Rain God [Paperback]

Arturo Islas (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1991

Already a Southwestern classic as beautiful, subtle and profound as the desert itself Arturo Islas's The Rain God is a breathtaking masterwork of contemporary literature. Set in a fictional small town on the Texas-Mexico border, it tells the funny, sad and quietly outrageous saga of the children and grandchildren of Mama Chona the indomitable matriarch of the Angel clan who fled the bullets and blood of the 1911 revolution for a gringo land of promise. In bold creative strokes, Islas paints on unforgettable family portrait of souls haunted by ghosts and madness--sinners torn by loves, lusts and dangerous desires. From gentle hearts plagued by violence and epic delusions to a child who con foretell the coming of rain in the sweet scent of angels, here is a rich and poignant tale of outcasts struggling to live and die with dignity ... and to hold onto their past while embracing an unsteady future.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

The late Arturo Islas was our most acclaimed and accomplished literary explorer of Mexican-American culture. The publication of his first novel, The Rain God, marked the arrival of a new and unique voice that could speak to both traditions.

Born in 1938 in El Paso, Texas, Islas grew up in the same desert country along the Mexican-American border that is the home of the Angel family in his novels. He earned his undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degrees from Stanford University, where he continued as a professor of English. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, a Woodrow Wilson Fellow and a University Fellow, as well as a recipient of the Lloyd W. Dinkelspeil Award for outstanding service to undergraduate education at Stanford. One of Islas' most popular courses was a limited enrollment seminar, called "American Lives," that mixed readings in literary autobiography with students' own attempts to chronicle important aspects of their lives.

He wrote Migrant Souls, the companion novel to The Rain God, a year before he died at home in Stanford in early 1991. He was at work on a third novel.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (September 1, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380763931
• ISBN-13: 978-0380763931
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #34,814 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Great American Novel, November 20, 2000

By 

GodfreyD "godfreyd" (Parkville, MD United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rain God (Paperback)

Arturo Islas's ten-year search for a publisher for this novel reveals the sad tragedy of commercialism and racism in the literary world. White editors told him that his book was not 'authentic' enough: where were the gangs, the poverty, the struggle of barrio life? Islas, an authentic Mexican-American, stood firm for a decade until The Rain God was at last published, to the great joy of all its readers. In just over 200 pages, it chronicles three generations of a family living in a border town in Texas, and probes at the borders and divisions in all of our lives: parents vs. children, modern vs. traditional, gay vs. straight, human vs. supernatural, and body vs. soul. Surprisingly, all of this is done with great subtlety and flow; you must be an active reader to pick up on Islas's themes. It is the type of book you can reread half a dozen times (as I have) and see something new each time. It is profound, haunting, and filled with music. The Rain God is the greatest American novel since The Great Gatsby.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Lyrical mosaic, April 1, 2001

By 

"blissengine" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rain God (Paperback)

Islas's poetic story is about the Angel family, originally from Mexico, and now living in America near the border. Weaving back and forth across time and weaving the various threads of family members together, it gives a stunning portrait of its various individuals and the whole family stuck on the boundary of heritage, of class, of race, of religion. There's Miguel Chico who's avoiding his sexuality as he struggles to balance his Mexican identity with his American education. His father Miguel Grande loves his wife and his mistress equally, and when he's forced to choose, he finds he cannot. And Miguel Grande's brother Felix who is unable to escape his passions for young men, which brings his life to a violent end. And throughout it all, there's the women in the Angel family who are steady, patient, and at the heart of the family. It's a beautiful, poetic series of snapshots that flows with the reader like the water the desert lacks.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, Poetic, Intense, July 20, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Rain God (Paperback)

I've read this book about 3 times. It captures the poetic soul of mexican-american life. The writing is intense, lyrical, visual, emotional. The stories are rich and deep. The book made me think about my definitions of poetry, poets, martyrs, christians, families, race, sexuality and death.