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Description
Finalist for the National Book Award!In this beautifully wrought memoir, award-winning writer John Philip Santos weaves together dream fragments, family remembrances, and Chicano mythology, reaching back into time and place to blend the story of one Mexican family with the soul of an entire people. The story unfolds through a pageant of unforgettable family figures: from Madrina--touched with epilepsy and prophecy ever since, as a girl, she saw a dying soul leave its body--to Teofilo, who was kidnapped as an infant and raised by the Kikapu Indians of Northern Mexico. At the heart of the book is Santos' search for the meaning of his grandfather's suicide in San Antonio, Texas, in 1939. Part treasury of the elders, part elegy, part personal odyssey, this is an immigration tale and a haunting family story that offers a rich, magical view of Mexican-American culture.… (more)
User reviews
This book was about the family history of two families...The Garcias and the Santos family. A very weak mystery plot of one of the relatives found dead in the river
I felt that this book was the Sienfeld of Genealogy. It had much to do about nothing. There was no real purpose other than cataloging events of both families as they came across. He made such a big deal about how the families were losing their heritage from generation to generation that it made me nauseous. He calls it losing one's heritage and family history, I call it evolution. Its time to move on people!
I guess his challenge and the challenge of the book was to see if he can put the histories together. I guess he did but, me as the reader, really didn't care. Thats nice...Not thrilling...but nice. So you are asking, why did you read it?
1} I read it to discuss in my monthly book club.
2} I actually enjoyed the descriptions of San Antonio...the town I live in now. I tried to picture it as he described it back in its hey day.
3} The actual writing was not bad. I guess he kept me interested in the "What's next" Category.
But there is little else here. You don't really care about the characters. You come to accept the history as it is the "Part of Life" category. Meaning, Yes the Spaniards came in and mixed their race with the Indian race that was there. Yes, there was a lot of civil uprising in Mexico at the time to make the people there risk moving north to America. Yes, there was a lot of hardship and strife. Yes, the people were simplistic and just did what they had to do to get by.....shall I continue? After awhile, it got very mundane and I thought...with no real purpose at the end of the book. I guess what he felt good about was that he could recollect all of these little stories and compile them into one single tome.