FloresFamilia
08-14-2008, 07:39 PM
I am not great at writing reviews, but really enjoyed this novel, finished it in about 48 hours, and shed a few tears. It is not exactly intellectual reading, but is entertaining, profound, heartbreaking, heartwarming, and has good depth of character IMO.
"One of the most exciting fictional debuts in years. It's a wonderful journey, a fast-paced, reader-friendly story that takes you in and out of different worlds. It shows the harshness and complexity of life on two sides of the US-Mexico border, in an authentic landscape that is beautiful and sad."
--Daniel Chacon, author of And the Shadows Took Him
"Reyna Grande knows the heartbreaking worlds on either side of the border, where men are desperate, women are prey, and children want what they always want: the presence of love. "
--Susan Straight, author of Highwire Moon
My favorite quote from the book:
"Is El Otro Lado far away, Papi?" Juana heard the girl and paid attention.
"It's on the other side of the border, mi'ja," the father said. "When we get to Tijuana, a coyote will help us cross the border."
"What's the border, Papi?"
"Hills," her father whispered. "Hills and bushes, that's all it is. But we must walk across it."
"Papi, if it's just land, why can't we take the bus all the way there. Why must we walk across it."
"Because we don't have papers, Carmen. And even though it is just land, it represents a wall. We must go like thieves."
Juana wished she could ask what the father meant by that. Hills and bushes, that what the border was. How strange.
whoops: I read this over and guess I can't be so lazy as to not give you a basic plot. It follows a young girl who his looking for her father who left for EL Otro Lado (after her family has experianced some terrible losses and tragedies.) Her life intersects with another young women's from the other side of the border. The book bounces back and forth between their two stories and nto always chronilogically, untill the details wrap up together.(maybe too nicely) I especially like that it really shows the predicament that so many of the impoverished, especially women, are in. How complex "getting ahead" is when you are just trying to survive. How easily women become prey.
"One of the most exciting fictional debuts in years. It's a wonderful journey, a fast-paced, reader-friendly story that takes you in and out of different worlds. It shows the harshness and complexity of life on two sides of the US-Mexico border, in an authentic landscape that is beautiful and sad."
--Daniel Chacon, author of And the Shadows Took Him
"Reyna Grande knows the heartbreaking worlds on either side of the border, where men are desperate, women are prey, and children want what they always want: the presence of love. "
--Susan Straight, author of Highwire Moon
My favorite quote from the book:
"Is El Otro Lado far away, Papi?" Juana heard the girl and paid attention.
"It's on the other side of the border, mi'ja," the father said. "When we get to Tijuana, a coyote will help us cross the border."
"What's the border, Papi?"
"Hills," her father whispered. "Hills and bushes, that's all it is. But we must walk across it."
"Papi, if it's just land, why can't we take the bus all the way there. Why must we walk across it."
"Because we don't have papers, Carmen. And even though it is just land, it represents a wall. We must go like thieves."
Juana wished she could ask what the father meant by that. Hills and bushes, that what the border was. How strange.
whoops: I read this over and guess I can't be so lazy as to not give you a basic plot. It follows a young girl who his looking for her father who left for EL Otro Lado (after her family has experianced some terrible losses and tragedies.) Her life intersects with another young women's from the other side of the border. The book bounces back and forth between their two stories and nto always chronilogically, untill the details wrap up together.(maybe too nicely) I especially like that it really shows the predicament that so many of the impoverished, especially women, are in. How complex "getting ahead" is when you are just trying to survive. How easily women become prey.