Into the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea

In Into the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea, Nayeli's village in Mexico, Tres Camarones, has been invaded by dangerous drugs runners/bandidos but almost all of the men have gone to the United States to find work. Her father has been gone for years without sending money or even a postcard. When Nayeli realizes there is nobody around to save them, she's inspired by the movie, The Magnificent Seven. She and her friends will go to America to bring home her own Magnificent Seven to drive the bandidos away. 

Highly recommended - A marvelous read that treats the "illegal" characters like the humans they are, with joys and sorrows like the rest of us. Nayeli is an especially strong character but a believable one, as are her friends, flaws and all. I was expecting the usual, harrowing border crossing adventure and there's plenty of that. What I didn't expect was the humor. Mexicans complaining that they need a wall on their Southern border. Border Patrolmen who put illegals on the bus back to Tijuana and, after asking, "Will you cross over again?" and being told yes, say "See you next week!" Just an all-around fabulous read, respectful, surprising, and hilarious. 

I don't own any other books by Luis Alberto Urrea, unfortunately, but now I want to read his entire backlist. I love his sense of humor. 

©2022 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.

Dominicana by Angie Cruz

Dominicana by Angie Cruz is the story of Ana, who is forced to marry so that she can live in the US, hopefully to prosper and send money home to the Dominican Republic. Eventually, she plans to sponsor family members who also want to become American. She is 15, her husband is 32 when they hastily marry and move to New York.

In New York, Ana finds that her husband is not the wealthy man he pretended to be. Nor is he as kind as everyone thought. In fact, this book needs a trigger warning for domestic violence. Finding herself trapped in poor circumstances, Ana comes up with sneaky ways to set money aside for herself. Ana works hard at making her home comfortable, cooking delicious foods from their home country, and helping him with a shady business out of their apartment. But, when she makes a costly mistake, will it end her chance to escape from his violence?

Recommended - I enjoyed Dominicana mostly for the work ethic and creativity of the heroine, but I also loved the way she got to know her neighbors (in spite of the language barrier), found a way to start learning English when her husband was not around to force her to stay home, and eventually made her own money. She screwed up plenty, mostly because of her youth and naïvité. But, I cared for her and hoped things would work out. The 1960s setting was unfortunately not well described. I had to keep reminding myself of the time period.

It's been a couple weeks since I read Dominicana but I remember it well. I found it very difficult to put down and since we were being hit by the outer bands of Hurricane Hanna, it was a great day to read. Hanna even cooled us off enough that I was able to spend part of my reading time outside. In July! Yay!

I think I have Instagram to thank for this recommendation. I remember seeing it frequently, not so long ago. Maybe it was a Book of the Month Club selection? At any rate, I read lots of reviews and I'm glad I was able to read a copy. The story is based on the author's mother's story. I'm curious how similar it is and in what aspects she departed from her mother's experience.


©2020 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.

American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins with thoughts and a link

Reading American Dirt and even getting it in the mail was such an interesting experience. It literally arrived in my mailbox right as the controversy was erupting, after a months-long wait (I pre-ordered it). After reading a lot of articles and some thoughts by individuals, I was pretty sure I wanted to put off reading the book. I would read it eventually, sure, with a healthy skepticism of its accuracy — I'd already paid for it, after all — but I figured there was no hurry. Then, I spoke to my friend Michelle (formerly blogger Kookie at A Fraternity of Dreamers). Michelle has Mexican ancestry and she knows her history, her Mexican food, her soccer players. I don't. We finished reading the book on the same day, so we were able to chat about it while it was still fresh in our minds.

WARNING: THIS DESCRIPTION CONTAINS SPOILERS!!!!!

PLEASE SKIP TO THE SAFE LINE IF YOU PLAN TO READ AMERICAN DIRT AND DON'T WANT TO KNOW ANY DETAILS OR PLOT POINTS FROM THE STORY!!!!!

American Dirt is the story of Lydia Quixano Pérez, a bookstore owner in Acapulco who unknowingly has befriended a drug lord named Javier. Her husband is a journalist and she has one child, a son named Luca. The book opens with an incredibly tense scene in which Lydia and Luca are huddled in a shower enclosure while gunfire rattles outside. They're at a family cookout and as they hide they overhear the shootings of everyone present, the search for Lydia, the men walking through the house to make sure they've left no survivors. Lydia knows the deaths of nearly her entire family must be connected to the article her husband wrote exposing Javier. Lydia thought Javier would find the article flattering. He must not have. Now, she has no choice but to run.

Javier's friendship with Lydia started innocently enough. He loved books, wrote poetry, and was oddly magnetic. Lydia enjoyed Javier's company until she became aware of what he did for a living. She's seen and heard enough, by the time of the mass shooting, to know that Javier has tentacles throughout the country so even as she's running, Lydia is careful who she speaks to and what she says. But, as she and Luca ride buses, stay in overnight migrant centers, walk, and ride the dangerous train known as The Beast, they are dogged by a young man with a tattoo that Lydia recognizes. Is he pretending to be a migrant or has he really left the drug business?

-------------------------SAFE LINE! SAFE LINE! SAFE LINE!------------------------------

NO SPOILERS AFTER THIS POINT. 

Recommended with dramatically mixed feelings. Instead of summarizing my thoughts, I've decided to summarize our discussion a bit, share Michelle's review, and directly quote a few of her thoughts. I highly recommend you read Michelle's review:

Michelle's review of American Dirt at Facebook

Michelle and I were jumping back and forth between the comment section below her review (which you can see) and another post at Facebook, so you can't see the entire conversation at Facebook. This is an analogy Michelle wrote about the book:

Imagine you are in a horrific car crash and barely escape with your life. Someone asks you to tell them what it was like and before you even open your mouth someone who SAW the crash describes it. They get it mostly right, but they can't describe the physical and emotional impact the accident had on you. American Dirt is a bystander to the Latin American immigrant experience.

~Michelle McIntyre 

That seems fair.

I came into the reading from an entirely different perspective, of course: ignorance of the Mexican culture. My extent of experience in Mexico amounts to a couple of walks across the border from Texas as a young child and then a teenager. I don't remember much.

Without knowing what the author got right or wrong (except from articles I'd already read; there are tons of them online if you've missed out), I viewed American Dirt on its merits as a piece of writing, like any other novel, and my general feeling was that it was marketed badly. Billed as a tale of immigration, American Dirt is really (in my opinion) a thriller. The author is equally guilty in the mischaracterization of the book. She talked about her desire to tell the story of a people viewed as  "faceless brown masses" (a quote even I find extremely offensive — maybe there are people who see immigrants that way but I certainly do not). But, then she added that she wanted to make her heroine "someone like me". This makes little sense as Lydia is not typical of the masses; she is a bookstore owner with plenty of money and her weird friendship with a cartel boss further sets her apart.

So, there's a little bit of a disconnect, there. I think if you leave out the attempt to market American Dirt as a a novel of immigration and look at it as a thriller, it works. Thrillers tend to lack depth and are meant to be fast-paced. The idea is to propel you through the pages and give you a vicarious thrill, not to deeply examine an important social issue, although a social issue (immigration; environmental crisis, etc.) can serve as the backdrop. So, I agree with Michelle's car crash example in that as a thriller the book skims over the emotional and physical impact of immigration and focuses, instead, on the escape.

I also thought Cummins' comment in the author's note about wishing someone slightly browner than her had written the book was a bit of garbage pandering to her audience. As someone who has been published, I think I can safely say that no author wishes someone else had written her book, period, regardless of the shade of their skin. I do, however, know that writing a thriller set in another country is nothing new and, yep, authors get details wrong when they don't know the location or the people intimately or don't do their research. The argument that someone shouldn't have written a particular book has been around for ages, not just in contemporary fiction but in historical, where there can be a huge difference between fiction written by historians and popular fiction.

Michelle said she enjoyed parts of the book and agreed that it wouldn't have been so controversial, had it been marketed as a thriller. But, there were times that elements struck her as lazy googling instead of real research:

The real shame of it is most of those details could have been avoided if she’d just done her research. I’m sure she Googled “famous Mexican soccer player” to get the name Hernandez, but if she’d just turned around and Googled his name she would have realized he’s never called that. That really bugged me. 

We also talked about the author's part in the controversy. This was my opinion:

Her author's note just added fuel to the fire. She painted herself as some sort of heroine trying to reveal hidden truth. Nah. You wrote a thriller. It was good but not brilliant. It's a fun read if that's what you're in the mood for. Thrillers sell; that's the real reason she got the big bucks and the knowledgable writers didn't. A little honesty about that would have probably prevented the controversy (although, controversy generally is a good thing for publishers because any publicity is golden -- people *are* buying the book out of curiosity -- so this won't necessarily lead to thoughtful action, IMHO). [...] She also has some writerly ticks, things she reused, especially toward the beginning. One was people pouring beverages that nobody bothered to drink, including Luca. And, she did some weird head-hopping. There was one page where she was in Lydia's head, then Luca's, then Soledad's. That is generally considered bad writing, although some authors can pull it off well. She did not.

Michelle agreed and noted that Cummins referred to her mother as Abuela, capitalized, which is like calling your own mother "Grandma". It's normal to say something like, "You're going to have a great time at Grandma's house!" to your child. That's not what was happening. In one case, a policeman referred to Lydia's mother as Abuela, as well, which is just bizarre. No policeman calls a victim's mother "Grandma". If you know Mexico, you'll apparently notice a lot of little mistakes like that in the book. Another one is Luca ordering extra sour cream on his tacos — something I probably would not have noticed if I hadn't read about it, although the fact that Luca's extra sour cream order comforted Lydia did. What? Why would someone ordering extra anything comfort you? That was weird.

The bottom line:

Mistakes were made. The marketing of this book implied that there was some deep, unique revelation or insight about the immigrant experience in American Dirt when, in fact, even the journey (which is, admittedly, pretty exciting reading) was not apparently accurate. Even I noticed that Cummins had a priest warn migrants about the dangers of The Beast and then . . . nothing happened. Everyone was nice to Lydia and Luca on The Beast. I've read two other books in which people rode that train and while she is the only author who bothered explaining why people ride on top (it's a freight train — there are apparently no passenger trains at all in Northern Mexico, thanks to American influence) in the other books I read, one person who rode The Beast was raped and the other robbed.

The use of barbed-wire-wrapped centerpieces at a party and the way the author painted her nails with the cover image were additionally incredibly offensive, so it wasn't the marketing alone that stirred people up. As a white American with European roots, I would never have spotted most of the inaccuracies or seen the book as racist and I respect the opinions of those who find the book upsetting. But, I do think the proper marketing could have prevented some of the anger and hurt. And, clearly, authors should be very careful what they say about their writing.

If you read American Dirt, read it as a thriller but bear in mind what those who know the country have to say. Better yet, take Michelle's advice:

I could go on forever talking about the flaws of American Dirt, but I’d rather talk about the books that tell the REAL Latin American stories. Read Luis Alberto Urrea, Octavio Paz, Jennifer Clement, Alfredo Vea Jr. and Sandra Cisneros. Read Juan Rulfo, Yuri Herrera, Carlos Fuentes, and Carmen Boullosa. Read Juan Pablo Villalobos, Daniel Saldana Paris, Sergio Pitol and Elena Garro. All of them tell the story of American Dirt a million times better than Jeanine Cummins.

©2020 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.

Mini reviews - The Lost Man by Jane Harper, The Same Sky by Amanda Eyre Ward, and The Last Light Breaking by Nick Jans

It just occurred to me that I should use as much of the week as possible while I'm trying to quickly crank out reviews to finish up 2019, so I may go ahead and post on the weekends and/or skip Fiona Friday until I've caught up and posted my final list with links to all reviews from 2019. I'm going to wing it, for now. Husband may not let me get away with that, so we'll just have to see if that works out. I've just gotten my phone back from the store where I left it behind, so I will go ahead and post a Fiona Friday image, tomorrow.

The Lost Man by Jane Harper is about three brothers. One has become an outcast and lives on a remote piece of his family's property. One feels like he's being treated like he's stupid and left completely out of the decision-making. The third was considered the responsible, likable one. He was married with two children but his body has just turned up in a very strange place, next to a lone grave and far enough from his car that it appears he may have committed suicide. But, something doesn't feel quite right about his death and the outcast brother decides to find out what really happened.

I don't have the book next to me but I remember the story well, if not the names of the characters. As in her previous two books, Jane Harper's Australian setting is practically a character in and of itself, it's so vivid. When she talks about the dust, the dryness, the heat, the way the fine red soil gets into the creases of one's clothing, it's so well described that the real world feels a little unreal for a moment, when you set the book down. The characterization is every bit as sharp. I am so impressed by Jane Harper.

Highly recommended - I was a little disappointed when I found out Jane Harper's third book wasn't going to star the police officer with a wounded soul but an honorable heart of the first two books but I shouldn't have been. I'm not a mystery fan but Jane Harper's writing absolutely sweeps me away. The Lost Man has a slightly slow beginning as you get to know the characters but once you've been introduced to the cast and the questions about the death have been posed, the story becomes absolutely mesmerizing. I continued guessing all the way to the end of the book and I closed the book thinking it was Harper's best.

My copy of The Same Sky by Amanda Eyre Ward was ordered from Book Depository so just a warning, up front: that's probably the British cover. The publisher is Blackfriars, which sounds very British, but I'm just guessing. If you're American and this story appeals to you, be aware that you probably won't see this cover if you go looking for it.

The Same Sky tells two interconnected stories. One is the tale of a young Honduran girl who lives with her grandmother and twin brothers. Her mother lives in Austin, Texas and sends home money but after things deteriorate, Carla and her brother, Junior, are constantly starving. When he starts sniffing glue to help him forget his hunger, Carla knows it's past time to attempt the harrowing journey North. Will they survive?

In the second storyline, Alice is infertile due to breast cancer treatment in her college years and a baby she and her husband were going to adopt has been reclaimed by his mother. Is it time to give up on ever having a child?

It's pretty obvious how Carla and Alice's stories will intersect (Trigger Warning for rape) and, as is often the case in books with two storylines, I favored one over the other — the favorite being Carla's story. I didn't feel like Alice's story was entirely necessary but that's a personal preference. After I wrote that I was unsure why the author bothered to tell Alice's story, on Instagram, another reader and bookstagrammer told me she liked the story just as it is. I wondered if Ward showed Alice's side for the contrast. Alice and her husband have a successful business but feel their lives are incomplete without a family. Carla's family is scattered and struggling in ways mostly unimaginable to an American, so there definitely is a stark difference between their lives.

Recommended but I had mixed feelings - While I think immigrant stories are especially important at this moment, I felt like The Same Sky was a little too disjointed and that some of the elements should have been glossed over or eliminated entirely. I gave it 3 1/2 ⭐. For those who may be wondering, yes I've heard of American Dirt. In fact, I've pre-ordered a copy. I tried to win one (I don't know how many drawings I signed up for) but failed. Before I did so, I'd already pre-ordered it, anyway. It just means I have to wait till its release. 

There's an interesting story behind how I found The Last Light Breaking by Nick Jans. About 10 years ago, the first time we went to Alaska on vacation, Huzzybuns neglected to book one night's lodging in the middle of our stay. Seriously, he just skipped that night. When he realized he'd messed up, the only place he could find for us to stay was on the opposite side of the Kenai Peninsula from where we were staying the rest of the time, in a former cannery. He booked it because he had no other options and it turned out to be a cool side trip because it was on the drive across the peninsula that we saw the one and only moose we encountered on that trip. 

Our room in the former cannery was frigid (the thermostat set in the 50s) when we arrived but there was a little lobby area with corner seating where we could hang out while the room warmed up and a shelf of books on each wall for the guests to borrow. I flipped through a few before settling down to read The Last Light Breaking. I only read a single chapter (it's a series of essays about the author's life in Alaska with Inupiat Eskimos) but I was so impressed that I wrote down the title and author and put the book on my wish list. It took several years before I got a copy via Paperback Swap and I suppose it's taken me so long to actually read The Last Light Breaking because of all the ARCs I've given priority, over the years, but it finally called out to me during my winter break from blogging and I listened. 

The essays in The Last Light Breaking tell Nick Jans' story (not in exact timeline order, but so well that it didn't feel like that mattered): how and why he ended up traveling to Alaska, his experience as a new guy (and not a native in a predominantly native region) in town, the jobs he's held, many of the trips he's made around the area to camp, hunt, fish, hike, etc., and what he's learned from his neighbors and friends. Nick Jans is an adventurer and a people person, so the book is particularly fun to read if you like reading about adventure, interaction, and what it's like to live with the Inupiat, who are among the few natives who actually are OK with the word "Eskimo".

Speaking of the word "Eskimo" and why it's not always OK . . . my son had a swim coach from Alaska. He was indigenous but Tlingit, from Juneau, not a people for whom the term "Eskimo" is used, so he considers it offensive if you call him an Eskimo.

Highly recommended - Stunning writing that will make you feel like you've been on an adventure with the author and convince you that the land is sacred. I will be looking for more by Jans and I wish I'd read him sooner.

When we were in Alaska, or maybe before, I read up on the native way of life and why they still consider subsistence living (hunting and fishing in the traditional ways for food, fuel, etc.) important so I had no problem with some of the things Jans did with his friends but I would caution the squeamish and anyone who objects to the killing of animals for any reason that there are a few graphic scenes that you might need to skim.

©2020 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.

The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri

 

I've put two images of The Beekeeper of Aleppo up because I noticed the one on the right is more common at Goodreads. My copy was like the one at left, an ARC, and it appears to be available with this cover in hardback but it's also possible that the image wasn't updated by the publisher. So, to make it easy to identify, if you decide to go looking for it in an actual store, I've opted to post both images.

The Beekeeper of Aleppo is about a man and his family who lived in Aleppo, Syria, when it was a peaceful place. After meeting his cousin Mustafa and finding out about his work as a beekeeper, Nuri chose to join his cousin Mustafa's beekeeping business. But, then drought hit the country, followed by war. Now, his house has been bombed, his child killed, and his wife blinded. The book goes back and forth in time, from the idyllic past in which Nuri's country is beautiful and peaceful and he has a job he loves to the beginnings of drought, the bombings, the deaths of loved ones, his cousin's escape to England, and then finally a time when Nuri's life is threatened and he's left with no choice but to try to get to England, as well. All of that falls into the past timeline. In the present timeline, Nuri is living in England, hoping to be approved for asylum, and doing strange things like sleeping in the garden.

There's so much to this book. You get a glimpse of the horrifying journey that one must take to escape across Europe, where not every country is willing to let immigrants pass through and human smugglers take too many people across the water on dangerously unstable boats. You see the deterioration of a country from peaceful and lovely to being reduced to violence and rubble (in this case, due to climate change). The loss of one's livelihood (Nuri's beekeeping; his wife Afra's art) is shown as yet another facet of loss and grief. The death of a child and the post-traumatic stress and how they change the way Nuri and Afra behave is described. The dangers to women who are refugees are shown.

Being a refugee . . . this is the third book I've read about people having no choice but to escape violence-ridden countries (not the same country) but the hazards are always the same. You leave out of desperation and take very little. Every little thing you have, though, some people are willing to steal: your money, your backpack with just a few shreds of clothing and maybe a bar of soap, your phone, your shoes, your life. Women are often raped or otherwise abused. You could have been wealthy in your home country but you're nothing and nobody, just a chance to make money to a smuggler, a nuisance to the countries you travel through, a suspicious alien to those from whom you seek asylum. We, the readers, normally see these stories from the opposite side, as the place people try to go. In a country where asylum is a possibility, it's incumbent upon the residents to understand why anyone would want to leave their home and travel thousands of miles to ask for asylum. The Beekeeper of Aleppo is a novel that helps give you that perspective.

Highly recommended - While I didn't find that The Beekeeper of Aleppo tugged at my heartstrings in the way that some do (I didn't cry; I just took the family into my heart and maybe grieved with them and feared for them), I think I got out of The Beekeeper of Aleppo what the author wanted — a better understanding of what it's like to live somewhere that was once a happy, beautiful place to live with a rich history and then have no choice but to run for your life; a feel for the horror, the grief, and the terror of being a refugee. I'm glad the author chose to portray the story through the eyes of Nuri rather than Afra because Afra's grief made her nearly catatonic, at times, while Nuri refused to give up hope. He had problems and fears and guilt, but he was still mostly a functioning human.

I received an ARC of The Beekeeper of Aleppo from Ballantine Books (an imprint of Penguin Random House) for review. Many thanks! I think this title would be a good one for group discussion and I plan to loan my copy to my F2F group's leader in the hopes that she'll agree.


©2019 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.

Searching for Sylvie Lee by Jean Kwok

Sylvie and Amy Lee's grandmother is dying. Amy doesn't really know her but Sylvie spent the first 9 years of her life in the Netherlands, living with her aunt and uncle, her cousin, and her grandmother. Their parents live in the United States and Amy is still living at home, taking a break from school, when Sylvie takes off for the Netherlands to say her final goodbye.

Sylvie is the smart one, the pretty one, the successful daughter with a husband who comes from a wealthy background. Amy has dated around but lacks her sister's confidence and success. Sylvie has helped support her family. But, now she's disappeared in the Netherlands.

Mrs. Lee, known as "Ma" in the book, does not appear to be particularly happy. During her early years as a mother, she and her husband were struggling. So they sent Sylvie to live in the Netherlands and then brought her to the U.S. when her little sister was 2 years old. Ma still doesn't speak English well and keeps to herself.

When Sylvie disappears, Amy flies to the Netherlands to look for her. There, she discovers the strange relationships between Sylvie and their aunt and uncle are not at all what she expected and that their grandmother's treasure, a bag of jewelry she's kept for decades, has gone missing. During the weekend of their grandmother's death, Sylvie went on a quick trip to Venice. What happened in Venice? Could the people who traveled with her have anything to do with her disappearance? Did Sylvie take the gold? If she did, did someone kill her for it? What happened between Sylvie and her husband? Why was Sylvie taking music lessons in the Netherlands and what's the deal with the man who taught Sylvie and insinuated himself into Amy's life?

Through the voices of Sylvie, Amy, and Ma, we get to know the stories of 3 Chinese-American women, their experiences as immigrants in two different nations, the secrets they've kept, and how racism and family dynamics effected their lives, against the backdrop of a mystery.

Highly recommended - So many questions to keep the pages turning. I found Searching for Sylvie Lee utterly gripping. The only problem I had with it is the fact that what became of Sylvie is given away (but not in its entirety) about 2/3, or maybe 3/4, of the way into the book via a newspaper article. I'm not sure why the author chose to insert the news articles (there were 2 or 3) but that particular one was a little deflating and I took a point off for that. Still, there were plenty of mysteries remaining and by the end of the book, Amy and Ma's stories had become dominant as Amy's time away from home helped her build confidence and a surprising revelation explained much about why Ma behaved as she did. All of which is to say, Searching for Sylvie Lee was a very intriguing read.

I received an ARC of Searching for Sylvie Lee from HarperCollins in return for an unbiased review. Many thanks!


©2019 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.

Beast Rider by Tony Johnston and M. E. Fontanot de Rhoads

Beast Rider by Tony Johnston and Maria Elena Fontanot de Rhoads is the story of a boy's journey from Mexico to the United States. I jumped at the chance to review it when I saw the advertisement on Shelf Awareness. I've read a few tales of people escaping hardship by immigrating but most have been about immigration to Europe, not the United States, so I was excited to read a story that happens closer to home (fictional).

Manuel's brother Toño rode the train (illegally, as in climbing on top of the train and alternately walking and riding) to the United States from their home in Oaxaca, Mexico, a few years ago. They know he survived the journey because he occasionally calls home. Manuel misses Toño, his family lives an impoverished farming life, and he is curious about life in El Norte. So he decides to also make the journey. He will begin the dangerous trip by running to jump onto the train locally known as "The Beast". Even climbing aboard is dangerous, not to mention riding on top of train cars without handholds. People have been known to fall off or miss while jumping aboard and lose limbs or die. But, Manuel is determined.

My initial thought, as I began reading, was that Manuel's journey would be an event that took a few weeks or a few months, at most, even though the cover description says he's "robbed, arrested, beaten, and left for dead." But, it actually takes him about two years because he has to keep stopping to recover. Along the way, terrible things happen but there are good people who care for him, help him recover, feed, and clothe him, as well. It's an emotional journey and I often got choked up, especially when reading about the kindness of strangers.

Highly recommended - The storytelling style is unique and I had to adjust to it, but once I became accustomed to Johnston's voice, I found the story compelling and eye-opening. It took a while, though. When I was about 1/3 of the way into the book and realized that Toño was an illegal immigrant and that Manuel planned to enter the U.S. illegally, as well, I thought, "Well, this isn't going to be a book that's helpful." I figured it was the wrong viewpoint and people who are prone to thinking of Mexican immigrants in a negative light would just shake their heads and say, "See! Just as I suspected." But, besides illuminating the good and evil in people one might encounter in real life, Beast Rider actually places you in the midst of the incredibly terrifying and life-threatening process that is illegal immigration from Mexico and shows you just how much people are willing to go through to seek out a better life.

Quite a few Spanish words or phrases are used and there is a 6-page glossary to refer to. Beast Rider is for ages 12 and up.

This next part may be considered a spoiler, so I'll type it in white and you can highlight it to read if you're not worried about potential spoilers. I won't give away the ending, but I will say I thought it felt right and it was what I hoped for.

Manuel eventually does make it into the United States, but because he's illegal he can't get a decent job and neither can his brother; they just scrape by. They live better than they did in Oaxaca, from the standpoint of living space. But, without legal documentation, there's really no way to move up in the world and they live in fear of being caught and sent back. As you're reading about Manuel's daily life in Los Angeles, it becomes clear that his family may have been poor but they were happy and they had a loving support system. In other words, while their life was one of hardship in Oaxaca, it was really a better life. As such, you could definitely look at the book as one that supports legal immigration. I'd like to see something similar that digs into what it's like being surrounded by gangs, threatened and extorted, having loved ones killed, like many of the current immigrants coming from Honduras -- one in which going back is likely a death sentence. But, as a way to learn about why the journey is so dangerous (and, thus, so many large groups have been forming to fend off that danger), Beast Rider is definitely illuminating. 

I received an Advance Reader's Copy of Beast Rider for review from Abrams Books. Many thanks!


©2019 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.