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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Great American Novel,
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,
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,
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.
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