Lotería by Mario Alberto Zambrano

Lotería by Mario Alberto Zambrano
Copyright 2013
Harper - Fiction
272 pp.

Brief note before review:  I've fallen so far behind on reviews that I decided it would be best to stop trying to first hit the fabulous titles that have been haunting me for a while, instead moving backward from my most recent reads.  The idea is to get myself back in the swing of things.  Hopefully, this will help stop fearing the blog.

What it's about:

Luz is in the custody of the state of Texas, her sister Estrella in a coma, her father has been arrested and her aunt Tencha has encouraged Luz to write her thoughts in a journal.  Luz has not spoken since her father was arrested.  The chapters in Lotería are very short, each a journal entry in which each memory is prompted by a card from the Lotería game.  Her thoughts are directed to God. What prompted Luz to cease speaking? Why is she in a state-run facility? What happened to Estrella and what has become of their mother?

As Luz recalls her life, she slowly reveals her experiences as the child of a jealous, abusive father whose fights with her mother spilled over, endangering everyone in the family -- a dysfunctional immigrant family from Mexico fighting poverty and language barriers.

Some thoughts:

When I wrote my review at Goodreads, I explained the depth of the family's dysfunction but then I decided I may have revealed too much and I hid the review due to potential spoilers.  The trouble runs deep and wide, that much I will say: Luz often behaves in strange and shocking ways.  The children are not just exposed to violence; there are other factors that make their lives far from normal.  You quickly realize, though, that Luz loves her family and doesn't understand that the way they behave is not typical or normal.

What I loved about Lotería:

Lotería is raw and horrifying but the story is also beautifully paced and the pages fly; it's a quick afternoon or evening's read.  I loved the use of Lotería cards to prompt memories. I'd never heard of the game and it was fun learning a little about it.  There is an illustration of a card at the beginning of each chapter.  From these illustrations and a great deal of Spanish peppered within the narrative and dialogue -- some translated immediately, some intuitive, some completely incomprehensible if you don't know Spanish -- you may learn a tiny bit of the language.

The author also totally surprised me.  I loved that.

What I disliked about Lotería:

Because I whipped through the book quickly and didn't have my iPad handy, I may have missed some subtleties to the story.  I doubt I missed anything crucial, but occasionally I did feel a tad irritated by the sheer quantity of Spanish phrases. And, yet, their presence was overwhelmingly a good thing because I felt challenged to try to figure them out and often did succeed.

The only thing I really disliked about Lotería was the fact that I came out of the reading not knowing what happened to Luz and Estrella's mother.  I really wanted to know.  But, maybe the point was that even her family had no idea what happened.  If Luz doesn't know and Luz is narrating, she can't tell you what became of her mother.

The bottom line:

Recommended with warnings that the book includes some crude language and (of course) violence - Excellent pacing and characterization, a unique device and solid storytelling make Lotería an unusual and very good read.  While I felt the lack of explanation about what happened to Luz's mother left me feeling the book was incomplete, a day of thinking about the book led me to the conclusion that not knowing is an important part of the experience. Lotería is a powerful story of abuse and its aftermath.  I also really enjoyed learning about the Lotería game, as well.  I'd never heard of it.

Added note:  There are some brief scenes with sexuality but they're very important to the plot as they help to explore the depth of Luz's dysfunctional world.

Cover thoughts:  Beautiful and very eye-catching!  The cover is a brightly-colored version of one of the Lotería cards.

An excellent interview of the author:  Daniel Olivas interviews Mario Alberto Zambrano at Los Angeles Review of Books Source:  I received an advance reader copy of Lotería from HarperCollins.

©2013 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

If He Had Been With Me by Laura Nowlin

If He Had Been With Me by Laura Nowlin
Copyright 2013
Sourcebooks Fire - YA/Contemporary
330 pp.

I've already labeled this post with the comment that it has sexuality and alcohol use but please read on.  I think in many ways drunken parties and sex are handled well, but they're topics worth discussing . . . in a minute.

If He Had Been With Me tells the story of Finny and Autumn.  Finny has tragically died (the title gives you a hint of how Autumn feels things would have turned out if she'd been present) and If He Had Been With Me reflects on Finny and Autumn's lifelong relationship, from friends to cold and distant frenemies and back, up to and a little after Finny's death.  Their mothers are best friends forever.  Autumn has a mother who periodically goes through dangerous depression.  Her father is distant, both literally and emotionally as he is almost always away on business.  Finny's mother is a single parent.  They have been next-door neighbors for most of Finny and Autumn's life.  If He Had Been With Me is told from Autumn's point of view.

There are a lot of details I don't need to go into but I think the most interesting thing about If He Had Been With Me is the way Autumn changes over the years.  I was a little annoyed that she was beautiful and Finny is the typical blond, athletic, popular character that's so very overused but Autumn is only popular for a while.  Then, she decides she wants to be more of an individual and begins dressing in her own unique style, coloring her hair wildly and often, and hanging out with a different group of people while Finny remains with the popular crowd. Autumn develops a penchant for tiaras, which brings about some interesting scenes.

Finny and Autumn both enter into long-term relationships in high school, Finny with Sylvie and Autumn with another very handsome boy named Jamie.  This is, of course, where sex comes in.  Autumn resists Jamie and eventually sets a time when she'll be willing to sleep with him, which is also interesting in many ways -- and I don't recall any graphic sex scenes.  I thought the sex talk was realistically handled but we're talking as young as 14 or 15.  And, when one of the girls gets pregnant, there's not the panic or trouble that I would anticipate from real life.  

However, I really think Laura Nowlin has her pulse on the teen world.  The dialogue, the divisions between different groups, the parties and school days, the worries and plans, young love and break-ups -- most of those seemed totally on-target to me.  I liked the grown-up relationships, as well, and how they affected Finny and Autumn.  

If He Had Been With Me is a difficult read because all the way through the book you are both falling in love with Finny and well aware of the fact that he is dead, which sucks.  But, for such a rough storyline, I must admit I was stunned at how completely it sucked me in and would not let go. I was captivated by the relationships, adored Finny, loved Autumn's quirkiness and cared how her story would end.  I actually had two different ideas which way the ending would go and the author used both, which was bizarrely satisfying.

Highly recommended - I absolutely could not put If He Had Been With Me down.  Well-written prose and characters that you can believe in carry the reader through a difficult story of love and death. I was very impressed.  I think If He Had Been With Me would be especially great for discussion in a mother-daughter book group.

One of my favorite recent bird pics:

I love how very different the two indigo buntings look -- one so consistently colored and the other speckled with grey.  Kind of a cool action shot, too.  Birds are awfully fun to watch.

©2013 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.