emmagluck

This is my favorite damn book of all time ever. If you don't like it, I'm liable to punch you in the genitals. Ostensibly, the book is about a water-rights squabble in a small town in New Mexico. But the book is so much more: the differences between the Mexican and American cultures, believing in miracles, political dissidence, and all of the ridiculously awesome characters that the author breathes life into. There's Amarante Cordova, the ageless wonder who has been dying since birth, only to outlive many of his own children; there's one-armed Onofre Martinez, who claims that he lost his appendage to a butterfly; pugnacious Joe Mondragon, the pint sized protagonist who starts the whole squabble; Milo, his guilt ridden lawyer who has to reconcile his white American background with his Hispanic wife; Horsethief Shorty, the foreman at the Dancing Trout ranch and crony to main villain Ladd Devine III; and a whole assortment of special agents, water rights lawyers, body shop and plumbing shop owners, angels and car thieving senile grandmothers. The book unfolds in a blissfully organic, sprawling way. You'll follow different characters in different chapters, as they all deal with their own trials and tribulations, usually working at cross purposes with other characters. Things build to a climax involving the whole host of characters, and for a change in a town called Miracle, the good guys win one.

2022-10-13 08:08