Customer Reviews

Gods Go Begging

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I first read a review of this novel in the California Lawyer,a magazine distributed to the legal community in California. As a member of the criminal defense bar in California and an African American woman, I found the book to be incredibly authentic. Each criminal defendant, from the "supreme being" to the child molester who received over 100 years in prison, represents a defendant I have represented in the past 11 years. More importantly, I found that the book and all of it's 'themes' flowed together. The book describes the devestation which occurred in the Vietnam War and the "babies" which were killed during the war. It also accurately portrayed the plight of several Vietnam vets once they came back to the United States after fighting for 'their country', particularly Mr. Homeless. I appreciated and respected the fact that the author took the time to develop the true impact of the war on those who survived yet never forgot and will always remember, namely Jesse. I also found the authors ability to compare the war in Vietnam with the war that is being waged and fought every single day in every inner city and every courthouse for 'justice'to be absolutely incredible. As a criminal defense attorney, justice is war! This is probably one of the best books that I have read in a very long time. I related most of all to the war stories which always begin with " I once had a guy......."

Not a Spoiler, just an invitation. I'm not a reviewer, can't ever pretend to be, because 'dispassionate' is not in my vocabulary if I love a book inordinately.

Gods Go Begging by Alfredo Vea will stick in this brain for good, in the best possible way. I almost didn't purchase this novel because of the book jacket-a picture of the back view of a solitary guitar/rifle/gas mask toting soldier in half regalia standing on what looks like an airport runway, a small bag with a Vietnam insignia resting by his boot. I assumed a story predominantly about war in the conventional sense. Could not have been more mistaken.

There are at least four wars being *raged* here among these taut and yet simultaneously lovely pages, all framed within rich language and insightful narrative.

Jesse Pasadoble is a defense attorney in San Francisco waging a war against the stupidity of the typical clients and prejudice in the courtroom. He is joined frequently in the courtroom, in the cafe, and in his daily life by others who share their recollections both of darkly humorous cases and the unacceptable unmentionable dark sides which eventually seal off all human beings from one another.

After a crime of tragedic proportions occurs, Jesse's story and that of the victims and the perpetrators, here and now, plus the unmanageable then on another hill in Vietnam thirty years ago, unfold. What follows comprises an incredible novel of pain and waste, devastation and redemption, caring and investigation, revealed by passionate observation of the lunacy of existence through careful, perfect words.. But, and this is a big *but*, the novel flows like silk through the counterpoints of love, ultimate sadness, and intense meaning.

This is a modern day lawyer, detective story which encompasses inner city bleakness, evil, post traumatic shock syndrome, our *lovely* court system, the inability to share ourselves while our very core cries out to do just so, and a sense that metaphysical, mystical reality is just as real as beans.

My bottom line is that while the ideas and emotion rage rampant, the narrative is superb, nearly perfect. What a terrific story. I think it is very, very big in heart and scope, possessing a duality of the mundane and the metaphysical which meld perfectly for the reader, especially toward the conclusion of the novel.

I always yearn for the elusive words which are not forthcoming, those orbs needed for adequate expression, but inchoate, they are yet imbedded in the soul of this reader. Accused of hyperbole, so be it. This is one fine book.

Belongs on the list of the top ten novels of the 90s. To call Gods Go Begging a "Vietnam novel" or a "Chicano novel" would miss the deepest point. It's true that it ranks with The Things They Carried and Paco's Story as the best fiction written by a Vietnam vet; its primary competition for the deepest novel written by a Chicano is Vea's own La Maravilla. But the real peers of Gods Go Begging are the novels of Dostoevsky, Melville, Faulkner, Toni Morrison, Leslie Silko, Thomas Mann...choose your own favorite. Vea takes us from Vietnam to the war zones of urban America, wresting a vision of hope from the bits and pieces of contemporary despair. "Desire without humanity is war." The sentences are brilliant, the vision profound. Read it. Share it.

Where has Alfredo Vea been? Or rather, why haven't I heard about him before? Pick up a copy of GODS GO BEGGING and you'll see that Vea is one of America's unknown literary masters. I just saw Vea at the Inter-American book festival in San Antonio and he was incredible. (So many of the other writers, Sandra Cisneros included, seemed so provincial and limited in comparison.) I immediately bought GODS GO BEGGING and was overwhelmed by the complex and riveting narrative and scope of imagination; the novel is destined to be one of the landmark works of fiction this decade. Spanning the themes of displacement, war, violence, love and race, it reads like a contemporary WAR and PEACE, written by a participant, not an observer. Buy it asap and spread the word.

albeit a harsh and very real one in which we live. Alfredo Véa Jr knows this and his experience, empathy, and compassion contribute a texture to this novel which imparts an indelible memory to the reader. One leaves this novel with a permanently altered insight into what it must be like to be a Vietnam vet. On an organic level, we are left gasping at the ugliness of the war many still fight and at the ultimate beauty of the magic which sometimes graces us.

I had to read this book for a class and I'm glad that I was introduced to such a wonderful story teller. Vea's prose is simply beautiful. I also think this book should be one of the Top 10 books for the 90's. Vea is, in my opinion, one of the greatest writers of all time.

With the accuracy and magic of O 'Brien's IN THE LAKE OF THE WOODS, and the lush prose of James Lee Burke, Véa creates his own, individualistic style in this gripping novel of endless, conquering love, useless hate, futile death, and redemption of the human spirit. Trite as it may sound, Véa's themes are unique. His characters are fully rounded and three-dimensional, from Jesse Passadoble, the tormented lawyer to the Padre, the all-religious everyman who encompasses all forms of belief and must suffer before he too can heal and be healed. I do not doubt Véa's accuracy whether he is writing of war, crime in the street, or prison. His voice is strong and vivid. I cannot wait to read everything else he has written, while wondering why I have not heard of this stunning author before now.

Named one of the best books of 1999 by the Los Angeles Times and the
winner of the Bay Area Book Review Award for Fiction, this novel, by
Alfredo Vea, is not just a good book; it is a work of art. Born in a
migrant worker family in Arizona, Mr. Vea served in Vietnam and then
put himself through law school. His understanding of the job of a
public defender, the peculiar horrors of the Vietnam war, and the
racism and violence in our society go far beyond the surface. It
comes from deep within and takes the form of surreal poetic prose.
I found myself gripped in its magic.

The story is ambitious and
complex. There's a Mexican-American attorney at its center, who is
charged with defending a young African-American boy for a double
murder. This is just the barest outline of the story which includes an
excellent portrait of the San Francisco legal system and its
lawyers. The two victims of the crime are a North Vietnamese woman and
an African American woman who are opening a restaurant together in a
slum of San Francisco. There's a bond between these two women that go
beyond the fact that each of them have lost husbands and Vietnam. The
depth to which the author takes their characterization goes to levels
I have never seen explored before.

The book moves along as the
connections between the well defined and poetically described
characters weave together in a tapestry that is nothing short of pure
genus. The writer has a mastery of words and images as well the
courage to take chances. The reader must suspend disbelief a bit; but
it is worth it. I found myself mesmerized by the swirling words and
images which keep the tension high with action, insights, and
multi-leveled metaphors. Gods Go Begging is nothing short of a
literary masterpiece and I give it my very highest recommendation.

Great literature finds the central synapse of an event, real or imagined, and releases pulsatile barages of words that touch off awakening responses in all of us. The end result is the discovery of a million personal novels in emotionally vulnerable and receptive minds. Alfredo Vea has managed to eloquently distill all the terror, insanity, unspeakable inhumanity that was the Vietnam Conflict and find a story that intertwines all aspects of that grotesque error in history in a way that allows us to address and, yes, even begin to understand the daily violence of contemporary living that fuzzes by incompresibly on television, newspapers, movies, rap music....hidden and denied internalized wounds of life at the end of a brutal century. "Gods Go Begging" is a monumental feat that to this reader's mind ranks with Wilfred Owen, Auden, Spender, Tim O'Brien as a timeless, universally important antiwar voice. An ingeniously interwoven story that never strays from the top, Vea's novel manages to swirl us into time zones, flights of surrealism, philosophical meanderings that only serve to hit us like a bullet on the next page. This is a book of such importance that it should be read by everyone even remotely touched by War... and in truth, that is everyman. A brilliant contribution to the significant literature of this closing century.

I've read a number of great novels this year, but I think this is the one I will remember the longest. A tale with soul. It seems the author has gained a certain wisdom from the all too real horrors of life and somehow has managed to share what he has experienced through a rich and complex tale. Interesting parallels between Vietnam and current-day violence. A surprising thread of hope throughout.