Customer Reviews

The Lamentable Journey of Omaha Bigelow Into The Impenetrable Loisaida Jungle

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This is an unusual book because of the interaction of the author and his characters and the digressions he makes for explanations or to express a viewpoint. One such expression is that Americans never know the geography of a country until they bomb it. He declares that few Americans know the geography of Puerto Rico (his native land) and asks the United States to please don't bomb Puerto Rico merely to learn the geography. This digression is hilarious, as are most of these. Even when being serious he's funny.

The theme of the novel is that a New York City born underage Puerto Rican heritage witch falls in love with a middle America born, now a bum, white guy with a small penis. She agrees to enlarge him, but it comes with a price: he must remain faithful to her. Okay, we now know what's going to happen. Hey! I've read Shakespeare and Greek Tragedy and know the consequences of anything given in return for a promise. If I learned nothing from Shakes and the Greeks I certainly learned by buying cars on time.

What one senses as he reads further into the work is the digressions don't occasionally interrupt the story; the story occasionally interrupts the digressions. Read it for these; it's worth your while.

I recommend it.

Egardo Vega Yunque is like a straight Puero Rican William S. Burroughs in terms of effect surrealistic imagery. But the book has a strong story line, great characters, and its funny. There's quite a bit of philosophy in it, but the main thing is you're alway wondering what's going to come next. If sexual imagery offends you then don't get this book. What at first may seem like racial stereotypes turn out be valid statements about how ancient parts of our respective cultures are very much a part of us.

The novel is dead, postmodernism was a fun ride that's been over pretty much since the 80's (when you were too short to ride anyhow), and you haven't looked back on Manhattan since it became overrun with extraordinarily able young women from Montclair and Chapel Hill and Bucks County in Banana Republic suits and $40 blowouts. But you find yourself riding the T with nostalgia and occasionally even wake up from a blackout to find yourself in, um, a bookstore. Browsing though, er, a novel. It's not like you have anything better to do on a Thursday night in whatever pseudocity lured you away fom Metropolis.

I like this one. The lamentable journey is self-conscious, but not painfully so, and I keep getting the feeling that Vega feels something similar for the novel that I do--it's that predictable ex-lover you keep going back to partly because you hope something new will finally happen and partly because you know that it won't. The book reads easily, it's a lot of fun, it makes you feel very clever to recognize Vega's allegories/references, and it won't leave you with that not-so-fresh-feeling. What more can you ask for?

Take a trip with White Bread Omaha into the far reaches of the barrio in this laugh-a-minute exploration of life. Ed Vega has a remarkable talent for capturing the multicultural flavor of language as it exists on the mean, and not-so-mean streets of the city. Although occasionally purient, this hilarious social commentary is well-worth the read, and is certain to appeal to the college crowd. Mixing his frank examination of barrio life with just a little bit of magic, Vega Yunque pulls the reader into a story not soon forgotten.

Don't be daunted by the title, the author's prose is tight and straight up; his examination of life is as diverse and exciting as the characters who carry this tale.

A brilliantly written book, spoilt by what can only be described as a worrisomely incontinent urge to intervene and pass comment on contemporary events. If only Ed Vega could pack the bite of, say, a Jonathan Swift in his political satires, this Omaha Bigelow could have been regarded as a great - or near-great - offering from the pen of the best thing out of Puerto Rico since, since ... I forget! When Vega Yunque learns to control the preening vanity, we might get something worthy of his excellent talents; but until he does so, we must admire his flawed genius and reflect how near we got to a classic. Only time will tell if Ed Vega can write like Marquez, Fuentes, Borges, or just stand all the time in his own way, casting a heavy shadow over an as yet underplayed brilliance. However, the book remains successful, and packs a magical-realism punch to-die-for (before you really do die at the authorial interventions!!!) More art, less Ed, if you please.