Thursday, December 22, 2011

Into the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea

Carolyn Alexander the Manager of Unity Books in Auckland encouraged me to read this, she said I would enjoy it and she was only marginally wrong, I loved it.
I have read very few books that touch on Mexico let alone one that is based both in Mexico and the dream land of America and deals with the myriad of issues that arise when much of the population travels to the dreamland to forge a supposedly better life for themselves and their families, the loss, the grief and the consequences for those left behind.
Set in a remote village its central character is Nayeli whose dream is to travel to America, find her father and gather up a band of expats to return home and see of the drug dealing bandidos who find easy pickings in these often men less villages.
The words this writer uses paint such wonderful, vivid portraits of the characters, the good, the bad and the truly obnoxious and their villages that they transport you to places you may never in reality visit and yet oh how real they are and how in love you fall both with these characters and their home.This writer engages all his readers senses and takes you on a journey that is tumultuous and riveting, painful, humorous to the max and a powerful learning curve, how easy it is too judge, all wrapped up in a large than life experience with a huge dollop of compassion, wisdom and kindness interwoven and threaded through out the book. I`ve already mentioned the humour but I will reiterate that this author truly throws in the most wonderful laugh out loud moments. His understanding of the yearning of the human character stood out and remarkably on the journey that Nayeli and  Tacho take to Kankakee they visited places I have been to and experienced the gorgeous Colorado Snow Flurries just as I did. A book that any and everyone will enjoy, it is available in soft cover from Unity Books but be quick it sells fast, they can order if you are tardy!
Got to say as an aside The Eisenhower Tunnel is as gorgeous as he describes it! Wonderful book, wonderful author!

1 comment:

Julia Popovic said...

Would love to borrow this one Marion!