Point Books As The Madonnas of Echo Park
| Original Title: | The Madonnas of Echo Park |
| ISBN: | 1439170800 (ISBN13: 9781439170809) |
| Edition Language: | English URL http://www.brandoskyhorse.com/ |
| Literary Awards: | PEN/Hemingway Foundation Award (2011), Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction (2011) |
Brando Skyhorse
Hardcover | Pages: 199 pages Rating: 3.61 | 2314 Users | 384 Reviews
Itemize About Books The Madonnas of Echo Park
| Title | : | The Madonnas of Echo Park |
| Author | : | Brando Skyhorse |
| Book Format | : | Hardcover |
| Book Edition | : | First Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 199 pages |
| Published | : | June 1st 2010 by Free Press |
| Categories | : | Fiction |
Ilustration In Pursuance Of Books The Madonnas of Echo Park
We slipped into this country like thieves, onto the land that once was ours.With these words, spoken by an illegal Mexican day laborer, The Madonnas of Echo Park takes us into the unseen world of Los Angeles, following the men and women who cook the meals, clean the homes, and struggle to lose their ethnic identity in the pursuit of the American dream.
When a dozen or so girls and mothers gather on an Echo Park street corner to act out a scene from a Madonna music video, they find themselves caught in the crossfire of a drive-by shooting. In the aftermath, Aurora Esperanza grows distant from her mother, Felicia, who as a housekeeper in the Hollywood Hills establishes a unique relationship with a detached housewife.
The Esperanzas’ shifting lives connect with those of various members of their neighborhood. A day laborer trolls the streets for work with men half his age and witnesses a murder that pits his morality against his illegal status; a religious hypocrite gets her comeuppance when she meets the Virgin Mary at a bus stop on Sunset Boulevard; a typical bus route turns violent when cultures and egos collide in the night, with devastating results; and Aurora goes on a journey through her gentrified childhood neighborhood in a quest to discover her own history and her place in the land that all Mexican Americans dream of, "the land that belongs to us again."
Heralding a new young ethnic literary talent: Brando Skyhorse's first novel gives voice to the Mexican-American community in Echo Park, CA.
Rating About Books The Madonnas of Echo Park
Ratings: 3.61 From 2314 Users | 384 ReviewsNotice About Books The Madonnas of Echo Park
Gosh, I really wanted to like this book, but I couldn't even finish it. The primary word that I keep thinking of to describe this book is "inartful." It is SO awfully and badly executed, in its voices, character descriptions, plot development, everything. It is also inconsistent and hard to follow! Did anyone edit this book?! Here's a one example of many: One chapter is written from the voice of an older Latina woman (another is uninterestingly written from the voice of a self-hatingThis book will surprise you. Not in its themes or its writing style (though the former are important and the latter is excellent), but in it's presentation: every single chapter is told by a different character. This isn't made obvious at first, so you may get thrown for a loop at the beginning of Chapter 2, but once you figure it out, it really works.I've read some other reviews that say that Madonnas "isn't really a novel, more like a short story collection." I guess that's true on its face,
This is a good book. Not sure if its really good or just good. Im not thrilled with the writing. Something about it just throws me. I think its the way he describes everything. It just feels disconnected or rough. I honestly dont know what it is. Theres also his frequent use of cuss words. I mean, I get it, thats how people talk. But I think this betrays one of the general guidlines of narrative: dont tell me, show me. He seems to make too much of an effort to make the reader understand that
The Madonnas of Echo Park by Brando Skyhorse is a breathtaking novel, a connected set of short stories, which explores the predominately Mexican American neighborhood of Echo Park in East L.A. Each story relates the struggles of immigrants and first and second generation Mexican Americans and subtlety explores the themes of race, class, and assimilation. Skyhorse opens the world of gangs and drive-bys, day laborers and cleaning ladies, and in turn shows readers how the characters involved in
I've been accompanying major home cleaning projects with audiobooks so my dogs and I both listened to this one, a novel of connected stories from different points of view, most of them from the traditionally Mexican neighborhood of Echo Park, displaced by Dodger Stadium and surrounding gentrification. Strong voice, great in audio, a few racist terms that are uncomfortable but probably accurate for the characters using them.There is no elegy for those who have been dispossessed of their anger.(Yo
This is a book that I will definitely need to revisit. I am not sure that it got my undivided attention, and this book respectfully commands and deserves it. The author presents a kaleidoscope of imagery and characters that populate the ethnic neighborhood of Echo Park buried in downtown L.A. Much like the movie Crash, Skyhorse weaves and interconnects the stories of many inhabitants of Echo Park through familial and non-familial relationships with one of the main events involving the driveby
this is a collection of vignettes of various residents of echo park - a neighborhood in los angeles.the book deals with the complexities of growing up Mexican in America. skyhorse touches on topics such as immigration, gang violence, single motherhood and assimilation.each chapter is an individual's story that is seemingly disconnected from the others, but all of the characters are inter-related, in the same way that humanity is all connected regardless of heritage.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.