destiny

Book One for 2024: “Rain of Gold”, Victor Villaseñor

/ Juliana Lightle / 1 Comment

The lady in charge of the College Center at Mendez Learning Center told me about this book, one of her favorites. I received it for Christmas from my grandson. It is the first book I read this year.

Although it reads like an epic novel, it is non-fiction, the story of Victor Villaseñor’s family tracing back to his four grandparents in Mexico, one set from Jalisco and the other from the rugged mountains closer to the US border. All left Mexico to escape the violence of the Mexican Revolution and eventually settled in Southern California.

Some of the events in this story are heart wrenching incidents of violence, even death, blatant prejudice, and economic poverty. On the other hand, I often found myself laughing out loud, it was so funny. The author’s parents remain perfect examples of strong people who never give up, whose persistence and determination lead to prosperous lives as successful business owners. The author continues to live on the ranch where he grew up in northern San Diego County. Now 83, he has authored many books including a sequel to this one. His website not only talks about his life and writing, but also struggles with dyslexia.

One Book a Week-54: “On A Night Of A Thousand Stars”, Andrea Yaryura Clark

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For decades I have been a bit obsessed with Argentina and its history. When the horrible events described in this recent novel occurred during the military dictatorship in the 1970s, I closely watched news and read books about it. Later, I hosted an exchange student from Argentina and visited him and his family. Therefore, when I saw this novel on the new books shelf of the local library, I checked it out.

At a polo match in New York, a wealthy Argentinian diplomat and his wife and daughter meet a woman from his college days. She says things about him and his past that upset him and cause his daughter, Paloma, to wonder about her dad’s past, about which she knows little. When they go to Argentina on a trip related to his diplomatic duties, Paloma decides to investigate. She meets a local university student whose parents had disappeared (as thousands did) during the military dictatorship. He is part of an activist group searching into the disappearance of close family members during the dictatorship. He decides to help her with her research into her dad’s past. This creates a chain of events that upsets everything she knows and endangers her life.

If you want to read a heartbreaking love story, learn more about a brutal period in Argentinian history and some Argentinian customs and lore, this is the book for you. I went back and reread some of it twice.

One Book a Week-51: “The Watch”, Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya

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I could not stop reading this book. The setting is a US military outpost during the Afghan war in the middle of nowhere in the mountains of Kandahar. The weather is brutal–extremes of cold and heat, sand storms, heavy fog early in the mornings. Suddenly, after a brutal battle where they lose some soldiers, a young Afghan woman, Antigone, with stumps for legs shows up pulling a cart. Her brother, who the soldiers think was part of the Taliban, was killed in the battle; she wants her brother’s body for a proper Muslim burial. The soldiers do not know whether she is who she says she is or a suicide bomber. It confuses them even more when she plays hauntingly beautiful music on her rubab every night. All this leads to a lot of confusion over and raises many questions about morality and duty. Each chapter is from a different viewpoint, the young woman and various soldiers in the outpost.

Note: The rubab is a traditional Pashtun 12 string guitar-like instrument. You can find recordings on YouTube.

One Book a Week-50: “The Poet X”, Elizabeth Acevedo

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I purchased this book not long after it won the National Book Award, but never managed to get around to reading it until recently. I love this book. Yes, it won in the youth category, but since I have worked with teens for decades, I “get” it. It is a novel in poetry where the narrator, a 15 year old Dominican Latina, Xiomara, who lives in Harlem, keeps a poetry journal to stay sane. Her very religious Catholic die-hard Mom frequently drives her crazy with rules like she can never talk to a boy, much less date one. Her dad is a bit of a playboy and less strict. Her twin brother is a genius who won a scholarship to a fancy private school, and her best friend, Caridad, is hyper religious. Yet these young people all keep each other “together”. Her English teacher realizes Xiomara has a gift and encourages her to become involved in poetry slam events. She cannot see how this is possible given her mother’s attitude toward her poetry. You do not have to be a teenager to enjoy this book. In fact, if you think you do not understand teenagers, I suggest you read this book. It will enlighten you.

One Book a Week-49: “Anything Is Possible”, Elizabeth Strout

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Her books are deceptively simple with so much to say about people and life. This is the fourth book I have read of hers this year. It interweaves many of the characters in the books I previously read back to the towns where they were born and grew up. One part of the book discusses one family who were so poor the children dug food out of dumpsters and everyone made fun of them at school. Only one truly escapes and finds success. One lives a lonely life at the home place, and the other is filled with anger and resentment. Much of the book is about how even if persons escape a horribly poor and dysfunctional family and find success later in life, the terrible things that happen to them as children are always there lurking in the shadows. This includes a lot of resentment and anger from some family members who do not manage to escape. Other parts of the book detail the lengths to which people will go to find solace often secretly with few or no one having a clue about how their lives really are. How well can we really know another person?

One Book a Week-48: “The Buried Giant”, Kazuo Ishiguro

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This is not the easiest book to read in many ways. Its setting is not long after the death of mythical King Arthur. Main characters include an elderly couple who have left their home to search for their long lost son, an aged knight supposedly Sir Gawain, a dragon monster, a “gifted” older child, and a Saxon warrior. Some of them are Britons and some are Saxons, and in some cases they view each other as arch enemies. There is a monastery with both good and evil monks, a tunnel, lots of forests and mountains, rivers, and a lake where a boatman ferries people to an island–perhaps the residence of the afterlife. The potential symbolism is endless if the reader is into symbolism. The dragon monster has created an endless fog which dulls the long term memory of the humans. The elderly couple want to get rid of the monster so they can repair their memories, but will this really be a good thing. That is one of the main questions in the book. Most analyses of the symbolism say the buried giant is the dragon, but I think it is the buried memories of everyone, but especially the elderly couple, who are desperate to recover their memories.

One Book a Week-46: “Road Fever”, Tim Cahill

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After reading two intense, somewhat depressing novels, I decided to read a lighter non-fiction work. An article I read mentioned a tale of two guys, Tim Cahill and Garry Sowerby, who drove a GMC Sierra pickup truck from Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska in less than 25 days. I like adventures and the best vehicle I ever owned was a Sierra 4 by 4 Off Road. I sold it to a former student when I moved. It was still going strong at over 300,000 miles.

In order to follow along on their adventure, I dug out my atlas and followed their trip through 13 countries, finding cities, little towns, rivers, mountains. When they traveled in 1987, the only place with no road was the Darien Gap on the border between Colombia and Panama–today still no road and now famous for all the migrants who labor through this dangerous, swampy, jungle area on foot on their way north. Since no road there, Tim and Garry had to load the truck onto a container ship in Cartagena and unload it in Panama. They also rode on the ship as passengers. This lead to their meeting some of the most colorful characters on their trip.

Along the way, they meet all sorts of people, e.g. sadistic police, kind employees of international GMC, a weird consulate employee, and helpful women, describe them and the landscape in detail. Procuring the right documents and proceeding across borders is sometimes easy and sometimes grueling, again described in detail. Of course, political leaders, ease of travel, etc. have changed in many places–I’ve been to or lived in five of the countries they traverse.

Want to explore new places, meet all sorts of folks?? Then this is the book for you and a fun read.

One Book a Week-44: “The Unsettled”, Ayana Mathis

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To say this novel is intense is an understatement. It begins with Toussaint, a 13 year old boy left to survive on his own then switches to Ava, his mother, who grew up on the road following her mother’s singing in Southern clubs until her mother settles down with Caro in a Black country Alabama town where all the Black people own acreage and are not only self sufficient but also sell their goods in many places. The nice life they have in this town changes suddenly when disaster occurs and her mom, Dutchess, goes into a prolonged mourning period. Eventually, Ava goes to college, obtains various jobs, wanders all over the country, and meets Cass, a doctor and Black Panther whose charisma draws people to him. He disappears, she and their son, Toussaint, wander from place to place as she goes from job to job. She marries, Cass reappears, and one bad event after another occurs.

This is a story of mother and son love, women who become ensnared with the wrong men, self sufficiency in spite of many obstacles, angry men, hope, and redemption. It is a story of this country.

A Book a Week-43: “Desertion”, Abdulrazak Gurnah

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Gurnah, a native of Zanzibar, won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2021. This is the second of his novels I have read. Both deal with colonial Africa and the effects of colonialism on both individuals and countries, especially in East Africa.

In 1899, a British man, Pearce, stumbles out of the desert and collapses near the shop of a local businessman, Hassanali. His sister, Rehana, saves Pearce. This sparks a love affair, the results of which have long lasting effects on several families, not only for Pearce and Rehana, but for lovers and individual family members two generations later.

It is also a tale of governments immediately after independence and their failures. Additionally, it addresses “forbidden” love and its effects on those who genuinely love each other but cannot pursue their love. The effects are not only immediate but long lasting, affecting others not just the two lovers.