Price: RM49
Set in contemporary New Mexico, in a community of native Americans inbred with Spanish descendents, this is the story of Ignacia Vigil Romero, a full Jacarilla Apache, and the two boys, Mister and Tomas, she raised to adulthood.
At the crux of the novel are Mister and Tomas' close and parallel childhoods in the ghetto of poor education and heavy alcohol and drug use. Tomas' inheritance of his mother's alcoholism, his rage, and Mister's sensitive commitment to Ignacia inform their intense friendship up until high school where both boys fall for Rocky, a girl with her own burdens, the girl Tomas takes for himself. When hell breaks loose between them, Mister and Tomas bottom out in grief and guilt. One of them dies and the survivor pledges his life to the lessons Ignacia taught them.
The characters - from the extraordinary Ignacia to the beguiling Rocky - are beautifully and compellingly drawn. The plot is active and suspenseful and ends on exactly the right positive note. In a setting that is a character in itself, the secondary characters exist believably and in ways that illuminate this level of American society. But what is most remarkable about this novel is the author's exceptionally original narrative approach. There's never a lag, never a slip.
At the crux of the novel are Mister and Tomas' close and parallel childhoods in the ghetto of poor education and heavy alcohol and drug use. Tomas' inheritance of his mother's alcoholism, his rage, and Mister's sensitive commitment to Ignacia inform their intense friendship up until high school where both boys fall for Rocky, a girl with her own burdens, the girl Tomas takes for himself. When hell breaks loose between them, Mister and Tomas bottom out in grief and guilt. One of them dies and the survivor pledges his life to the lessons Ignacia taught them.
The characters - from the extraordinary Ignacia to the beguiling Rocky - are beautifully and compellingly drawn. The plot is active and suspenseful and ends on exactly the right positive note. In a setting that is a character in itself, the secondary characters exist believably and in ways that illuminate this level of American society. But what is most remarkable about this novel is the author's exceptionally original narrative approach. There's never a lag, never a slip.
Product Details:
- : 267
- ISBN: 1565129172
- : Shannon Ravenel Books
- : July 2010
