Customer Reviews

Brownsville: Stories

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Latino life in the small Texas border city of Brownsville comes alive in this entirely engaging debut collection of nine short stories arranged in three parts. The first three stories are grouped in the section "I Thought You and Me Were Friends", and focus on male relationships. The opening tale tells of a young boy working at a firework stand and his realization that his boss isn't a nice person. The second is about a man overly obsessed with a hammer borrowed by a white neighbor, and charts the ups and downs of their friendship in relation to the hammer. The final story follows a young slacker whose best (and only) friend recently died and left him without human anyone to talk to. This last one takes a slightly (David) Lynchian turn, and isn't quite as strong as the first two.

The second part, "They Say He Was Lost", is about essentially good men struggling with life. The first story is one of the weaker ones, about an old gardener who has lost his religion. The details of his living and work conditions are far more interesting than his spiritual predicament. Next is a brilliant portrait of a man in his early 20s who married, divorced, and had a kid too young, and doesn't really understand his ex-wife, his child, what happened to his youth, and what's happening to his future. It's a heartbreaking story that shoots to the core of single-family parenting and the other parent. The third tale is of a hardworking state employee who is driven to desperate acts by a neighbor's dog. The final three stories, "Don't Believe Anything He Tells You", veer into a more odd turf. The first deals with a man whose sly cousin hustles him into prepaying for his funeral. The second is a rather garden-variety young boy/beautiful next door neighbor piece. The third is a bit of a comic turn about a geriatric bowling (the only female protagonist in the book) whose lucky bowling ball gets stolen.

The collection is somewhat reminiscent of John McNally's 1999 collection, Troublemakers. Both sets of stories are primarily about working-class men living in marginalized communities between the coasts, trying to hold their own as their communities shift around them. As such, they are more directly relevant to majority of people in this country than the plethora of tiresome New York, San Francisco, historical, or academe-set novels that seem to dominate the bookstores. Casares doesn't seek to shove any messages or agenda in the reader's face, he's simply writing about people and how they live where he comes from. Great stuff.

I love this book. I read it back in 2003, when it first came out. I had the pleasure of going to one of Oscar's readings in 2003 and I thought he made the story come alive even more. I see that someone wrote a really nasty review of the book and it discouraged 24 people from reading the book, that's awful. She based her review on the fact that Oscar is handsome, therefore, not worth reading as if he got a book published because he was handsome or charming. It's just plain stupid to think like that. Everyone I know that has read this book found it to be one of the best books they ever read. I just lent it to a friend that just moved to Brownsville because the stories are so colorful, truthful, and typical of Brownsville that I thought she should read it. Don't be discouraged in reading this book just because someone thought the author was full of himself, that's totally independent of the book.

I've never been to Brownsville. You don't have to know the town to get something out of this.

This was one of those books that didn't exactly hit me over the head when I read it, but that stayed in the back of my mind afterward. The stories start out small and plain and then turn into unexpected things.

I'm from the Rio Grande Valley, and I totally related to all of these wonderful and colorful stories.... I'm so glad that the Valley is producing writers of quality like Oscar Casares. I have always been proud of the fact that I am Mexican-American and from The Valley, but I feel even prouder of that fact, when I read a book like this. Felicidades Oscar!

As a Mexicana who grew up on International Blvd in Brownsville Texas, this book truly touched my soul. The stories and characters captured the essence of Brownsville - comfort, familiarity, and warmth....

Thanks Oscar for staying true to Brownsville.

As a native of Brownsville, you can imagine how eager I was to read this collection of short stories about people living in a unique part of Texas. I assumed the stories would be heavy on Mexican-American culture and, perhaps, personal accounts of the struggle for equality, political activities, etc. etc. Mr. Casares,(accent of the first syllable, y'all!) however, has written charming, moving, and insightful stories that transcend ethnicity and speak to everyone. His characters' cultural milieu add a little 'spice' to the stories, but do not dominate the sometimes sad, sometimes quirky people in his accounts of everyday life on the border.
The people in these stories are vibrantly real and we are drawn into their hearts and see into their souls largely due to this young man's skill and empathy. Oddly enough, though the Publishers' Weekly reviewer thought that 'Chango' was the funniest story in the collection, I found it sad and felt the man in the story was one of the most lonely people I have ever come across in anyone's writings. There will be a reception for Mr. Casares soon here in Brownsville and I am looking forward to asking him if the young man in 'Chango' is meant to be funny or sad or, probably both.
This is a wonderful collection and, upon reading it, the reader can only be sorry that there are not more of these marvelous stories to read!

I am a Latina of Mexican descent and was excited when I heard of this book because I am from the Rio Grande Valley. I first saw Oscar Casares in Houston. I was excited that a book from my region was being published. I had never seen so much publicity about a book and it was a book of short stories no less. When I heard him read, at a Nuestra Palabra, I hated it. I am sorry, but I thought he was so full of himself, because he is soooooo Mr Handsome and you could tell he thought he was soooooo talented and important while he read. I tried to get over that, and recently, in Houston again at the Edward Olmos book festival, I bought Brownsville. I listened to him read again and even then and once more, much as I tried, I was the opposite of impressed. Now I have read his book anyway, I am very discouraged. Apparently, if you are a handsome male whose Ego is so important to itself, everyone believes it. A couple of the stories in it I liked okay, but most in it are slow and even boring, and not up to to the advertised hype he is given because he is tall and handsome (and because he went to Iowa, as one of the readers here says?) If you want to read great short stories by a Mexican-American male writer, read the "The Magic of Blood", by Dagoberto Gilb, Casare's mentor. Those stories are strong (and he is even a handsome man too, if that's what readers want.) So, much as I am happy that someone has published a work about the Valley, this book and the hype around the author is too disappointing. Read it yourself. I can only hope that the promotion it is given can help other Latina/os, and for that I am giving it an extra star.