It's the summer of 1978 and sixteen-year-old Antonio "Tony" McCaugh has tried to comit suicide. Rather than hire an expensive psychologist, Tony's mother flies him from his Appalachian father's house to San Francisco so Tony can spend the summer with his womanizing, pot-smoking, peyote-eating Uncle Juan "Jack" Villalobos. Hanging out with Jack, she believes, is guaranteed to shake Tony out of his depression.
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
At times charming, sometimes trite, this is the fictional memoir of Antonio McCaugh Villalobos, a semisuicidal 34-year-old, half Appalachian-Scot, half Salvadoran from Tennessee. Tony published a novel in his early 20s, based on his Salvadoran family's history. A decade later, he has become an introverted journeyman English professor, splitting his time between the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and two small neighboring colleges. When his mother calls from San Francisco to tell him that his Uncle Jack has died, he seizes upon the excuse to escape a confrontation with his live-in lover, a foxy 23-year-old grad student whom he has just discovered serving up more than tennis balls with her blond partner, who is hung like his racket handle. Struggling to reconcile his mixed ethnicities, Tony is something of a basket case and has an adolescent fixation on the size of his equipment. His pilgrimage to the Bay Area brings back memories of the summer he was 16, when he was sent West by his mother after slashing his wrists over a girl, and placed under the tutelage of his pot-smoking rakehell Uncle Jack as a primitive exercise in psychotherapy. The bulk of the narrative recounts Tony's exploits as drug-dealing Uncle Jack flees south of the border to escape the mob. Hiding out in the boonies with Jack's sensual ex-wife, Ricarda, young Tony's hangups are exorcised, and when he returns home, he is, however tenuously, a man. Villatoro's (A Fire in the Earth) depiction of the fiery Latino personality and plentiful dialogue in Spanish add color to the narrative. Sexual initiation, ethnic conflict, penis envy and mushroom and mescaline-laced voodoo make for some colorful scenes, and, while Tony's odyssey of self-pity has its longueurs, the slyly humorous ending should satisfy macho readers. (Sept.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
At his Uncle Jack's funeral, Antonio McCaugh Villalobos thinks back on the lessons he learned from his wild, womanizing, drug-dealing uncle. Years ago, back when Antonio was a despairing teenager, Jack taught him to be proud of his Hispanic heritage and to believe in himself. Now, older but not much wiser, Tony realizes that he has again fallen into despairAall of which makes for a poignant story about drugs, manhood, race, and family. The similarities between the book's hero and its authorAboth have mothers from El Salvador and fathers from east Tennessee, both are novelists, and both have lived in Central AmericaAgive this bittersweet story of a young man's coming of age and acceptance of his roots the ring of verisimilitude. As McPeek Villatoro (A Fire in the Earth) skillfully moves the narrative from the present to the past and back again, his vivid characterizations of Tony's family and friends mark this novel as a superior Bildungsroman. Recommended for most public libraries.AAndrea Caron Kempf, Johnson Cty. Community Coll. Lib., Overland Park, KS
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
... a rich story that captivates the reader ...,
By
This review is from: The Holy Spirit of My Uncle's: Cojones (Paperback)
I actually had the pleasure of meeting this fine author in person... On to the review though ...This is a delightful (possibly autobiographical?) tale of a mixed White/Latino youth and his struggles and adventures growing up. On sees his failings, and his success, (as well as the amusing and sometimes sad in-betweens...) I strongly recommend this book to anyone really, pero especialmente a ellos que son mezclado de guero y latino.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Holy Spirit of My Uncle's Cojones,
By Beth Lurie (MAINE, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Holy Spirit of My Uncle's: Cojones (Paperback)
I hardly finished reading THE HOLY SPIRIT OF MY UNCLE'S COJONES when my son Max picked it up and almost wouldn't give it back. But I'm glad he's read it, too, because the characters have come alive for both of us so much so that we keep referring to them in our daily lives as certain, especially funny, situations come up. This book is a MUST READ. I was once a student of John Gardner's and this book brings his voice back into my head saying, "Everything in the story has to have something to do with everything ELSE in the story." Maybe I'm not qualified to speak for Gardner, but my heart tells me he would haved loved COJONES and held it up as a best example of GOOD FICTION in his Creative Writing Workshops.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
3 1/2 stars. An enjoyable, coming of age novel,
By Fanoula Sevastos (Lyndhurst, OH USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Holy Spirit of My Uncle's: Cojones (Paperback)
If you don't know what "cojones" means, find a spanish/english dictionary and look it up! The playful title is a good indicator of this novel's tone and it doesn't disappoint. A coming of age novel that isn't burdened with sentimentality, The Holy Spirit of My Uncle's Cojones is a breezy, entertaining read about 16 year old Tony, depressed and in love, who, after a half-hearted suicide attempt, is sent to San Francisco to spend the summer with his pot-smoking, drug dealing, womanizing uncle Jack. The year is 1978. The two of them are soon embroiled in a drug deal gone bad and are on the run for their lives. Uncle Jack isn't exactly a good role model for the impressionable teen but he proves to be exactly the antidote to adolescence that Tony needs. Tony runs the gamut of first experiences that summer, from drugs to sex, but most importantly, under his uncle's influence, he bonds with his Latino culture (he is half Anglo, half Latino) and finds his inner strength.When the book opens, Tony is a thirty-something adult, an adjunct professor of English who wrote his first novel while in his twenties and is struggling to find his second. He is in a rut, unhappy with both his life as a teacher and his two-timing girlfriend. When he gets a phone call from his mother informing him that Uncle Jack has died, he travels back to San Francisco to attend the funeral and there, reminisces the story of that fateful summer. Reliving those memories is exactly the catalyst the adult Tony needs to once again find that spark in his life, proving that Uncle Jack, even in death, is a force to be reckoned with.
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