Bøger af Manuel Luis Martinez

Virginia's mom finally leaves Opelousas, Louisiana--in an ambulance, dead from an overdose--the day before the girl turns eighteen. Her mother never told her who her father is, though she regularly blamed him for all that had gone wrong in her life. "Your real father was nothing but a no-account druggie, wife-slugging, whore-mongering, sonuvabitching jailbird." But Virginia has a stuffed dog he gave her, and she knows there must be more to the story. With few clues about his identity, Virginia sets out to find her father. She meets Daniel, a stepbrother she didn't know about, who has his own share of problems. He's living in his mom's garage after a month in rehab following the Persian Gulf War. Oxy and vodka help dull the pain of his PTSD. Haunted by the image of the pregnant Iraqi woman who died on his watch, he is sure his inability to save her and the fetus caused his wife's miscarriage. Daniel agrees to help Virginia find her dead father's family in the hope that orchestrating a reunion will absolve him of his sins in Fallujah. As the pair navigates the landmines of multiple family secrets, they realize they share more than they knew. Chasing after dysfunctional relatives and their own ghosts, it's not long before things blow up in their faces. In this exploration of Latinos living on the outskirts of society, Martinez crafts scenes of war, grief and loss that will remain with readers long after the last page is turned.

An explosive, fierce, and lyrical novel, set in the barrios of San Antonio and Los Angeles, from an electrifying new voice in American fictionAt sixteen, Robert Lomos has lost his family. His father, a Latin jazz musician, has left San Antonio for life on the road as a cool-hand playboy. His mother, shattered by a complete emotional and psychological breakdown, has moved to Los Angeles and taken Robert's little brother with her. Only his iron-willed grandmother, worn down by years of hard work, is left. But Robert's got a plan: Duck trouble, save his money, and head to California to put the family back together. Trouble is, no one believes a delinquent Mexican American kid has a chance-least of all, Robert himself.Wrenching and wise, Drift gives an unflinching vision of the menace of adolescence, the hard edge of physical labor, and the debts we owe to family.

Rebelling against bourgeois vacuity, the Beat writers and artists have long symbolized a spirit of freedom and radical democracy. Juxtaposing them with Chicano rationalists and Mexican migrant writers, this text offers a challenge to this view and uncovers reactionary strains in the Beats' vision.