I’ve been so busy this month that I haven’t had time to cover new material, so I’m posting three short reviews of books I did not cover since changing the format of this blog this past spring. Also, there are still readings galore happening this month in New York City, so if you feel the need to catch some literary talent in real-time, consult the News page on my website for those listings. http://www.firekingpress.com
This month’s PANIC! reading theme is SPIRITS and we have a great evening planned for you at Nowhere on Wednesday, October 28th, 8PM. Please come out and join me, Mia Roman Hernández, Sean Meriwether, Rosalind Lloyd, Robert Vázquez-Pacheco, and Mure Vyn for spooky stories relating to the spirit world—all in time for Halloween and El Día de los Muertos! Put on something warm and bring a friend…
The Cigar Roller (Grove Press, 2005)
By Pablo Medina
You should never judge a book by its size either, as my undersized edition packs a mean and hearty story into its postcard-sized binding. Amadeo Terra, the main character and master cigar-roller, reflects on his hard life on a hospital bed after surviving a devastating stroke. The taste of mango baby-food unleashes a series of flashbacks that open doors to others, as his health deteriorates and the ghosts of his past come back to haunt him. This story’s arrangement is akin to the common belief that one’s life passes before one’s eyes as death encroaches closer. Medina’s writing style is revealing and visual and sweeps the entire storyline—from Amadeo’s family’s journey to Tampa from Havana, to the remembrance of his most soul-crushing memory—with the finesse of a calligrapher’s pen and brush. The Cigar Roller is a shocking and brutally honest look at the complex inner-life of a wounded man who passes that pain on to others however possible. Amadeo is the machismo-charged father, brother, uncle, grandfather, whose hand was always too heavy, whose heart seemed not quite right—and whose secrets you would never know. File this little book under “heavy reading”—a major triumph of heartbreaking Latino fiction.
Legends of the City of Mexico (Lethe Press, 2002)
By Thomas Janvier
Legends of the City of Mexico is a collection compiled by Thomas A. Janvier with the help of his wife. The Janviers were members of the London Folklore Society and lived in Monterey for many years, where these stories were divulged to them by villagers at the turn of the 20th century. Skeletons avenging their murders with daggers still lodged in their skulls; tales of forbidden love, torture, and vengeance; the eerie tricks played by witches and ghosts—these themes fill these pages with the same hair-raising terror invoked by genre masters such as Edgar Allan Poe (think Poe meets Cervantes meets El Día de los Muertos). I was reminded that this brand of storytelling is nearly gone in our times—harsh realism and sugary fantasy seem to be the poles marking today’s literary spectrum. These stories all begin in the realm of possibility and snake their way to the supernatural without getting corny. It makes you wonder how and where they began, and how they changed through the centuries, as each teller’s version detoured away from the previous. Great Halloween gift!
This is for the Mara Salvatrucha: Inside the MS-13, America’s Most Violent Gang (Hyperion 2009)
By Samuel Logan
My parents used to consort with violent South Bronx street gangs in the 1970s and I have never once considered aligning myself with any organization as such, but the temptation and need exists for many and these gangs are as active as ever. I suppose I’m easy to shock in certain aspects and learning of random, fatal shootings and running people over repeatedly with cars made me stop to think about this strange and violent reality. The MS-13 is a Central American gang that formed in Los Angeles during the 1980s and has spread throughout the country, with heavy concentrations in Texas and throughout the South and Atlantic Seaboard. This book follows the story of “Brenda”, an intelligent gangster that becomes a snitch, hoping she can turn her life around after witnessing the cold-blooded murder of an innocent youth and deciding she’s had her fill of “the life.” The story intensifies when she gets pregnant and fellow gang members catch wind of her double-agent maneuvering, forcing them to put a price (green light) on her head. This book is for lovers of real crime stories and gang culture—very revealing.
