Customer Reviews

Every Night Is Ladies' Night: Stories

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

One of the truths revealed by Los Angeles fiction is that it includes, by necessity, tales from those small cities that adhere to the ragged edges of Los Angeles proper. In Michael Jaime-Becerra's subtle and beautiful debut collection, "Every Night is Ladies' Night," we are introduced to one such city: El Monte. Jaime-Becerra spins ten interlocking stories around the hub of El Monte, a working-class community of just over 100,000 people, the vast majority of whom are Latino. The stories bounce back-and-forth from 1984 to 1989 with one leaping thirty years further into the past. The protagonists reappear all tied to streets like Valley and Live Oak, businesses such as Road Runner Liquor, Pick-A-Part, Tortillerilla Bienvenida and the ubiquitous McDonald's. People scrape together livelihoods as mechanics, fast food managers, tattoo artists, truck drivers and musicians. We see how children, teens, parents and grandparents try desperately to fit in, keep their dreams alive, fall in love. Most of the characters we meet are members of the Cruz family. Jaime-Becerra knows that not all life experiences lead to grand epiphanies or dramatic personal growth. With great skill, he shows us that we often battle just to stay in place. This is a beautiful, accomplished debut. (A longer version of this review appeared in Southwest BookViews.)

I read "Media Vuelta" in At Length Magazine (www.atlengthmag.com), and was blown away by the story. Michael Jaime-Becerra has a unique voice, and his evocation of an old mariachi's quixotic quest for love was really beautiful and fun to read. The other stories in the collection meet "Media Vuelta"'s high standard. Highly recommended.

The Mexican-American characters who populate the short stories in Michael Jaime-Becerra's "Every Night Is Ladies' Night" live severely circumscribed lives. The grit of poverty, limited opportunities and lack of education wears them down. They are suspicious of language, wary of false sentiment and contemptuous of weakness. Lacking many of the traditional means through which material success may be attained, these proud, often invisible people rely on a seemingly endless ability to work hard, persevere and enjoy what small pleasures life can offer them. We see but rarely care to understand the men and women Jaime-Becerra so lovingly describes: the faceless Mexican-American shift manager at McDonald's, the tattooed day laborer, the invisible electronics/appliance repairman.

Jaime-Becerra's greatest strength is his ability to give substance and depth to the urban Mexican-American community. His short stories, all of which are set in East Los Angeles in the 1980s, provide a chance for this community to speak for itself. This is no small feat, given the fact that English is an alien language, one which cramps and limits expression of suffering, alienation and rage. When one bereft nearly-illiterate character learns of a devastating loss, his heart "would crumble slowly instead of breaking into clean, even pieces." In many ways, "Every Night" is a series of songs, corrridos, that are meant to be heard and retold, bringing solace to the beaten and comfort to the bruised.

"Every Night" joins the rich body of immigrant literature that explores the possibilities, costs and consequences of Americanization. What Jaime-Becerra does, however, is to illuminate both the singular and universal dimensions of the Mexican-American experience. When his characters suffer the cultural marginalization, economic desperation and psychological pressures attendant to incorporation in a new, strange culture, they relive what every ethnic group immigrating to American has undergone. This universality makes Jaime-Becerra's characters identifiable to us. Yet, they are distinctly Mexican-American, and the Mexican-American experience is singular in our national experience. Because Mexican immigration is consistent and perpetual, because the border between the United States and Mexico is in actuality fictitious and because there is a constant infusion of the "Mexican" in Mexican-American community life, the Mexican-American experience does not easily fit into given models of assimilation and absorption into a new national identity.

The ten short stories that compose "Every Night Is Ladies' Night" are tenuously interrelated. Each stands by itself, shedding light on a struggling population's proud, defiant and heroic attempt to survive. The characters in Michael Jaime-Becerra's collection may not be able to express their heartbreaks poetically; instead they speak through actions. Each day presents obstacles, and every act the Mexican-Americans take to endure reminds readers that although grit wears the rough edges down, it also produces a beautiful, polished gem.

This debut collection of ten interconnected short stories revolves around the inhabitants of El Monte, a blue-collar Los Angles suburb best known for a 1995 sweatshop raid that raised awareness of the plight of indentured workers within American borders. Los Angeles occupies such a large place in American popular culture and myth that stories of its surroundings tend to be overshadowed -- but with these marvelous stories, the reader is offered a dramatic view of one such place. About 12 miles east of downtown LA, El Monte is a largely Hispanic community of 115,000 people clustered around the intersection of the 5 and 605 and Southern Pacific railway. Like Oscar Casares' excellent stories about Hispanic-American Texas in Brownsville and and Sandro Meallet's great debut novel Edgewater Angels, about the San Pedro area of LA, Jamie-Becerra has captured the everyday people and everyday dramas of El Monte with great skill, subtlety, and heart. Unfortunately, the book seem to have been missed by the general public and consigned to the Hispanic-lit ghetto, which is a big shame.

The stories are mostly set in 1984-89, with one diversion back to 1956, and one story which switches back and forth between the late 1989 and 1940s. Characters come and go throughout the stories, and it takes a very good memory to keep track of them all -- I'll try to make most of the connections here. The possible linchpin (if there is one), is an auto repair shop run by an old Anglo named Georgie. The fifth story, "Georgie and Wanda" goes back to 1956 to tell about Georgie's career as a stock-car driver and wooing of the Mexican beauty queen who becomes his wife. One of Georgie's mechanics at the garage is the subject of the third story, "The Corrido of Hector Cruz". Set in 1984, it's one of the more social-realist stories, as the hardworking man and his pregnant wife Mini are suddenly faced with providing a home for their nephew Lencho, who is coming out of juvenile detention. Five years after getting a job at Georgie's garage with his uncle, Lencho is the focus of the sixth story, "Riding with Lencho." Fellow mechanic Manny narrates, as he and Lencho take a road trip to the Baja coast to take a break from Lencho's problems with his girlfriend Josie. Hector and Mini come back in the last story, "Buena Suerte Airlines", another social-realist story focusing on the couple's money problems and Mini's decision to go back to work at McDonald's.

Another set of interrelated people include teenage Gina and her boyfriend Max who are introduced in the slight 1987 story "Practice Tattoos," narrated by Gina's little brother. The couple reappears two years later in "Gina and Max", as they take a bus crosstown to go to a Christmas party thrown by Max's friend Benny. This Benny turns out to be a rather dark and nasty dude who runs with some cholos, and the party takes a rather uncomfortable turn. However, Benny's better side can be seen in "La Fiesta Brava", also set in 1989. This story is mostly about Guillermo, his electronics repairman father, and his godmother Marta. However, when bullies come looking for Guillermo, Marta's boyfriend Benny gets involved with rather surprising results.

One of the best stories is "Every Night is Ladies Night", about an ice-cream truck lady named Lily. A single mother, she lives with her tia Ruby, and embarks on a sweet romance with her boss. One of their dates is at a party thrown by Oscar's cousin Lupe and his girlfriend Evelyn. The story of their impending marriage and Evelyn's long absent grandfather is the basis of "Lopez Trucking Incorporated." Lily's Tia Ruby is the subject of a quest in what most will regard as the shining star of the collection, "Media Vuelta", a story about an elderly mariachi player who makes his first trip to the U.S. after his wife dies. With nothing else to live for, he's trying to track down the girl he loved as a youth and lost. With limited funds and no English, he makes his way to El Monte, where, with the sketchy help of Lencho, tracks Ruby down.

Jaime-Becerra is a huge talent, vividly portraying the little dramas and oddities of daily life in Hispanic Southern California. At the same time he captures something of what it means to be part of the working poor in this country, and the struggle to stay out of poverty. The stories are determinedly multigenerational and the first person narration draws the reader into the family lives of his characters. The language is dead on (although those without any Spanish, such as myself, may miss a few lines here or there that are rendered in Spanish), and he's got a nice eye for description. This is a first-class debut, and I can't wait to read more from him.

Having read Michael Jaime-Becerra's "Every Night Is Ladies' Night, it didn't quite live up to my expectations. Acclaimed for its authentic, cultural L.A. experience (which it mostly delivers), it falls short of literary excellence, or even good-ellence, or not-wasting-my-time-ellence. While the language is often beautifully-crafted, the stories lack the punch in the gut I have come to expect and require from (good) literature. I want to be wooed and shocked by humanity, shown the complexities of the human experience, the unknowns we all desire to be known.

Instead, aside from the one story "La Fiesta Brava," I felt disconnected from the culture displayed in this short story collection, not because I'm not from that culture (God knows I've read good cultural literature), but because the depth of humanity didn't find itself into the ink on the page.

Reviewed by Jonathan Stephens

This book wove a spell around me as I read into the night. This book that puts a shine on the struggles, successes and heartbreak of a specific community but with characters that are universal in their hopes and longings. Becerra makes those who we pass on the street every day become real, making us their neighbors as well.

This is a gorgeous book, distinguished by Jaime-Becerra's determination to offer each of his characters (and the town their stories comprise) the gift of seeing them with a clarity that doesn't preclude hope and with a hope that doesn't preclude clarity. Astonishingly generous, utterly engaging. This is what fiction is for.

This collection of short stories is wonderful and intriguing. Mr. Becerra's imagery is astounding and beautiful. I loved how the stories tied together and told different parts of each person's very interesting life. I found myself eagerly turning pages and unwilling to put the book down as I became wrapped up in each story. From the tired, old mariachi singer to the widow who drives an ice cream truck each character engaged me with their own personal anguish and memories.

I loved this book... words can't explain how excited i was to read it.. it blew me away.. the detail with which Michael Jaime-Becerra writes is great!! made me feel like I was part of the stories.

With a blatantly honest voice, Jamie-Becerra tells of a company of simple people living in southern California work their way through life, cherishing those few bright moments and struggling together to make it through the bad. No sooner have you finished one of these enraptuing tales then you get pulled into the next. Touching, with a firm grasp on your heartstrings, Every Night is Ladies' Night leads you gently but firmly through a southern California rich with life, love, and loss.