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book_concierge's review against another edition
3.0
In the introduction to the collection of short stories, Ilan Stavans comments about Troncoso – “He makes art out of ordinariness.” I couldn’t say it better.
In the title story, siblings struggle to celebrate a traditional Christmas following the death of their mother, and their father’s remarriage to a woman the children do not like. Angie Luna tells the story of a college student home for the holidays who falls for an “older” woman who lives across the border in Juarez. In Punching Chickens a teenage boy recounts his first job. In another story, a chubby boy struggles with teasing by schoolmates and dreams of getting a 10-speed bike. An elderly couple struggle to dispel each other’s demons and fears of impending death in The Abuelita. My favorite story is probably The Gardener, wherein an elderly widow tricks her equally aged gardener into accepting her invitation to share her home.
Troncoso gives us stories of Mexican-American life along the US / Mexico border, but also stories that will speak to all of us. He covers universal themes of love, death, coming-of-age and family life, but also touches on the clash between Mexicans living in America vs those still in Mexico, and the difficulty faced by young Latinos who don’t speak Spanish but don’t feel they fit into the American mainstream either. A couple of these stories were very hard to read because of their difficult subject matter (home invasion, violence among children), a couple left me dissatisfied with what I felt was an abrupt ending. A few of these stories were truly wonderful. The star rating reflects an average across the collection.
In the title story, siblings struggle to celebrate a traditional Christmas following the death of their mother, and their father’s remarriage to a woman the children do not like. Angie Luna tells the story of a college student home for the holidays who falls for an “older” woman who lives across the border in Juarez. In Punching Chickens a teenage boy recounts his first job. In another story, a chubby boy struggles with teasing by schoolmates and dreams of getting a 10-speed bike. An elderly couple struggle to dispel each other’s demons and fears of impending death in The Abuelita. My favorite story is probably The Gardener, wherein an elderly widow tricks her equally aged gardener into accepting her invitation to share her home.
Troncoso gives us stories of Mexican-American life along the US / Mexico border, but also stories that will speak to all of us. He covers universal themes of love, death, coming-of-age and family life, but also touches on the clash between Mexicans living in America vs those still in Mexico, and the difficulty faced by young Latinos who don’t speak Spanish but don’t feel they fit into the American mainstream either. A couple of these stories were very hard to read because of their difficult subject matter (home invasion, violence among children), a couple left me dissatisfied with what I felt was an abrupt ending. A few of these stories were truly wonderful. The star rating reflects an average across the collection.
_felinefatale's review against another edition
Too many of the stories were not for me. I rolled my eyes several times. I tried to make it to at least the title story and that was rough. Couldn’t finish it.
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