Review: Drown by Junot Díaz

Originally published in 1996, Drown by Junot Díaz is a book composed of ten short stories, some of them previously published in literary magazines and other venues. Junot Díaz won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and is better known for his work on the novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.

Born in the Dominican Republic and raised in the United States, Diaz follows in the footsteps of other Latin American writers with this collection of short stories. His voice is strong and he obviously knows the subject matter.

In Drown, Díaz focuses on the struggles, frustrations, anger and needs faced by poor immigrant Dominican boys, young men, and adult males, both in the Dominican Republic and in New Jersey. And yes it's important to note that he does focus on the male experience and point of view.

Some of the stories are connected and follow a family, a mother and two boys, from the Dominican Republic to New Jersey after their father sends for them: "Ysrael," "Fiesta 1980," "Aguantando," "Negocios." Other short stories are ambiguous in that the main characters are unnamed and could be attributed to other immigrant young men. "Aurora," "Drown," "Boyfriend," "Edison, New Jersey," "How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie." and "No Face," in my opinion the weakest story of the bunch, is related to the short story Ysrael but only because the main character Ysrael is the central focus, but he is not related to the family in the story with that title.

There are a couple of stories that really did it for me, but Drown is the one story that really grabbed me. The unnamed young man in this story avoids a childhood friend returning to the neighborhood, not only because of ambiguous sexual feelings, but also because he feels a failure. Díaz captures a sense of nostalgia and longing as the young man remembers his childhood days with his friend Beto, all mixed up with a sense of failure. The young man's sense of responsibility for a mother who is a ghost of herself, dreaming of being with a man who betrayed her, combined with his need to escape the neighborhood and feelings of entrapment are almost suffocating. Excellent.

For the most part the short stories flowed to create a cohesive whole, although Díaz tended to go back and forth between the Dominican Republic and the US. The one story that really disrupted the flow for me was No Face. I think in this short story about Ysrael, Díaz failed to really touch the reader with this character -- at least he failed to touch me. I see the problem as one of misplacement. This short story really didn't seem to "belong" where it was placed for some reason, and it interrupted the flow of the book for me. Radically so.

Although Drown is a collection of short stories that focuses on the Dominican immigrant's experience, I believe that these short stories also apply to the immigrant experience as a whole, and in that respect it is about immigrants and assimilation. He focuses those stories on how tough it is to emigrate and the difficulties faced while assimilating to a new culture for first and second generations, particularly when in many cases those immigrants wind up in ugly or pretty ghetto style neighborhoods.

These neighborhoods are places that after a while those same immigrants can't seem to leave even as they dream of doing so. The claustrophobia of those places, the hold, the pitfalls, how the whole family can be affected, how the American dream can tarnish by desperation, poverty and poor, uneducated decisions. Díaz touches on all those points. However, he doesn't include success stories in this collection, at least his main characters are not a success. In that sense there is a lack of balance, but then I think that his purpose in Drown is to show the struggle and not necessarily the success.

That lack of balance is also seen when it comes to the female's point of view, as females are portrayed from a distinct male perspective. They are portrayed as either women who somehow remain in a traditional female role even as they struggle against it, or women who are easily seduced. Females are often described as sexual objects or in sexual terms. I found it interesting that as the women aged in these stories they went from being highly sensual creatures who needed their husbands to protect them, to mothers who needed to be protected by their sons. In my opinion, a generalized machista and unrealistic portrayal of women as a whole.

Even with the few problems I had with this book, I believe that for the most part Díaz achieved his goal and he did so with that strong voice I mentioned above. I read Drown for my internet book club, and the discussion was quite interesting. Most of us disagreed rather forcefully with Díaz's portrayal of women in this book. Others disagreed with what was seen as his negative portrayal of the Dominican immigrant and the lack of balance in his portrayal between the struggles and the success. Yet others disagreed that the collection could really be interpreted as the struggles of immigrants as a whole and that it should be seen as focused solely on the Dominican experience. Agree or disagree, reading and discussing Drown with a group was a wonderful experience.

December 2011
Book Club Read

Category: Literary Fiction
Series: None
Publisher/Release Date: Riverhead/May 16, 2007 - Kindle Ed.
Grade: B

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About the Author:
Junot Díaz is a contemporary Dominican-American writer. He moved to the USA with his parents at age six, settling in New Jersey. Central to Díaz's work is the duality of the immigrant experience. He is the first Dominican-born man to become a major author in the United States.

Díaz is creative writing professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao in 2008. He was selected as one of the 39 most important Latin American writers under the age of 39 by the Bogotá Book Capital of World and the Hay Festival. In September 2007, Miramax acquired the rights for a film adaptation of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.

Review: The Book of Want by Daniel A. Olivas

When Moses descended Mount Sinai carrying the Ten Commandments, he never could have foreseen how one family in Los Angeles in the early twenty-first century would struggle to live by them

Conchita, a voluptuous, headstrong single woman of a certain age, sees nothing wrong with enjoying the company of handsome—and usually much younger—men . . . that is, until she encounters a widower with unusual gifts and begins to think about what she really wants out of life.

Julieta, Conchita's younger sister, walks a more traditional path, but she and her husband each harbor secrets that could change their marriage and their lives forever. Their twin sons, both in college, struggle to find fulfillment. Mateo refuses to let anyone stand in the way of his happiness, while Rolando grapples with his sexuality and the family's expectations. And from time to time, Belén, the family's late matriarch, pays a visit to advise, scold, or cajole her hapless descendants.

Ahh... The Book of Want! This is Daniel A. Olivas' first and I believe a wonderful debut novel. Using both social and magical realism, Mr. Olivas relates the story of a Mexican-American family covering three generations.

Olivas sets the story in Los Angeles with some of the back story taking place in Mexico. The novel begins with a prologue set in Mexico where he introduces Belén the matriarch of the family and her young daughter Conchita, the rest is divided into ten related, self-contained chapters, and ends with an epilogue.

The story focuses on two sisters, Conchita and Julieta. Conchita is a sixty-two year old woman, great looking and single. She loves being single, adores younger men and has had plenty of them in her life without a care for what anyone thinks of her. Although lately Conchita's age has become a problem:

"But now, when it came to her dating life, with each passing year, men's interest in Conchita has dwindled. Though still possessing a voluptuous figure, creamy-brown skin, and large, inviting eyes, few men under the age of fifty even acknowledged her presence. And Conchita had no desire for men her own age because they looked ready for the trash heap. It was galling. If she were a famous male actor, she could have her pick of younger partners!"

Slowly, however, Conchita's interest for her widower neighbor Mr. Rojo helps her reassess her life. Mr. Rojo certainly holds her attention with his mysterious ways and eventually shows Conchita that the seemingly impossible can happen. One of the most amusing chapters in the book, "How to Date a Flying Mexican," is related from Conchita's perspective -- hilarious and so well done!

Julieta is the traditional sister. She has been married to Manuel for years and together they have college-aged twins Rolando and Mateo. In this family everyone has secrets! Manuel's suspicious activities and big secret could end the marriage, and Julieta is keeping a secret of her own. Rolando in the meantime struggles to come to terms with his homosexuality, just as self-centered Mateo who thinks he can have everything he wants learns a few lessons. This family is firmly rooted in the present with daily, contemporary issues and struggles that are surprisingly well addressed in this short, ambitious book.

But hey, I don't want to leave out Belén. Belén is Conchita and Julieta's mother and has been dead for a while, but remember this is magical realism we're talking about so that's of no consequence here. She visits her descendants to advice and harass them about their decisions and eventually Olivas takes us back to Mexico for her story, providing the readers with this family's background. Interestingly enough, although Belen's story is fascinating and she's an integral part of the generational and cultural family tapestry created by Olivas, I found that going back in time after relating the first five chapters in the present interrupted the story's flow.

It's also interesting that although I love the story as a whole, I still think of the different chapters singularly. Chapter 10, Want: A Symphony is brilliantly done in its simplicity, yet there's a small section of it that didn't quite work for me. This is where Olivas ties all the story lines with small accounts or episodes by using text messages, interviews, or just dialogue between the characters. What didn't work so well for me? Interviewing the characters pulled me out of the story and dispelled some of the magic that Olivas so beautifully creates throughout most of the book.

There's a correlation between The Book of Want and the Ten Commandments, however not at all in a religious way. Happiness, love, acceptance, sorrow, friendship, and of course want are all subjects covered in this 121 page book by Mr. Olivas. For the most part I thoroughly enjoyed Daniel A. Olivas' approach to this family's story. I was particularly taken with the way Mr. Olivas focuses his use of magical realism closely to the Mexican-American culture while social realism encompasses the story as a whole, and through it all the humor and wit that abounds from beginning to end makes The Book of Want a delightful read.

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About the Author: Daniel is the author of six books including his first full-length novel, The Book of Want, which was published by the University of Arizona Press in March 2011. He is also editor of the landmark anthology, Latinos in Lotusland (Bilingual Press, 2008), which brings together 60 years of Los Angeles fiction by Latino writers. Daniel's writing has been widely anthologized (including in two Norton anthologies). He blogs each Monday on La Bloga, the blog dedicated to Chicano and Latino literature.

Daniel, the grandson of Mexican immigrants, grew up near the Pico-Union and Koreatown neighborhoods of Los Angeles. He now makes his home in the San Fernando Valley with his wife and son. Daniel received his degree in English literature from Stanford University and law degree from UCLA. He is a supervising deputy attorney general with the California Department of Justice in the Public Rights Division.

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Category: Literary Fiction
Series: Camino del Sol: A Latino and Latina Literary Series
Publisher/Release Date: University of Arizona Press/March 4, 2011
Source: University of Arizona Press
Grade: B

Visit Daniel A. Olivas here.

...On Chulito by Charles Rice-González

I was able to finish reading one book last week while surrounded by stressful family situations, mainly because that book just wouldn't let me go even through all my worries and stress. That says something about a book, yes? Of course, this is by no means a perfect book, plot-wise there are a couple of questions that are not answered by the end, but this is a minimal complaint from me compared to what it offered.

That book is Chulito by Charles Rice-González. This author co-edited and included a story in the From Macho to Mariposa: New Gay Latino Fiction anthology that I reviewed recently. However, Chulito is not a pure fiction read, although the excellent writing and the in-depth exploration of characters and their motivations certainly places it in that category. Chulito takes center stage in this story as he comes to terms with his sexuality and his developing romance with childhood friend Carlos. So there's a coming-out story with a romance between two young adults -- sixteen and seventeen years of age -- with sexual content and mild violence included. How the author goes about telling his story? Well, that's what this is all about.

There are quite a few aspects of the book that grabbed me from the beginning. Rice-González develops the romance and especially Chulito's slow journey toward coming to terms with his sexuality by using the South Bronx as the backdrop for his story, so his characters are for the most part Puerto Rican kids from a Latino neighborhood. First, he really captures the neighborhood's atmosphere -- both the sense of belonging and the claustrophobia felt by the residents of Hunt's Point. Second, his focus and grasp of Latino macho culture is excellent. The author depicts how the extreme macho Latino's attitude manifests itself toward women. However where the author really succeeds is in his main focus which is in showing how the gay sub-culture is viewed and the effects that macho attitude has on gay Latinos.

Rice-González explores this macho culture from the inside out by making Chulito a Latino "thug in the making," one who has to make a decision between being what it's expected of him in front of his "boys," or being true to himself and his very confusing feelings for his childhood friend Carlos. As you can well imagine, this is not an easy decision for Chulito to make, not when he has been brought up to believe that being a "pato" means rejection and possible violence from the very people that mean so much to him.

Carlos represents the smart, educated Latino young man who left the neighborhood to go to college. He's also gay, out, proud and ready to leave the neighborhood, except that he himself is pulled back not only because his mother and Chulito live there, but also because of that sense of belonging. Carlos is an admirable character in this story, not only because he is 'out' in the neighborhood and doesn't care what anyone thinks of him, but because he refuses to compromise his beliefs. Interestingly enough, to a certain degree even Carlos can't help but be attracted to and admire the beauty of Latino men. The macho attitude is a big turn-on for him, Chulito's in particular.

There's a section in the book where Chulito is dreaming and Rice-González conducts an in-depth exploration of the different degrees on the "macho" scale. This is also where the author begins to bring some balance to the equation.

Then they had a quote from the woman who invented the Macho Meter: "All men have macho in them. Even gay ones, but there are varying degrees, and while most forms of macho are lethal to the progression of the world and society, there are some acceptable levels, very low levels, that can sometimes be useful." 

There are female characters included in the story and Rice-González mixes it up by portraying sad, dysfunctional and healthy relationships between men and women to round up this story. There are also examples of different types of males used across the board. From the drug dealer Kamikaze and the would-be macho thugs hanging on the corner, to ex-convicts and the hard working men who populate the neighborhood.

Also key to this story are the gay characters that live in the neighborhood: Julio or La Julia owns the local travel agency and serves as an example and mentor to the younger men. Puti is the sad and lonely local drag queen. Lee from the Chinese restaurant, and one of the best characters in this story, Brick. Brick is a tough ex-drug dealer who got out of the game and whose best friend is Julio. He's flawed with positive and negative sides to his character, but serves as a great example of the Latino uber macho whose masculinity is not threatened by his close friendship with a gay man. Overall there's a wonderful mixture of characters.

Rice-González takes his time developing this story. Chulito's background, feelings, the challenges he faces on a daily basis are all explored in-depth. His life in the neighborhood as a runner for Kamikaze, the local drug dealer and Chulito's mentor. The relationship he has with his "boys" from the neighborhood. The deep love he shares with his mother Carmen and the resentment and indifference he feels for his dead father. Coming to terms with his sexuality is not an easy step or a ride in the park, and his romance with Carlos is riddled with deep disappointments, betrayal, tenderness, passion, yearning (like you wouldn't believe), angst, and deep love.

Ever since I read From Macho to Mariposa I've been looking for other books to read by gay Latino writers and well... I thought this book might be the perfect beginning. It was. Chulito is a great mixture of gay fiction and romance with a focus on the gay Latino experience. I highly enjoyed Charles Rice-González's writing style and his down to earth, no holds barred depiction of characters, culture, sub-culture, circumstances and setting in Chulito. I will keep my eye on this writer, hopefully there will be more books like this one from him in the future.

Category: LGBT - Gay Fiction/Romance
Series: None
Publisher/Release Date: Magnus Books/September 23, 2011- Kindle Edition
Grade: B

Visit Charles Rice-González here.

ETA: This was not meant to be a review, just my thoughts or impressions on the book (see post title). But, I think it turned into a review in the end, so I gave it a grade... Solid with excellent qualities!   

Review: The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa

The people celebrate
and go all the way
for the Feast of the Goat
the Thirtieth of May.

—"Mataron El Chivo"
“They Killed the Goat”
A Dominican merengue

The Feast of the Goat or La Fiesta del Chivo is a fictionalized account of the Trujillo Era written by the Peruvian writer and winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature, Mario Vargas Llosa. This powerful and haunting historical fiction novel depicts the last day in the life of Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina who held power over his people in the Dominican Republic between 1930 and May 30, 1961. The original book is written in Spanish, however in my opinion the translation of the book by Edith Grossman is excellent and I do not have complaints when it comes to either the language nor how the translation effected the writer's prose.

Vargas Llosa approaches the story from three different points of view:

• The present and past memories of the fictional character Urania Cabral.
• Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina's view of events as they unfold on the day that he was assassinated, May 30, 1961, and his memories of past events. 
• The point of view of the Trujillo's assassins as events unfold on May 30, 1961, and their memories of the past events that motivated their actions. 

The three perspectives allow the writer to present the full scope of the history encompassing the Trujillo Era in a fast paced style that keeps the reader glued to the pages. The three points of view, which seem disparate at first, alternate and get closer to each other until they merge at the end in a cohesive manner.

Vargas Llosa uses the fictional characters of Urania, Agustin Cabral and their family to bring cohesion to the story, as Urania returns to the city of Santo Domingo after years of absence, and in turn to her memories of the past while confronting her senile and silent father with his past sins. Her memories, accusations and revelations take the reader to a time when the Dominican Republic and its people lived under the mesmerizing power of Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina. Vargas Llosa uses Urania as the voice representing Dominican women of her time, as she narrates experiences that are full of wonder, innocence, horror, and ultimately terrible betrayal. The betrayal experienced by Urania is a double edged sword as it comes from her father and from a society that is patriarchal in nature, killing her faith in men.

Trujillo had quite a few nicknames: el Jefe (the Chief), el Generalissimo, the Benefactor, and of course the Goat. Vargas Llosa portrays Trujillo on his last day as an old man in his 70's who is slowly losing control of his body, his allies, the country and its people. It is an intimate and personal portrayal of a man who truly believes his own press: God and Trujillo, Trujillo and God. He believes that he is savior to the Dominican people and that they owe him everything, including their properties, women, children and even their very lives. As the base of his rule there is authoritarianism and paternalism, however this is combined with violence and corruption that ends in immense abuse of power over his people, family, collaborators and enemies alike.

More than anything else, what he could not forgive was that just as he had corrupted and brutalized this country, the Goat had also corrupted and brutalized Antonio de la Maza. - Antonio de la Maza - Chapter 6

The assassins point of view is the most compelling for me in this story. Vargas Llosa portrays the last moments, the history and motives that placed Antonio de la Maza, Antonio (Tony) Imbert Barrera, Lieutenant Amadito García Guerrero, and Salvador (El Turco) Estrella Sadhalá on the San Cristóbal Highway on May 30, 1961 and made assassins out of family men and former trujillistas. Theirs are stories of men who were subjugated first through love and then through fear, and whose spirits were almost broken after years of giving of themselves to a man and a country that took it all and gave nothing in return except terror and betrayal. Their stories are moving, horrifying, and violent, and the individual motivations and the after effects of their collective actions, as portrayed by Vargas Llosa, are fascinating.

"They kill our fathers, our brothers, our friends. And now they’re killing our women. And here we sit, resigned, waiting our turn,” he heard himself say. Antonio (Tony) Imbert Barrera - Chapter 9

Vargas Llosa is known for successfully "depicting the effects of authoritarianism, violence and the abuse of power on the individual." The Feast of the Goat is an excellent example of this theme. He explores it through all three points of view, even that of Trujillo himself, as it is through him that the reader experiences how and why that power is abused and used to control collaborators and enemies alike. Previously I mentioned authoritarianism and paternalism, however Vargas Llosa goes further by portraying the Trujillo Era as a machista-run society and makes a connection between sex and power, where sex is used by Trujillo as a controlling tool to obtain and maintain his power.

Furthermore, in my opinion, where Vargas Llosa truly succeeds with The Feast of the Goat in his portrayal of the Latin American dictator and in his usage of a conversational, fast paced style that makes this historical fiction novel accessible to the reader. His inclusion of violence and torture is key and contributes to the sense of reality the reader experiences when confronted with true horror and terror. Torture and violence are not just words that are mentioned within the narration. Vargas Llosa brilliantly weaves in history and fiction to make this an excellent read.

There's so much more that I could say about The Feast of the Goat. This is a partial re-read for me, I first read it in Spanish, however this is my first attempt at reading the English translation. I would like to thank Mariana for encouraging me to re-read it in English for our book club. A note: I enjoyed this book this time around much more than the first time. Why? Well, the first time I didn't know anything about the history of the Dominican Republic and researched both history and characters as I read the book, this time I just enjoyed it. What I can tell you all is that both times the story haunted me for days after I finished it.

The Feast of the Goat (La Fiesta del Chivo) by Mario Vargas Llosa. Highly recommended.

Category: Historical Fiction
Series: None
Publisher/Release Date: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1 edition / March 4, 2011 - Kindle Edition
First Read: B+
Grade: A

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Note: I started a side blog Quotes and Thoughts that I will be using to post write ups on the books I'm reading, as I read them. Not reviews, just thoughts on specific moments in a story that catch my attention, or even to expand on a particular thread in a story while writing a review. I wrote two posts about The Feast of the Goat on that site:

Links to Quotes and Thoughts:
Sex and Power in The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa
The end justifies the means... The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa

Review: From Macho to Mariposa: New Gay Latino Fiction edited by Charles Rice-González & Charlie Vázquez

Prepare yourself to dance in a disco in Silver Lake, check out papis in Orchard Beach, cross the border from Guatemala to Mexico on your way to the U.S., see a puro macho bathe in a river in Puerto Rico, make love under a full moon in the Dominican Republic, sigh at a tender moment in an orange grove in Lindsay, visit a panaderia in Kansas, see a full blown birthday party in Juarez, and be seduced by a young artist in the South Bronx. These are some of the stories in this collection of thirty gay Latino writers from around the United States. There are ''don't mess with me''' divas, alluring bad boys, and sexy teenagers, but also empowered youth for whom being queer is not a question and a family that grows wings on their heads. The infectious rhythms of House music in New York City are adjacent to cumbia in Mexico, next to reggaeton in Puerto Rico, alongside Latin pop in L.A. and merengue in an east coast city. But the spectrum of experiences and emotions that inhabit our days gives these stories dimension and gay/queer Latinos a common ground. The stories are vibrantly varied and clearly connected in this ''era of lost signals'' in which we live.

From Macho to Mariposa: New Gay Latino Fiction is an anthology written and edited by gay Latino writers from varied backgrounds and walks of life. That in and of itself was a huge draw for me. As seen from the gay Latino's perspective, I also hoped to find that great mixture of different backgrounds and countries that make up what we call the Latino culture and what makes our community unique.

The anthology is composed of 29 short stories. Individually you'll find different writing styles and types of stories, from the magical cuento, to love letters, and stories of neglect, loneliness, rejection, sex, drugs, and yes... yearning and love. Through the unique and beautiful rhythm found in the blending of two languages and two cultures that is often found in works by Latino writers, the reader experiences pain, joys, highs and lows.

The stories serve as little windows into the gay Latino experience. Some writers go back to their roots and set their stories in the land of their birth or that of their parents: Puerto Rico, Mexico, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic. These stories serve to set atmosphere and define cultural differences within this anthology. There's La Huerfanita by David Andrew Talamantes, a disturbing account set in Mexico about a little boy who is abused by his father because he's not macho enough... or one of my favorite stories, the beautiful Yermo by Charlie Vázquez, written in letter form, about an unforgettable encounter in Puerto Rico between an islander and a Nuyorican from the Bronx.

Other stories are edgy and creative. There are quite a few of these, however as an example Fairy Tale by Justin Torres is a riveting cuento magico written in the form of a letter to an absent father where fantasy is used to convey neglect, and worth mentioning is A Doomed Gay Marriage where Rigoberto González writes shorts within a short story addressed to "the writer," "the cook," "the musician" and more, depicting reasons a marriage to each in turn would fail.

Among the stories depicting young adult experiences one of my favorite is On the Line by Benny Vázquez. I love the way the writer captures the cultural reality of views and attitudes by family and loved ones toward the two young men's changing relationship through the young man's mami's character. It's a story of friendship and love found and lost in an urban setting. And of course there's Pregnant Boy by Chuy Sánchez, the magnificent story about a boy who has seen and lost too much and yet hopes against hope for love. He is naive and a cynic, an astounding and heartbreaking combination.

The bulk of the stories, however, depict lost loves, past relationships and those regrets that leave empty spaces and "what ifs" behind. I loved Michael Moves to Faile Street by Charles Rice-González, a well-written, and complete story about a man with a need to set things right after having failed his ex-lover, and Requiem Sartajeno by Rick J. Santos pulled me in to the point where I thought I was reading a whole book instead of a short story. However, it was The Fermi Paradox by Ben Francisco that made me say "wow" after I finished it. A story about yearning for lost love while dealing with rejection and hoping there's a way to fill the emptiness left by it all. This was a complete story with excellent writing, pacing, plot and prose that left me wanting more from this author.

Urban settings are quite popular in this anthology, from the East to the West Coast, Chicago to Miami and in between, however there are some stories that do highlight life in those urban settings more than others. Dark Side of the Flame is a dark trip indeed where Danny González explores drugs, sex and loneliness. And, the anthology ends with a bang and on an upbeat note that made me laugh out loud with Orchard Beach by Robert Vázquez Pacheco where Bronx Diva La Joey teaches a mistaken papi a lesson he won't soon forget. "¿Pa' qué fue eso?!"

Taken individually some stories are better written than others and I do have favorites among them -- too few of them are mentioned above. As a whole, however, From Macho to Mariposa: New Gay Latino Fiction is a different kettle of fish altogether. The editors of this anthology Charles Rice-González and Charlie Vázquez successfully capture the differences and commonalities within the gay Latino community and the gay experience from a distinct cultural perspective.

Pulled together, the stories do convey that distinct flavor. Whether it's achieved by highlighting societal views of the gay son, friend, nephew or neighbor within the Latino community as a whole or the importance of la familia -- mami, papi, brothers, sisters, tíos or primos -- the neighborhoods, the different foods or the music, that flavor can almost be felt and tasted by the reader. Most of all I think these gay Latino writers achieve this as only they can by expressing their experiences, with passion, heart and emotion.

Category: LGBT Gay Fiction
Series: None
Publisher/Release Date: Tincture/August 1, 2011
Source: ARC Lethe Press
Grade: B

Friday to Friday: Historical Fiction and Leonardo Padura Fuentes

So how was your week? Mine is finally done! It's still rainy and cold in Jersey, but at least I'm home cozy and warm at the moment. I had a long working-week, but it turned out to be good with one book-related event this last week and some really nice reads.

Last Friday night, as a last minute outing, my brothers invited me to go along with them to meet Leonardo Padura Fuentes, a favorite author, in an evening at the Instituto Cervantes New York at Amster Yard in New York City. Mr. Padura was hosting a chat where he was discussing history and fiction in his latest release, the literary historical fiction novel El Hombre Que Amaba a Los Perros -- you might have seen that book mentioned here before. I've also mentioned my favorite works by him to date, the Inspector Mario Conde series.

It was an informal chat where basically he explained the process used while researching the novel, although he did address the fictional part of the book briefly. However, most of the evening was taken up with questions and answers about Trotsky's fascinating character, as well as that of his assassin, Rafael Mercader.

The key points for me came when he focused on how to pull together all that historical research he gathered throughout five long years and put together a fictional novel.  His points:

• Respect historical moments when writing the fictional aspect of the story. 
• Construct fiction as logically as possible while combining it with history. 
• Characterization is key, especially that of the fictional characters in the book. In El Hombre Que Amaba a Los Perros that would be Ivan, a seemingly insignificant secondary character, but the very important narrator of the story.
• Take into consideration that in a historical fiction novel there is no mystery as the end is usually well known. 
• The narrative, making it fast paced and constructing the plot into a novel instead of a historical piece, is key.

Mr. Padura was quite gracious and the question and answer session, where not only this book but his other works were discussed, lasted quite a long time, and he and his beautiful wife gave of their time afterward as well. I took the opportunity to speak to him personally and he signed my book. Meeting him was an unexpected pleasure. 

About the Author: Leonardo Padura was born in 1955 in Havana and lives in Cuba. He is a journalist and writer of novels and essays, as well as screenplays. His literary works include a number of short-story collections, literary essays and nine novels translated into over 15 different languages but international fame came with the Havana Quartet, all featuring Inspector Mario Conde.

The Inspector Mario Conde Series:

• Pasado perfecto (1991). Havana Blue (2007)
• Vientos de cuaresma (1994). Havana Gold (2008)
• Mascaras (1997). Havana Red (2005)
• Paisaje de otoño (1998). Havana Black (2006)
• La Neblina de Ayer. Havana Fever (2009)
• Adiós Hemingway (2005, novella); published with same title in English in 2006 - the first of his books to be translated into English.

Green Books Campaign: Havana and Other Missing Fathers by Mia Leonin

This review is part of the Green Books campaign.Today 200 bloggers take a stand to support books printed in an eco-friendly manner by simultaneously publishing reviews of 200 books printed on recycled or FSC-certified paper. By turning a spotlight on books printed using eco- friendly paper, we hope to raise the awareness of book buyers and encourage everyone to take the environment into consideration when purchasing books.

The campaign is organized for the second time by Eco-Libris, a green company working to make reading more sustainable. We invite you to join the discussion on "green" books and support books printed in an eco-friendly manner! A full list of participating blogs and links to their reviews is available on Eco-Libris website.

The book I chose to read for this campaign is printed on acid-free archival-quality paper containing a minimum of 30%  post-consumer waste (or recycled materials) and processed chlorine free.
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Havana and Other Missing Fathers by Mia Leonin

Havana and Other Missing Fathers by Mia Leonin is a memoir published in 2009 by The University of Arizona Press as part of their Camino del Sol: A Latino and Latina Literary Series. I already own a few issues from the Camino del Sol series and when I decided to join this campaign and saw that this book was available, I couldn't pass it up.

In 1967, Norma drives away from her home in Kentucky and makes her way to Missouri to give birth and begin a new life. Sixteen years later that child, a daughter, learns that her life thus far has been based on a lie. Norma breaks down and tells her child that her father is not dead; indeed he's not her first husband Jerry, but a Cuban doctor -- a foreigner -- who is very much alive. Mother and daughter cry, wash their faces and go for ice cream.

Four years later at age 20, Mia lands in Miami Airport for the first time to meet her father hoping to find a place in his life, to understand the man and in the process parts of herself. She shares moments but no real intimacy with him, and his wife Zoraida seems to be too surprised at Mia's unexpected existence to show her true feelings. Unfortunately after that first meeting, she comes away with more questions than answers about the man, the father and a new culture that she's about to embrace.

Mia, on her father and language:

My father didn't give me explanations, apologies, or answers. He didn't "take responsibility" in any concrete way. He broke off language like pieces of hard candy that caught the light before dissolving in my mouth.

Even after a few years Mia's attempts to know and understand her father elude her, as the immutable Zoraida's resentment grows and prevents Mia from reaching him:

"Mi papa," I venture, "No lo conozco."

Conocer. The verb hangs in the air like the steel blade of a guillotine. Conocer means to meet and to know. Yes, I've met him, but no, I don't know him. How do I join the meeting and the not knowing of my father in one verb? It's more than a grammatical question.

This need for understanding and acceptance gives Mia the necessary impetus to go forth on a personal journey that will take her from Missouri to Miami, Florida to Bogotá, Colombia and eventually Havana, Cuba. Instead of searching for her roots, she finds herself in Havana exploring Cuban culture through the unique joys and sufferings of its people, their compulsive and sensual obsession with food, and the unique rhythms of its music and language. She falls in love with a man and the island's passions as she experiences highs and lows, glorious moments and betrayals, clarity, uncertainty and anguish along the way.

I thought I was just going to come here and "discover" my heritage or somehow feel connected to it, but this island doesn't merely give, it exacts a price for what you take from it. Not flowers or offerings of fruit, but flesh, memory, balance.

Ms. Leonin successfully uses a combination of dialogue and narrative to tell her story. Havana and Other Missing Fathers is a memoir, but it reads more like a novel with poetic overtones. The narrative switches from present to past in a flowing manner with few narrative interruptions as the story unfolds to its conclusion of partial resolutions and personal revelations.  The author writes in a lyrical style and uses language as the core to keep the reader engrossed and focused in the story. While the book is written in English, Ms. Leonin is particularly successful in the effective adaptation of Cuban Spanish, as she applies its unique rhythms, oblique meanings and double entendres to her exploration of roots and culture, both here and there.

Finally, I'll say that this book was an unexpected pleasure. Havana and Other Missing Fathers turned out to be a very personal and forthright journey where no one is spared, least of all the author. She captures the dichotomies in Cuban culture: intricacies and subtleties, beauty and unpleasantness, strengths and weaknesses. I connected with this story and was right there on that roller coaster ride of self-discovery and emotional upheaval with Mia. That's the highest recommendation I can give this book.

Category: Memoir
Series: Camino del Sol: A Latino and Latina Literary Series
Released: September 1, 2009
Source: Eco-Libris & The University of Arizona Press
Grade: B+

Visit Mia Leonin here.

A thought on nostalgia vs. reality... and Pasado Perfecto by Leonardo Padura

As I began reading Pasado Perfecto by Leonardo Padura, almost immediately I came across a passage that caught my attention:

Se puso los espejuelos oscuros y caminó hacia la parada de la guagua pensando que el aspecto del barrio debía de ser como el suyo: una especie de paisaje después de una batalla casi devastadora, y sintió que algo se resentía en su memoria más afectiva. La realidad visible de la Calzada contrastaba con la imagen almibarada del recuerdo de aquella misma calle, una imagen que había llegado a preguntarse si en verdad era real, si la heredaba de la nostalgia histórica de los cuentos de su abuelo o simplemente la habia inventado para tranquilizar al pasado.

Translation: (done by me: any errors found are mine)

He put on his sunglasses and walked to the bus stop, thinking that the neighborhood looked a lot like him: like a landscape after a devastating battle, and something became offended in his most affective memory. The visible reality of the Calzada contrasted with the sweet, syrupy images he remembered of that same street, and he asked himself if that image was a real one, if he had inherited it from his grandfather's historical and nostalgic tales, or if he had simply invented them to calm the past.

Yes, I thought when I read el Conde's reflection about his neighborhood and the street where he grew up, that's exactly right. How often do we change the past to suit our needs? How often do our memories deceive us when nostalgia takes over to make places, things, or events, beautiful, right, or acceptable when in reality they were not?

Such a shocking thing, to deal with stark reality and see that street for what it really is... for what it probably always was -- except maybe in fantasy-filled memories or those glorious moments of self-deception that often come with nostalgia.  Pasado Perfecto... "a perfect past."

Christmas and Book Shopping!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, or Holidays if you don't celebrate Christmas. I had a few days off and really enjoyed them with family and friends. We enjoyed lots of tasty food, wine and best of all some wonderful times spent with family and new memories to treasure.

I did quite well... received books as gifts and bookstore gift certificates this Christmas -- of course I already added a couple of books to the TBR pile -- some I already read! But then I had a few minutes here and there to myself these past few days in between the cooking, baking, get-togethers and shopping. There's always time for reading, right?

One of my brothers gave me a book as a present from a favorite author, it's Leonardo Padura's latest release, "El Hombre que Amaba a Los Perros." Padura is a Cuban author who has received quite a few literary awards and is known for his "Mario Conde" police detective mysteries -- a series I love and one I'll be re-reading and hope to review this coming year. His latest release came out in September 2009 and as far as I know there's no translation available yet, so I'm not sure what the title in English will be, but the literal translation is "The Man who Loved Dogs." It's a historical fiction piece involving Trotsky, his assassin, the Spanish Civil War, their connection to Cuba and of course a modern time mystery. It looks fascinating and pretty ambitious! I'm really looking forward to reading this book. :)

The day after Christmas my husband and I visited our local book store. I've been thinking of getting that tiny, little book by Mary Balogh, "A Matter of Class." It's a hardcover and I finally decided to maybe get it later due to size vs. price, even though I really wanted to read it. Well, my husband surprised me and gave it to me. Wasn't that sweet? He was paying attention! It's a beautiful little book with a great looking jacket, much better looking in person. I read this book already, of course, couldn't help myself. I'll let you know all about it later. *g*

Going back to Leonardo Padura, while at the book store I decided to use one of my Gift Certificates to buy a few books. I began by buying the first book in the "Mario Conde mysteries series "Pasado Perfecto." I bought it in Spanish because it's my preference, however this book has been translated in different languages, English and French included and it's available. Havana Blue (Mario Conde Book 3) is the title in English. A few things don't make sense -- the title for one, the translation escapes me (literal translation "A Perfect Past"), and why this is being called Book 3 when in reality it's Book 1 of the series, it's beyond me. I read these mysteries back in 1999? 2000? I can't remember the exact year, but my brother passed the copies around to me and to our friends and we all loved them. I want my own copies and will be re-reading all of them.

Next, I chose to buy "Naked in Death" by J.D. Robb, the first in the In-Death series. I joined Christine's 2010 In-Death Challenge and although I lucked out and my book sharing buddy sent me books 2 through 5, I was missing the first one. So, now I'm ready to begin reading J.D. Robb, finally!

I also lucked out and saw Sarah Mayberry's January release "Her Secret Fling" and immediately scooped it up! Now, you KNOW that although I have other books by her in my TBR pile, this is one of the books that was read this weekend. It was perfect for the holidays -- short because I didn't have that much time to read and well... it was romance. I'll let you know all about this one later too. :)

And last but not least, I decided to buy Nora Roberts' "Vision in White" in print. I had it in ebook format, but I have "Bed of Roses" in print and these are such beautiful books with gorgeous covers, I knew sooner or later I was going to get that book in print, lol! I know, I know... why buy a book I already read and I already own? Well... that's just me. I collect her books in print -- I should have known better than to buy it in ebook format in the first place. It won't happen again, believe me!


But, hey that's not all! When I arrived home from shopping I had a little package waiting for me from Santa-baby all the way from the North Pole, via Canada! Santa sent me a book I've heard much about and I've been wanting to read, the New Gay Fiction Anthology, "Fool for Love" edited by Timothy J. Lambert and R.D. Cochrane. A gorgeous looking print book I can't wait to read because it's all about the "romance." One of the sweetest surprises I received this Christmas weekend. Thank you for thinking of me, Santa-baby!

Well those were my purchases and gifts, I was looking for other books and was not lucky to find them. The Sci-Fi / Fantasy section and even the Romance section seemed lacking, or maybe they just didn't have the books I was looking for. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to go check out another book store. *g*