Customer Reviews

In Memory of Gods and Heroes

Martinez doesn't slowly and deliberately construct a logic-driven storyline for us. Instead, he immediately hooks our interest by snaring our sympathy for starving Somalian children, half a world away.

Santiago, a Latino writing instructor, and his adult cousin Adam are looking at photographs of emaciated Somalian children and talking of God, responsibility, and apathetic child abuse. And then, with the jarring ring of a telephone, Martinez cold cocks us with a devastatingly sudden and searing revelation of child abuse within Santiago's own family: Santiago's brother-in-law, Tony, has struck his six-year-old child, Chantel, with a hot frying pan, and, we learn later, Tony has also cudgeled his wife, Robin, yet another time.

This double-sided image of international and home-front child and spouse abuse triggers such anger within Santiago that he begins planning his revenge against his brother-in-law. This novel, however, is no mere narrative of vengeance. Instead, it's a carefully woven tale of love and offering, with an ending that will surprise every reader with its explosive finality, and yet, from the beginning, Martinez skillfully and quietly prepares us for a revelation that redefines suspense and intensity.

I can't imagine this novel being told with more power or surprise. It's valuable for readers to happen upon a book that grips them tightly, one in which they anticipate the ending-and then, without warning, they are stunned in utter disbelief until they think back and realize that in this novel, Martinez thoroughly prepares us for what happens.

As a reviewer, I would like to further explicate the ending to which Martinez so skillfully drives. That, however, might undermine the experience for readers so I will say only this - in his finish, Martinez creates a moment of rare and raw emotional power in fiction, one that will render readers numb.