Customer Reviews

Mile Zero

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Thomas Sanchez reminds me of a Key West James Joyce with his sometimes too thick, poetic prose and his very realistically drawn characters. He can make you feel the heat and humidity and the Florida atmosphere so directly you will start to sweat just reading about it. He has an amazing sense of time and place as well as character. This is a dense and rich book that puts overrated crap like "92 In The Shade" to shame. This is a tour de force of comedy, tragedy, passion and America.

This might just be the greatest undiscovered novel in recent American literature. It has it all: transcendant prose, a believable and credible story, wonderful characters, and a grand epic American theme involving immigration, corruption of the soul, and the American Dream. Reads like it was written in a fever by a true artist. Amen, Brother Sanchez, amen!

Brilliant! Rare is the author that can create such flawed characters so attractive to the reader. From tragically human St. Cloud to mythic-hero-figure Justo, the complex faceting of personalities will draw you in. Add to this the richly drawn background of Key West, and you have a captivating and intelligent story.

Simply one of the best fiction works set in Florida and possibly the top of any based in the American fairy tale that is Key West.

One Helluva, Ingenious piece of writing. I first read this novel more than 10 years ago in a fog of overlooked impatience. Then, I must have categorized this book as an experimental exhibit in semi-obscurity. Upon second reading, I realize the genius of Thomas Sanchez' work. St. Cloud and Justo are authentic, breathing characters, and Key West remains the psychological and cultural frontier town; a perfect setting.

This is one of my all time favorite novels, and Mr. Sanchez one of my all time favorite novelists. The vision of the author can be seen from the very beginning of the book. I was, and am, completely engrossed in this work of fiction, and have read it numerous times. The author's other novels, Zoot Suit Murders and Rabbit Boss are also masterpieces. My only regret is that there aren't more Sanchez works available. BUY THIS!

MILE ZERO is a literary landmark, a lush read that transforms the island of Key West into a vast and urgent metaphor for our times. I read the book when making my last Atlantic crossing and was struck by the insight into the life of the sea, island people, the constant interplay of history and modernity across a hundred years. Within the pages are the lives of Cubans and Americans, Bahamian Freemen, Conchs, cigar workers, rum drunk poets, Vietnam era revolutionaries, shark hunters, drug runners, shrimpers, grifters and shortcut men, all brought into special light by a stunning cast of inspirational no nonsense women. It's an exotic book with a language to match. If you enjoy taking the high wave ride then MILE ZERO is the craft that will get you there.

Thomas Sanchez's MILE ZERO was proclaimed a "masterpiece" by the NY Times; the Washingon Post declared it a "A holy terror of a book." One can see why. Not only is it masterful, but it is also, as Vanity Fair proclaimed, "mythmaking and magisterial." Since its publication, MILE ZERO has achived mythic stature, and deservedly so, its "cultural and literary intertextuality," as the Los Angeles Times observed, certainly ranks with Lowry's UNDER THE VOLCANO and Steinbeck's EAST OF EDEN, which is why I have been using it in my college core curriculum for more than a decade. The novel mines the African-Anglo-Cuban history of the island of Key West and its people over the course of an American century, creating a timeless metaphor; at its heart is a Cuban-American protagonist whose moral complexity is at once shockingly modern and heartbreakingly human. There are many reasons why this controversial, risk taking and daring novel has touched so many and will continue to do so.

MILE ZERO is a literary landmark, a lush read that transforms the island of Key West into a vast and urgent metaphor for our times. I read the book when making my last Atlantic crossing and was struck by the insight into the life of the sea, island people, the constant interplay of history and modernity across a hundred years. Within the pages are the lives of Cubans and Americans, Bahamian Freemen, Conchs, cigar workers, rum drunk poets, Vietnam era revolutionaries, shark hunters, drug runners, shrimpers, grifters and shortcut men, all brought into special light by a stunning cast of inspirational no nonsense women. It's an exotic book with a language to match. If you enjoy taking the high wave ride then MILE ZERO is the craft that will get you there.

Mile Zero is one of the great undiscovered masterpiece novels of the last quarter century. Reads like it was written in a fever. Ranks up there with Robert Stone (Flag for Sunrise) and Russell Banks (Continental Drift) -- and there is no better company. Thomas Sanchez is the bomb.

MILE ZERO is a literary landmark, a lush read that transforms the island of Key West into a vast and urgent metaphor for our times. I read the book when making my last Atlantic crossing and was struck by the insight into the life of the sea, island people, the constant interplay of history and modernity across a hundred years. Within the pages are the lives of Cubans and Americans, Bahamian Freemen, Conchs, cigar workers, rum drunk poets, Vietnam era revolutionaries, shark hunters, drug runners, shrimpers, grifters and shortcut men, all brought into special light by a stunning cast of inspirational no nonsense women. It's an exotic book with a language to match. If you enjoy taking the high wave ride then MILE ZERO is the craft that will get you there.