy asked him questions about culture and identity and some other bullshit, and Danny gave him a look of disbelief that made everyone in the room laugh”) that will offend most readers. Ultimately, Candelaria’s soulless Anglos bear about as much relation to reality as the noble Latinos they oppress.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-927534-83-5
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Bilingual Review Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1998
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
