Brownsville: Stories [Paperback]

Oscar Casares (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 6, 2003

At the country's edge, on the Mexican border, Brownsville, Texas, is a town like many others. It is a place where people work hard to create better lives for their children, where people bear grudges against their neighbors, where love blossoms only to fade, and where the only real certainty is that life holds surprises.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"I thought writing everything down on paper was a good way to defend myself," says the unnamed narrator of "RG," one of the nine stories in Casares's fine debut collection set in the Texas border town of Brownsville. "RG" is related by a Hispanic bread-truck driver whose Anglo neighbor borrowed his best hammer and didn't return it-for four years, which is how long the narrator, without knocking on his neighbor's door, has waited. In the funniest story in the collection, "Chango," an unemployed 31-year-old, Bony, living with his parents and subsisting on a steady diet of beers, finds a monkey head in his yard and begins to think of it as his buddy and mascot. Alas, his unsympathetic parents want him to throw it away. Bony's father, a police sergeant, is prone to sarcastic explosions: "¨Estas loco o qu‚? You want to live with monkeys, I'll drive you to the zoo. Come on, get in the car, I'll take you right now." The barking of a neighbor's dog drives Marcelo Torres, an agricultural agent, to drastic and fantastic measures in "Charro." With skill and economy, Casares evokes the easygoing, plainspoken, yet slightly stagy voice of the guy on the neighboring bar stool-or the nearby cubicle-describing his weekend ("Here's a piece of advice for you: If a guy named Jerry Fuentes comes knocking at your front door trying to sell you something, tell him you're not interested and then lock the door," warns the opening line of "Jerry Fuentes"). Probing underneath the surface of Tex-Mex culture, Casares's stories, with their wisecracking, temperamental, obsessive middle-aged men and their dramas straight from neighborhood gossip are in the direct line of descent from Mark Twain and Ring Lardner.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"...Casares...remakes a territory into his on fictional universe..." -- Tim Gautreaux

"...clear eyed and fresh, full of sweet gravity and pensive humor..." -- Marilynne Robinson

"...clear, straightforward and gripping...all of it is emotionally and culturally accurate..." -- Stephen Dixon

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Back Bay Books; 1st edition (March 6, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316146803
• ISBN-13: 978-0316146807
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.8 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #319,957 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thank you for introducing my neighbors Mr. Casares, November 18, 2003

By 

"wb5mha" (Houston, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Brownsville: Stories (Paperback)

Frequently, when I mention that I used to live in Brownsville a member of the group listening takes me aside with a smile. We establish that they once lived there as well. We start relating stories about so and so Flores or Mr. Bahi who worked at "The Bridge". Being from this "Valley" border town is like being a member of a fraternity. We lived in a city with more personality than any other place I can think of. There is poverty, crime, danger and dirt. But the people are as colorful and charming as Mexicanamerican culture can produce. A family may be fresh from "across", starting to live the American dream next door to a family with a local history going back to the 1600's living next to a family of "Anglos" from Houston. I know all the people in Mr. Casares' short stories and plenty more with wacky or sad or funny or loving tales to tell. They are not always nice and far from perfect but they are fascinating and they are real.

28 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Where is the Brownsville?, March 22, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Brownsville: Stories (Paperback)

I liked a few of the stories in this book. Most I simply glossed. Was I missing something? Surely there were passages better than this: "I had the late shift at the bridge that night. I'd been home all day, working around the house. I spent some time reading the Herald and washed the car about eleven o'clock. After lunch, I took a nap and then watched an Andy Griffith rerun. It has been quiet all afternoon until Jerry knocked on my door." Sadly, there weren't. The rest of the book is just as unilluminating: often a list of minutiae, often a Horatio Alger nick at the end to give you the life lesson. I had the nagging feeling that I was looking at a Basquiat and being drowned by people calling it a Picasso. What exactly is distinctive in this ape of Annie Proulx or Don Delillo? Where is Brownsville in this faddish exercise? Is this the charro Dagoberto Gilb heard marching from the south? No. I think Mr. Gilb is still hearing echoes of the great Americo Paredes, whose stories were simple (like these), but much more about us, about our culture. His were works of lasting significance. This, on the other hand, is a good interview on Oprah. But it does not make me yearn for my town, does not give me the significance of my people, does not say anything at all that any of a number of generic, tasteless novels might equally tell me. I had such high hopes after reading all the reviews about this book. (Such high praise makes me think that white culture expects nothing deeper from latinos than this hopeless and uncontemplative tripe.) And I am still left waiting for Americo's heir. For now, I'll reread "George Washington Gomez" and let my soul settle for a while.

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars one of my all time favorites, July 19, 2006

By 

Tom (Austin) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Brownsville: Stories (Paperback)

I was a guero living in the Valley for several years and pretty much any evocation of that place gets me misty-eyed. (The line "Everybody has their Harlingen" from the film Selena gets me every time) This book is spot-on. Ni una false note. But the best thing is that these stories are great even if you've never been there. As another reviewer said, these sad funny stories are full of grace. I'll never forget these characters. This kind of artless, unpretentious narration has got to be the hardest kind to pull off. Really great writing.