Customer Reviews

Chango's Fire: A Novel

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

There is something simultaneously appealing and frustrating about Ernesto Quinonez's second novel, a marked improvement over his highly-flawed debut, Bodega Dreams, but in the end, still something of a disappointment. This time, the problem lies in his biting off more than he can chew with too many subplots rolling around what is essentially one man's coming-of-age story at its heart.

He's inexplicably combined the systematic burning of Spanish Harlem, insurance fraud, organized crime, gentrification, Santeria, pseudo-socialism, illegal citizenship papers, a shady government agent and a few other random nuggets into a muddle-headed plot that rests precariously, and unsuccessfully, on a straight-out-of-Hollywood interracial romance...and frankly, he's just not up to the task. When the cliches aren't jumping off the page at the reader, the heavy-handed didacticism is smacking them in the face.

His protagonist, Julio Santana, is a philosophizing arsonist yearning for the old days while trying to turn his life around after the proverbial "last job." Almost every other character is either an archetype or a stereotype, none ever fully coming to life beyond the "issue" Quinonez has chosen them to represent. After some hit-or-miss character and plot 'development' in the first two-thirds of the book, the hasty climax gets sloppy and, just like in Bodega Dreams, includes an out-of-left-field occurrence to wrap things up. The too-convenient epilogue only makes matters worse.

That said, Quinonez is no hack and with a less ambitious plot that focused more on the characters he obviously had a connection to, especially the engaging babalawo Papelito, he could have had something really special here. Personally, I could see a viable sequel springing from this effort, focusing only on Julio's journey to his Asiento, his strained relationship with his parents and a fleshed-out romance with Helen and the issues that arise from it. The first two things represent the strongest aspects of Chango's Fire, while the latter's potential got buried in melodrama.

I couldn't put this book down! Great characters and an awesome story line. If you like books on Spanish Harlem and its people, then you will enjoy Ernesto's work. Great job brother!

this is so real. the prose is so interesting that I could relate to the thoughts of these characters and they were real.

Ernesto Quinonez said himself that place is the most important part of a novel for him. He consistently mentions gentrification and how much he despises the influence of major corporations such as Gap, Old Navy, and Starbucks in Spanish Harlem. This book was published in 2004 and I can assure you that even in 2009 there is not one Starbucks, one Old Navy, or one Gap in Spanish Harlem. There are two Starbucks and an Old Navy in black Harlem, but none in Spanish Harlem. Moreover, his portrayal of white people living in Spanish Harlem is cheesy and superficial at best. I can sum up why yuppies live in Harlem with one word: cheap. It's not some romantic notion about the Spanish speaking poor people that brings them in. This book was total crap. I can't believe this guy is a professor at Cornell.

CHANGO'S FIRE by Ernesto Quinonez

February 26, 2005

I found CHANGO'S FIRE by Ernesto Quinonez a rather unusual novel. Julio Santana is of Puerto Rican descent, living in Spanish Harlem. He makes a living in construction, but at the same time he's also being paid to burn down buildings, as part of an insurance scam. He makes good money, people get their insurance money, and everyone is happy. But Julio is tired of the lies and the destruction, and wants out. He goes to school at night to better himself, and tells his "boss", Eddie, that he has done his last building and refuses to burn another. Eddie, however, isn't too happy about Julio's plans, and threatens him.

While this is one theme in CHANGO'S FIRE, there are other things that are going on while Julio tries to change his life. There are many colorful characters that reside in Julio's neighborhood, and many are trying to make a change for the better. There's Maritza, the radical crazy lady that runs a church to spout off her political beliefs. She hands out condoms and teaches the immigrants about abortion and birth control. There's Papelito, the (...) Santero priest, who is also trying to help those in the neighborhood that come to him. And there is Helen, who Julio finds a deep attraction for, maybe because she is not of this neighborhood and is someone that represents something that is out of reach for him, because of his color.

CHANGO'S FIRE was not an easy read. The themes in the book were rather complex, and of a nature that some may not care to read about. I found the character of Julio quite a departure from the type of persons I read about in fiction, and questioned often if what he did for a living truly happens? Arson is nothing new, but to read about it as if it was someone's every day job felt very different from what I know in my own world. I think that is why this book will probably stand out for me for a long time. I'm giving this book four stars, but I don't recommend the book to everyone. It's not your every day average read.

I purchased the book for a Latin Literature class I am currently taking, it was an assigned book. The book is an easy read (I thought a little too simple for the class I am in) but, it really brings to life the community that Spanish Harlem was and is currently changing to. My family migrated to Spanish Harlem in the 40s and we all have lived here since than and Quinonez's depiction is pretty spot on. I am an instant fan and plan on picking up his other book, Bodega Dreams once all my reading is done for the semester.

Good opening on the subject of arson in the Puerto Rican 'hood in simple style fitting the Puerto Rican narrator, Julio. About two thirds through it seemed to get tangled and the writing style seemed to me uneven and choppy - I was thinking of downrating to 3 stars. However, the author pulled everything back together for a nice ending and the rating went back up. Except for that section, which seemed to need more editing, it is basically a well-written socialogical novel with interesting array of characters: atheist woman do-gooder preacher, retarded friend, loving ex-musician father and firey funny mother, naive perky white girlfriend, undercover INS agent, homosexual voodoo priest/hero, etc. All in all, quite entertaining, but not a comedy - serious stuff. Interesting information about slum clearance by arson (everyone benefits except the insurance company stock holders and the tenents), and about the little known religion of Santeria ("way of the Saints"). I liked it well enough to think about reading his first book, Bodega Dreams, and definitely will keep a lookout for Mr. Quinonez' next novel.

A New American Classic

Yes, finally Stienbeck and Dos Passos can smile in heaven! In a time in America when we NEED authors to take a social stand, this author does. This protest novel takes no prisoners. Like Tom Joad's Oklahoma, Ernesto Quiñonez's Spanish Harlem is a place in America where clergymen's children are torn between right and wrong. As an adjunct professor who hates to teach books that matter little, I was happy when they okayed this novel. The simplicity, that many call amateurish (as they once called Kerouac's work, not writing but typing) is it's own poetry and just like my hero John Steinbeck, who preaches in Grapes of Wrath, sometimes for entire pages full of didactic social issues in connection with the New Deal, I was smiling when I read Chango's Fire--there is hope for American literature.

I read Bodega Dreams and was impressed. But Changos Fire blew me away. Quinonez manaeges to be profane and profound at the same time , oh yeah ,and absolutely hilarious!

The characters were so real and he turned pathos into comedy with characters such as the mentally handicapped Trompo, the ex Junkie dad who worshipped the memory of salsa legend Hector Lavoe and wrote horrific gospel song.

I found myself smiling because some of the themes in his book are ones I have been recently discussing- religion and the importance of stories and archetypes, gentrification and white flight and economic diversity, identity and acculturation and so on. I am pleased to find someone who addresses such things but in such away that its entertaining while being though provoking.

This is one I plan to keep.

I use to not read, I mean I just didn't. But now I do. I read the Great Gatsby because of Ernesto. Now with this book I've been told to read the Pawn Broker, the story of Robert Moses, who was not a nice dude. The man who really lay the foundation for gentrification. What a racist, the book is fat as hell but I'm digging it. But to get back to Chango's Fire, I mean I love this author because I get a good story and I also learn things. Is he preachy? Well, if you think Quinonez is preachy then stop listening to U2, Bob Dylan, Springsteen, and even the Beatles get out of hand at times. I also think because of his writing style being so simple people think it's easy to write like him. So, what are they waiting for? I would buy any book by any writer who writes like Ernesto. Another great book, simple and direct. I await his third.