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Summary: La Maravilla is a "Marvel!"
Review: Before reading this book, forget what you know about the southwest, about indigenous culture, european influences, and what you know about the US. Now imagine having the abilities to communicate with the dead, travelling mythical underworlds, and to live in a world where strangers combined make a community known as "Buckeye." The reader will be able to examine the dicotomies of people, but at the same time come to the realization that there are many similarities in which we live our lives. Hence a microcosm combining folklore, heritage, and tradition which continue into future.
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Summary: A Brief Analysis of LA MARAVILLA
Review: Best book I've read in a long time. Really ties humanity together and the flow of place and time is exquisite!
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Summary: This book was begun in anger. It did not stay that way.
Review: i began to write this book in 1989 when i was defending a Mexican-American boy against a charge of murder. The judge and the jury in this small San Joaquin valley town were so incredibly racist and abusive toward my client and myself that I took my anger and frustration to my small computer. (The boy was convicted, but his sentence has since been reversed...specifically because of the the judge's abuse of his power.) A story of the true origins of culture; a story about race that began in anger slowly became a love song for culture, for people on the outside. ALFREDO VEA JR.
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Summary: Sublime
Review: I haven't read a book that has touched me this much in years. I was awed by the music in Vea's words, breathless trying to understand the layers of meaning found in this book. It's like a beautiful dream, or a kaleidoscope from which you cannot and do not want to look away. You will enjoy this book if you are into Magical Realism, or simply if you like exploring the themes of family, death, and the supernatural. A gem of a book. I wonder if the book was originally writte in Spanish-- I suspect it would be even more beautiful that way.
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Summary: A few comments
Review: I was only able to get about halfway into this book before putting it down. This was not because of any inherent deficiency in the book itself--Vea is a competent author, and his portrayal of a squatter's community outside of Phoenix in the 1950's is both sensitive and powerful. The problem was really me--I found the pacing in the novel to be just too leisurely--perhaps itself reflecting the more leisurely pace of life in this community in the 1950's. However, I was still impressed enough with Vea to want to make a few comments. The novel requires a certain suspension of disbelief because of the important role magical elements play in the book, but I didn't even mind that, really. It's just not my cup of tea since I prefer more action-oriented, faster-paced plots. However, I can still tell a fine novel when I see one (and despite my own shortcomings as a reader), so don't let my lack of patience for an otherwise good, but somewhat leisurely paced novel, put you off. Vea writes quite well and this is a more than competent novel, especially considering it was his first, and it provides a unique glimpse into what would otherwise be a forgotten community of people on the edge of Phoneix society in the 1950's.
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Summary: Hard to get into.
Review: I wish I enjoyed the book as much as the other reviewers, but I just can't get into it. I've wanted to put it back on the shelf numerous times, but the high marks given to it keeps me going, waiting for it to get interesting. I don't think the story is going to grab me like it did the other readers. I've read to page 77 and I think I'm going to give it up.
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Summary: Cinematic but dull...
Review: I'm not surprised that a few reviewers had trouble staying with "La Maravilla". It is a challenging work, both in content and form...a bit like critically acclaimed art house movies that are greeted with mixed reviews from the public. I can't deny that the writing is excellent, and the subject noble, but I also can't deny that I was bored through the entire midsection of this book. The novel vividly depicts a squatters community outside Phoenix in the 1950s. Migrant workers return from work on flatbeds, lesbian prostitutes turn tricks in the back seats of cars, elderly grandparents have waking dreams and astral episodes amidst scenes of desert life... sounds fascinating, right? The setting is, but the story is surprisingly spare. Not a lot happens among these episodic moments, and much of what happens would better lend itself to visual form. I never entirely connected with these characters, although I could appreciate what young Beno is losing when he is taken away to California at the novel's end. There is a rich history to this community, one that is lost in mainstream America.
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Summary: Cinematic but dull...
Review: I'm not surprised that a few reviewers had trouble staying with "La Maravilla". It is a challenging work, both in content and form...a bit like critically acclaimed art house movies that are greeted with mixed reviews from the public. I can't deny that the writing is excellent, and the subject noble, but I also can't deny that I was bored through the entire midsection of this book. The novel vividly depicts a squatters community outside Phoenix in the 1950s. Migrant workers return from work on flatbeds, lesbian prostitutes turn tricks in the back seats of cars, elderly grandparents have waking dreams and astral episodes amidst scenes of desert life... sounds fascinating, right? The setting is, but the story is surprisingly spare. Not a lot happens among these episodic moments, and much of what happens would better lend itself to visual form. I never entirely connected with these characters, although I could appreciate what young Beno is losing when he is taken away to California at the novel's end. There is a rich history to this community, one that is lost in mainstream America.
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Summary: Absolutely one of the most beautiful books ever written.
Review: This book is honestly the best one I have encountered in a very, very long time. The manipulation of time, the unexpectedness of virtues in characters so many other authors would have made into cliches, the theme of physics as a unifying science, all make this a book about so much more than "Buckeye". It's about the world, the universe, life and death, ancient ways colliding with progress. If you want to change the way you see the world, read this book.
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Summary: Absolutely one of the most beautiful books ever written.
Review: This book is honestly the best one I have encountered in a very, very long time. The manipulation of time, the unexpectedness of virtues in characters so many other authors would have made into cliches, the theme of physics as a unifying science, all make this a book about so much more than "Buckeye". It's about the world, the universe, life and death, ancient ways colliding with progress. If you want to change the way you see the world, read this book.
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