Customer Reviews

Breaking Even

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I'm fifteen-years-old. My parents got divorced when I was eleven. I come from three generations of divorced parents. I wondered what the problem was with me, that I couldn't be with my dad. Then I read Alejandro Grattan Dominguez's book "Breaking Even", which was great, and I looked at the situation a lot differently.
I related to Val through most of the book. It made me feel better that it's okay to live without my dad. My dad lives in Phoenix right now and he is giving my mom and I problems that I'm not living with him. I'm not losing anything at all by not having my dad around. I'm having a good life without him. He is the one missing out. So to me, he is a jerk like Frank Cooper in the book.
I really got into the book when Val just walked out on his dad, because that is similar to what I did, and when I did, I felt bad, but inside, I actually didn't.
Now that I have read this book, I feel a lot better and it taught me some things. For instance, how Val left Big Bend, Texas, I left Dover, Delaware. That is where I grew up until I was seven-years-old when we started traveling.
My family in Delaware thinks it's so bad that my brother and I travel. I have fun with my gymnastics, traveling everywhere and seeing interesting things outside of where I grew up. But instead, my family is back in Delaware thinking they're having fun in their toxic waste State.
My situation is similar to Val's family and friends. They didn't want him to go search for his dad or work at his goal to go to California, but it's a lot better than staying in one place all your life. Plus, it's educational to see all the States and different cultures.
My opinion is that "Breaking Even" should be read in all High Schools in the Country because about seventy percent of kids in the U.S. only have one parent. I'm telling all my friends to read it. We're all miserable because of our parent's selfishness. It will help them like it helped me.

This is a coming-of-age story set in the 1950s. Val, an 18-year-old Mexican-American, works in his Mexican mother's cafe, lives for the movies, and dreams about leaving the small West Texas town where he has lived all his life. Having grown up thinking that his Anglo father was dead, he is shocked to learn that he is alive,and there begins the real story.

It is Val's search not only for his father, Cooper (who looks to Val like a Hollywood movie star and is actually a professional high-stakes gambler), but also for his own identity and roots as a Mexican-American man. Team the father and son characters Cooper and Val with Ms. Blue Morgan, a kind-hearted, aging paid companion from Reno, and the story becomes even more deliciously colorful and complicated. A poker game brings these three together in El Paso for their initial meeting, and it leads to a bigger poker game in Reno and the adventure of their lives. They are all coincidentally at turning points and must decide on new courses for their lives. This is more than a coming-of-age story; it is one of coming to terms with one's life and taking responsibility for that life. It is a story of hard questions and decisions. Ultimately, it is a story of liberation from past circumstances and the pursuit of destiny.

Grattan-Dominguez is a fine storyteller with a good sense of dialogue. His portrayals of character and of the authentic Southwest are sure to earn him a growing reputation as a writer.

This finely-crafted novel of discovery and reaching adulthood is an entrancing fast read. Mr. Grattan-Dominguez has created a classical format; like a play in five acts, the five parts of the tale move the storyline along at a dramatic pace. Part One sets up the exposition as it involves the reader in the events of the protagonist's eighteenth birthday and introduces the small west Texas town from which he yearns to escape. The author's sense of place and character creation is so strong that the reader CARES about Val Cooper before the end of the first chapter. From that point, it is hard to put the book down.

It is perhaps Mr. Grattan-Dominguez's background as screenwriter that enables him to write dialogue that sounds exactly authentic, and to create scenes that are surprising visual in a piece of written fiction. Whatever this case may be, the author is a gifted storyteller who keeps the reader hoping Val will succeed in his quest and achieve his ambition, and that his discoveries along the way will not destroy him. We also come to care about the characters around Val: his Mexican mother and her problems because of her ethnic identity, his stepfather, his girlfriend Bonnie, and the wonderfully believable "Blue Morgan"--a would-be singer, down on her luck, with a soft heart.

This is an emotional book, not without grit, but with a final paragraph that satisfies one's longing to learn how Val turned out. It is one of those rare books whose characters stay with the reader after the final page, and which can be re-read with pleasure equal to or greater than that of the first time. I also wished for a sequel in order to spend more time with Val. Perhaps Mr. Grattan-Dominguez could further entertain us with the details of Val's life during the years covered by the last text break in the novel. It is a gifted writer who can leave his readers craving more.

I finished "Breaking Even" by Alejandro Grattan Dominguez last night.
Rather than comment on the author's literary genius, which would take me a page or two, allow me to sum it up:

This book should be required reading in every High School in the USA. Too many kids have been abandoned. The book should at least be in every High School and Public Library

The one single message that screams out in this book, is this:
"YOU'RE NOT MISSING ANYTHING IN LIFE BY NOT HAVING YOUR PARENT AROUND. HE OR SHE MISSED OUT ON YOUR LIFE!
YOU DID NOT LOSE. HE OR SHE DID!

I did not realize that myself, until 20 years after not seeing my father, I was talking to my Aunt one night. It dawned on me: I've had a hell of a ball, done some really fun and fascinating things, met great people all over the USA and Mexico and he didn't get a chance to share in that. So, who's the loser??? ha ha ha You snooze, you lose.
Now, I'm sitting here laughing!!
It is a great book Alejandro! Perfect for today's millions of abandoned kids, whatever their age.
This story should be made into a movie and given out free at all video rental stores in the USA. There are too many abandoned kids, in one form or the other, and NO ONE is helping them to understand the cure for their self loss. Alejandro does that. His book is a cure for an EXTREMELY EMOTIONAL CANCER OF AMERICAN SOCIETY.
Thank you!! Mr. Dominguez. I was crying....and now I am LAUGHING!!

In every boy's life there is a crucial point where he teeters on the brink of manhood. It's at this time, when the boy-man is most vulnerable that he needs a role model to guide him past the final pitfalls of adolescence into the responsibilities of adulthood.

Breaking Even, Alejandro Grattan's brilliantly crafted coming-of-age novel begins with 18-year-old Val leaving his small West Texas town in search of his role model, a father who left years before and who Val discovers is very much alive even though his mother, Lupe has always told him his father had died a hero's death.

Apart from the mystery of his father, Val has other issues. His mother is Mexican and Val's mixed racial heritage fixes him firmly near the bottom of the social pecking order in their small town and gives him an identity problem. He dislikes his life working in his mother's roadside diner and dreams of going to Hollywood to work in the movies. His confusion causes him to refuse advice from those who most care for him. To top it off his girlfriend Bonnie is pregnant. His immaturity ensures he only grapples with twinges of conscience, never with real issues.

Val's father Frank Cooper is a high stakes poker player in search of his own Holy Grail, the big pot that always seems to be in the next game. When he finds Cooper, Val is at first taken in by his charm and easy manner. However as each flaw is uncovered Val comes to see his father as he really is, an addicted gambler with no dream and no prospect of one. With this realization Val's own sense of responsibility to himself and to others begins to develop. This, in turn allows him to discern right from wrong, and to identify those who really do care for him.

The theme of this book is personal responsibility and Grattan has ensured authentic characters by coloring no one completely black or completely white. All are developed realistically including the minor characters of Floyd, his mother's short-order cook husband and Blue, a washed-up saloon singer and paid escort who travels with Cooper. Though everyone has personal flaws they are redeemed by the responsibilities they assume. Only Cooper is without redemption and therein is the brilliance of the novel. The message is conveyed without preaching.

This is a serious story dealing with serious issues and can be enjoyed at different levels. At one Val's search for his father is a metaphor for the real quest, his identity. On another level the book can be enjoyed as a great story with tightly defined characters who speak incredible lines such as, "The life of the party had gone home leaving Val and Cooper stranded out in the middle of a conversational wilderness."

The author's screen-writing and film directing background is clearly evident in the imagery and visual scenes painted throughout the book. Apart from being a darn good read this novel is noteworthy for the issues addressed, well-rounded characters, colorful images, and biting dialogue.

This heart-warming and enticing story grabbed my full attention. I could hardly put it down. I was captivated by the plot and Val's dedicated search for his father and the challenges that he faced on his journey. Each character contributed to the excitement and the intrigue. I highly recommend this book.

Breaking Even by Alejandro Grattan-Domínguez (Houston: Arte Publico Press, 1997) 254 pp. $11.95

Those readers who have experienced the richness of the Chicano culture and life in Grattan1s The Dark Side of the Dream already know the power of this author in painting complex and believable characters. In that novel, set against the backdrop of World War II we saw the compelling struggle of a people finding their own identity in a world shattered by the forces of alienation and dispersion. Masterfully narrated and brilliantly conceived, the book marked the ascent of a new literary figure in Chicano literature. In Search of Self Grattan1s latest novel is set in the 1950s when his 18-year-old protagonist, Val, abandons the security of his West Texas town, a loving mother, a kind stepfather, and a girlfriend to go in search of his natural father whom Val thought had died years earlier. Val has several things going for him. He1s a fullback on his high school football team and his girlfriend is the daughter of the richest man in town. Nevertheless, as the son of a Mexican mother and an absent Anglo father, he rates rather low on the social scale. Then, on his birthday, he comes into an inheritance left him by his father, which gives him the opportunity to both marry his sweetheart and go to college. Soon thereafter, however, he learns that his father did not die, but rather deserted him and his Mexican mother. Val decides to use his legacy to go on a quest to find his father, despite active discouragement from his mother. Thus begins an odyssey which, like that of Huck Finn down the Mississippi River, is one of self-discovery, rollicking action and graphic scenes of violence which kept this reader engrossed. For what Val discovers as he finds his father Ða compulsive gambler who is traveling with a female consortÐ is a man who sometimes resembles the foolishly romantic Tom Sawyer, and at other times the nefarious Duke. Always a dreamer and often a rogue, Val1s father, Frank Cooper, is charming, articulate, courageous and feckless. His efforts to put together a stake to get into the poker game of a lifetime continuously puts at risk his own life, as well as that of his two companions. Occasionally brilliant, warm-hearted and outgoing, Frank Cooper always has his eye on the main chance. For Val, these qualities at first seem to make understandable why Val1s mother still dreams of him and hopes he might someday return to her. To Val, Cooper is the man who generously left her with enough money to buy the roadside diner that has provided her and Val with a livelihood for the past eighteen years. Hence, like Pip in Great Expectations, Val is deceived at first by appearances. He compares Cooper with his bleary-eyed, dyspeptic stepfather, Floyd, who works as a cook in the diner. It is obvious to Val which is the better man, and no surprise that his mother has carried a torch for Cooper all these years. Coming of Age As time goes by, however, Frank Cooper proves incorrigible, risking everything in a series of dangerous scams to buy his way into the poker game. To hold Val in place, Cooper promises that if he hits big, he1ll walk away from gambling and buy a small ranch, where he and the Val can come to know each other again. But it eventually becomes apparent that Cooper is addicted to all games of chance. When Val discovers that his father, despite his claim of only having broken even, has made over $75,000 in the poker game and obviously plans to go on gambling, it is Val's awakening from romanticism to realism. The highlights of the novel are the gambling scenes, the clever scams of Cooper's, and the intensely visual fight scenes. It is here that Grattan's gifts as a one-time screenwriter and film director come into play. Once Cooper, the renegade gambler, makes his entrance, it was impossible for this reader to put it down. The introductory portions of the novel, however, were less compelling. An unfortunate anachronism (a Kennedy quote in a 50s setting) and a slow narrative pace got the story off to a sluggish start. Yet the author redeemed himself handsomely in the later fast-paced, action-packed and highly-readable chapters. Moreover, by carefully developing the character of Val Ðwho discovers in the evolution of his own values the flaws of his father and those of societyÐ Grattan has raised his novel from mere storytelling to genuine literary achievement. In the process, he has written a coming-of-age novel which by its universality of theme and clarity of vision brings the book comfortably within the ranks of the best of this genre. (Professor Michael Hogan is the author of eight published books, including the highly-acclaimed The Irish Soldiers of Mexico. At present he serves as the head of the Department of Letters and Humanities at the prestigious American School in Guadalajara, Mexico.)

One week moves this author's hero, along with other hopelessly addicted but compelling characters from Breaking Even's outset to a proper if unpredictable conclusion. Ends are nicely tied for such a complex character set, and yet I was left wishing for more-- the perfect opportunity for a sequel, or at least another Grattan-Dominguez book.

Young Val, his parents and friends are set in the American West in 1955, but don't lean on the historic period for support. Each is carefully drawn with timeless inner dilemnas which could occur anywhere, anytime. Specific reliance on gambling, movie-making and small-town life fit geographically with the West Texas setting, but are common and comfortable to this Baby Boomer searching for courageous characters who struggle deeply without whining all the time.

My second reading of Breaking Even was prompted partially by the parting shot of the Kirkus Review you publish above. Somebody missed the mark on that one.

This is a delightful read, with a very authentically described teenager trying to define his own life and identity through discovering a father he thought was dead. Nothing hokey or artificial about this novel or the main character, whose pursuits tie together four of five other characters who are likewise grappling with their own versions of dreams vs. the reality of life.

Has some of the feeling of Wallace Stegner and Cormac McCarthy's stories of adolescents growing up in the West. (As an adolescent psychologist, I appreciated that the main character, Val, is a real person, with very credible behavior and personality. )

A nice book to curl up with for the night, both to enjoy the story-telling as well as to nurture a pleasant but bittersweet mood about the dualities of life.

This is the story of a young man's odyssey to find his father, a charismatic Irishman who travels across America gambling for a living. The father, Cooper, had an affair with a Mexican woman in a small Texas town and left her pregnant to continue his search for The Great Poker Game. During the ensuing years, Lupe, the mother, marries underrated Floyd who helps her run the small roadside diner Cooper had financed before splitting. Lupe also carries a torch for the errant Cooper, whose absence she explains to her son, Val, by saying his father is dead. Val finally learns the truth and so begins his quest, both for his father and for himself. The relationship between father and son, when finally they meet, is tentative, though filled with a longing on the part of each to have his own empty place filled by the presence of the other. Their verbal dances are well written, as is the character of Blue, Cooper's traveling companion who puts her own life, such as it is, on hold to accompany the two of them to The Big Poker Game in Reno.

Grattan-Dominguez, whose dialogue sparkles and who is unafraid to make some characters unlikeable, does not give this, his second novel, a Hollywood ending but instead the ending we often find in real life. Val is neatly wrapped up here, though I hope Grattan-Dominguez develops the characters of Cooper and Blue, not necessarily together, in a future novel(s), as well as the characters in Lupe and Floyd's Texas diner.