#291 The National City Reparation Society- Luis Alberto Urrea

#291 The National City Reparation Society- Luis Alberto Urrea

It’s been ten years since Junior left the neighborhood, got himself out and now lived a thousand miles away.

“It wasn’t like Junior only hung out with white people now. But he didn’t see much Raza, he’d be the first to admit. Not socially. That’s why you leave home, right? Shake off the dark.”

He was gone, that is until he got a call from Chango. His old partner had a plan to make a million dollars. In the recession, whole San Diego and surrounding neighborhoods were left abandoned and the banks so overwhelmed they hadn’t had time to repo the goods.

Junior came home to empty these houses and make his money. The place wasn’t the same as he remembered, everything had changed, including him. When Chango gets busted, Junior is allowed to go because he doesn’t look or sound Latino. Given his chance, he decides to flee again.

“He was going to go. Going to go. Just get out. Break the ties once and for all. Never look back. He was in the wind.”

Maybe he’ll stay, but his memories, his old girlfriend and his youth are: “Probably gone with all the things he remembered and loved.”

Rating: 8-7-7-8 Total= 30

#287 Okie- Antonio Ruiz-Camacho

#287 Okie- Antonio Ruiz-Camacho

Bernardo and his family have moved from Mexico to Palo Alto, fled is more like it. Nobody will tell him why they had to move or when they will move back. He is insecure and quiet and feels weird in his new school.

The teacher gives him special attention until he can find friends, which he does. Children are resilient but sensitive. It’s hard to fit in if you’re the new person, from a strange place with a weird way about you. But things change if you are patient.

He has a journal to write in, but he doesn’t need that as long as he can talk with his live-in nanny, Josephina (seriously, how many stories do we have with rich kids and live-in nannies...seems like every other one), but even that he will grow out of.

Rating: 8-7-7-8 Total= 30

#269 Eleanor- Chuck Palahniuk

#269 Eleanor- Chuck Palahniuk

You know…I don't really know what’s going on in this story. It’s written in a dialect, but I’m not sure exactly what dialect it’s supposed to be. He wrote his novel Pygmy is a dialect as well, and I didn’t like that book at all either. So, maybe this technique, while inventive and probably difficult to accomplish, just isn’t my favorite thing to read.

What I gathered upon my first read is that Randy used to live in Oregon, got a settlement when his father dies in a logging accident, lives somewhere in California in a neighborhood with pink stucco and no trees, he’s shacked up with reality agent, hates his non English speaking neighbors, and has a dog named Eleanor.

There wasn’t a second reading.

Note: anyone thinking that I haven’t given this a fair shake—there is no such thing as a fair shake when reading. I read it, it didn’t hold my attention, I moved on. I like Palahniuk…I hated this.

Rating: 4-7-3-3 Total= 17