Review: The Husband Habit. For Every Farewell, a Welcome.

Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez. The Husband Habit. NY: St Martin's Press, 2009.
ISBN-10: 0312537042

Michael Sedano

Way back in 1999, the Los Angeles Times ran a review that skewered a comedian and his tired, insulting act. I remember sitting up and taking notice of the writer, thinking to myself, “Self, this writer, Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, has a lot of power in her pen, I wonder what kind of fiction she’d write if she ever gets a chance to cut loose?”


In the course of a handful of novels, the writer demonstrated she has a lot going for her. She aligned her work with a popular strategy other writers had pursued to great success, following multiple characters. It worked. Valdes-Rodriguez enjoyed popular success in her Sister Sucias novels, The Dirty Girls Social Club and less so with Dirty Girls On Top, advancing with superb work in Make Him Look Good. In her latest novel, The Husband Habit, Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez sows fertile new ground. She’s freed herself of her inner Mary McCarthy and allows one character to take over the novel. And I’m glad she has. With a reservation.

Although readers can depend on a Valdes-Rodriguez novel to bring smiles that brighten even a dismal day, a mélange of characters doesn’t allow much opportunity for a woman to stand on her own feet and show the world of what she’s capable. Ditto the writer, in as much as the group tactic pressures the writer to leave deserving characters ill-developed while sending others into extreme behaviors to wrap up an errant plot.

Thus, shaking off The Group mentality frees the writer to focus upon a singular character, a continuous narrative, and to write the heck out of a novel to the benefit of both the reader and author. This is what The Husband Habit reaps, a better developed central character around whom all the characters and action pivots, and some interesting writing.

Vanessa Duran exercises culinary genius in a fancy Alburquerque restaurant. Clever with quick repartée, she has a solid sense of herself, but refuses to take her own side. The big-name chef she works for steals credit for Vanessa’s creativity. Big sister Larissa bosses Vanessa around as if the latter were not a fully grown adult woman. And Vanessa submits like a good little sister. The worst part of Vanessa’s problem is being gulled by married men, hence the title.

Valdes-Rodriguez opens the novel with a deliciously funny scene. Vanessa, the unknowing “other woman” has flown cross-country to tryst with an internet romance. The vato has money, charm, fancy clothes and an impressive bottle of wine. And a wife with son, who follow from the airport to the tony hotel. Sancha Vanessa and fulano learn they’ve been followed when the irate wife rams her own SUV into the lying philanderer’s fancy car. Again and again and again the betrayed wife slams her vehicle into the Mercedes until cops haul her away. The mortified Vanessa flees to the registration desk and a sympathetic clerk. Hilarity surrounded by the woman’s tragedy.

Vanessa lands back home and resumes a courtship with Bryan, a pastry chef. Another fiasco. This pendejo not only is married with a son, his wife has found out about the affair and is hospitalized after attempting suicide. In the space of the first 40 pages of the novel Vanessa takes a pair of you-didn’t-tell-me-you’re-married gut punches from men she was dating. Sadly, Vanessa’s feeling of betrayal is so profound she blames the wife, telling Vanessa’s good friend Hazel that Bryan is “a lying sack of crap with a depressive and unstable wife.”

Older sister Larissa enjoys a successful academic career. In fact, she’s about to depart for a research jaunt to Morocco. This leaves Vanessa in charge of their aging, bickering, alcoholic parents. Vanessa rightfully senses a new nightmare in the offering. Larissa senses danger in the hunky next door neighbor and extracts a promise from little sister to lay off men for a few months. No rebound dating, especially with the neighbor. Vanessa, overwhelmed at the prospect of spending quality time with her mother and father, meekly agrees.

Then she lays eyes on the neighbor. Vanessa cannot keep her eyes off the he-man’s body. He-man cannot keep his eyes off Vanessa’s legs. But Vanessa holds true to her promise, hence the plot thickens as she resists her feral urges and keeps the neighbor at arm’s distance. Slowly, however, he wears her down with Vanessa's help. He cooks. He knows literature. He finds ways to surprise her with music, knowledge, kindness.

Paul is an interesting man in numerous ways, with a major drawback. He’s military and neither Vanessa nor Larissa want anything to do with this type of person. But Paul is not a tipo. He is a pilot recently returned from Iraq, wounded--Post-Traumatic Stress wounded. He’s fallen hard for Vanessa’s beauty, skill, sincerity. Vanessa’s anti-military blindness deepens his wounds, as if his life choices were entirely of his doing. They’re not, if only Vanessa will provide him an opportunity to explain.

Paul, it develops, has turned against the war. He’s of Vanessa’s opinion, of the futility and mindlessness of an unprovoked invasion. For Vanessa, it’s a theory. For Paul, the knowledge of what he has done in prosecuting the war is one long, sustained gut punch. Bridging the gap between Vanessa’s attitude and Paul’s remorse sends the novel roiling into political territory that adds interest and enlarges the capacity of chica lit to give something beyond a mere beach read. Not that this novel is not a lot of fun. It is.

Valdes-Rodriguez’ antiwar attitudes are not a reason to endorse The Husband Habit, but that hasn’t stopped a cabal of conservative assholes from raking the book over the Amazon coals. The day I looked, Amazon's featured negative review slices and dices at the novel’s strengths with unmeasured sophistry and mean spiritedness. It’s interesting to note the 1- and 2-star (bad) reviews mostly come from anonymous critics who sign with “handles”, whereas 5- and 4-star (great) reviewers generally have the honest courtesy to sign a real-sounding name.

Sophisticated readers who aren’t grinding axes will find excellent writing gives The Husband Habit a stature several steps above typical chica lit titles. This is one of the rewards of Valdes-Rodriguez shedding the group novel in favor of developing a single relationship for a singular character. Certainly there’s ample clowning around and clownish moments in her characters. But the characters can be deadly serious and self-disclosing in disarming ways, as when Paul talks about his hatred for hunting the animals on his family’s ranch:

I liked animals, Vanessa. Alwavs have. I still do. I love 'em. I'll never forget it. I was a little kid, and he took me out here, and he downed a doe, and took me with him to get it. She wasn't dead yet, just there bleeding, you know? She looked right at me. And her baby, that fawn, was standing there, not knowing where to go or what to do. I was sickened by it. I hated it, but you know how it is. You have to suck it up, when you're a boy, right? You gotta play soldiers and cowboys and Indians, you gotta like to shoot stuff, and you gotta play sports, right, or you're not a real boy. And my dad wanted me to learn to hunt, to do this thing that his dad taught him, and that his dad's dad had taught his dad, and so that's what it was like. Like my legacy, and I hated every minute of it, but when you're a kid you don't have the guts or the power to stand up to your dad about something like that, and you think there's something wrong with you.

Lucky Vanessa. True to the template of chica lit, the would-be lover has money. Rich is so much nicer than poor. And, because Vanessa is the center of her novel, Valdes-Rodriguez gets opportunities to paint a complex woman, not the foolish girl who bounces from bed to bed. As in the excursion Vanessa’s thoughts take when driving the open road and her thoughts wander to roadkill:

Brutality and grace, locked in an endless dance. This is how it works, a vile vein woven through all this beauty, life and death tangled together and dependent as inhale to exhale, as sleep to waking, when you are brave enough to look closely and without blinking. Roadkill. Rabbits, coyotes, dogs. Do they never clean the sides of Interstate 25, the road crews? Or do things die here with such frequency that regular removal is not enough to hide the truth of the dance between the modern and the ancient? It wounds her, these dead things. Maybe it was the eyes of that one dog, still open, surprised at the blow, the head disembodied and the rest of the animal spread like paste across the roadway.

What an interesting grammatical paragraph, the appositions. The Husband Habit offers numerous instances where the writer has her way with language. Rich in metaphor, landscape, spiteful character asides, Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez has achieved a milestone in her career with this masterly crafted work. And true to her title, Vanessa's in for a huge surprise from Paul she did not see coming, and readers will chortle about. Be prepared to suspend disbelief in that final plot twist.

My one reservation is a quibble with the character’s seeming helplessness, though this more is wrought of the chica lit template, less from the writer’s skill. I’d like so much to observe a strong, powerful woman with guts and judgment. Vanessa’s pal, Hazel, for instance, takes no caca from domineering men. Paul’s mother, like sister Larissa, is an accomplished academic, I bet they kick ass in a man’s world no holds barred. I hope to read such a character in an upcoming novel. The author surely is moving in that direction. The cutesy stuff of comedy makes for fun reading, and that’s its own reward. I think back to the controlled anger and unbridled contempt 1999's Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez unleashed on that clueless sap. He got what he deserved. I think some future Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez character is out there, waiting to get what she deserves, her own novel and powerful self-reliant independent ethos. It's what we deserve.

That's the second Tuesday of the only August of 2009. What a Tuesday! A Tuesday unlike any other Tuesday, nonetheless, We Are Here. Thank you for visiting La Bloga. I'll wachar you next week.

ate.,

mvs

Hasta Luego Our Friend, Bloguera Ann Hagman Cardinal

It has been our honor and our pleasure at La Bloga to share Sunday space with the immensely talented, warm, funny, thoughtful Ann Hagman Cardinal. Ann has retired from her regular every-other-Sunday column. Family and several writing projects require her fullest energies, endeavors Las Blogueras Los Blogueros endorse. Our door and abrazos are always open to Ann when she can come back for a guest column or two or three. We're looking forward to her new work and when it hits the market, La Bloga will be overjoyed to share the news.

A Message from Ann Hagman Cardinal

I am so honored to have been a part of La Bloga and among such incredible writers. At this point, however, I am juggling parenthood, a full-time job and three novels in various stages of completion so before my agent gives up on me I figured I’d better put my focus on finishing them. Thank you so much my fellow blogueros and la bloga readers, I’m certain that my Sunday spot is in exceptional hands. I’ll be back to visit, you can count on it. ¡Gracias por todo!

Welcome to Our Three New Blogueras, Olga, tatiana, Liz

Over the past three Sundays, La Bloga has welcomed the work of three mujeres who have accepted our invitation to spend Sundays with us at La Bloga. Olga Garcia, tatiana de la tierra, and Liz Vega will be rotating Sunday La Bloga columns. We're privileged that three such distinguished people are joining us to share reviews, insights, original work.

La Bloga welcomes your comments on this and any other column. Haz klik the comments counter below to share your thoughts. La Bloga welcomes guest columnists. What great friendships we develop when we welcome a guest. If you've an extended comment, a review of a book, arts, or cultural event, click here to propose an idea, and learn more about being our guest.

Documenting Hate

By Daniel A. Olivas

[Author’s note: This essay first appeared in The Jewish Journal on August 12, 2005. I republish it today, the tenth anniversary of the attack on the North Valley Jewish Community Center and murder of Joseph Santos Ileto. This essay also appears in the young adult anthology, Hate Crimes: Social Issues Firsthand (Greenhaven Press, 2007), edited by Laurie Willis.]

In late fall of 1999, I wrote a short story entitled “Summertime” which I eventually included in my collection, Assumption and Other Stories (Bilingual Press, 2003). When the book reviews starting coming in, most noted that particular story’s unsettling premise. But what fascinated me more was the response I received via e-mail or in person from family, friends and strangers alike. More on that later.

“Summertime” begins benignly enough. The first section of the story has the heading “6:53 a.m.” and we encounter a married couple having difficulty getting their young son ready for summer day camp. Claudio Ramírez and Lois Cohen obviously love their son, Jon, but as with most parents who must get to work, mornings can be a bit frustrating. Jon eventually gets dressed, fed and trundled off to Claudio’s car for the ride to camp. The next section is entitled “7:39 a.m.” and we switch to a dusty, small hotel room where we meet a sleeping man named Clem whose “head looked like a pot roast as it lay nestled heavily on the over-bleached pillowcase.” Clem wakes to begin his day. Clem is from Oregon and has driven to Southern California on a mission.

The story moves along, switching between the Ramírez-Cohen family and Clem. We eventually learn that Clem’s “mission” is to perpetrate a hate crime. He eventually settles on the Jewish day camp that Jon attends. I paint Clem as an average person who feels belittled by the world and who hopes to have a “big day” that will put his face in every newspaper and on TV. He is no evil genius. But the evil he perpetrates is as harrowing and real as any better-planned hate crime.

I wrote the story after we experienced the horror of Buford Furrow’s attack at the North Valley Jewish Community Center. As we all know, Furrow, a self-described white separatist, shot and wounded three children, a counselor and the receptionist at the Center. That same day, he murdered a Philippines-born postal worker, Joseph Santos Ileto. Furrow admitted to wanting to kill Jews. He also stated that Ileto was “a good ‘target of opportunity’ to kill because he was ‘non-white and worked for the federal government,’” according to then-U.S. Attorney Alejandro Mayorkas.

For almost four hours that hot, horrible day, my wife and I didn’t know if our son, Benjamin, had been a victim. We huddled together with my mother-in-law outside the camp waiting for word. Unfortunately, because the police were concerned that the shooter or shooters were still in the vicinity, the children who had not been wounded had been whisked off to a safe house. A rumor ran through the crowd that a boy named Benjamin had been shot and killed. But eventually, we were reunited with our son.

Frankly, I’m having difficulty writing these words because the memories are coming back, full and clear. But that’s one reason I wrote “Summertime.” I wanted to use fiction to remind others that ordinary people living in today’s world can be the target of hate crimes. And I also wanted readers to understand how easily hate-filled doctrines can be appropriated and acted upon by an “average” person.

Now back to the various responses to “Summertime.” Most readers—particularly those who know my family—knew that Clem was based on Furrow. But several other readers had never heard of Furrow’s attack on the Center or his murder of Ileto. Those readers (most of whom do not live in California and who are not Jewish) expressed shock when I mentioned that the story was based on our own experience that day in August. And I expressed shock that they had not heard of the incident particularly since it had received extensive (if not worldwide) news coverage. But this confirmed my conviction that writing about hate—even if fictionalized in a short story—can indeed educate the public about how easy it is for a person to become a Buford Furrow.

When I started writing fiction in 1998, I didn’t feel that I had the moral authority to write about anti-Semitism. Though I had converted to Judaism ten years earlier, my experience with bigotry was based on my ethnic identity as a Chicano. But after August 10, 1999, I earned the right to talk about one particular act of hate against Jews. I will go further: I now have the duty to remind others of what Furrow did that day. Why? Because if we forget, we help create a climate where it could happen again and the Furrows of the world will have won. And I don’t intend to be responsible for that.

Guest Columnist: tatiana de la tierra.

Biodanza: Rx for the Soul.

You know that thing they say about love being like a butterfly that will unexpectedly land on your shoulder when you least expect it? That’s what happened to me one day in Buenos Aires while I was stomping the streets in my perennial search for books, cafés and cultura. I got zapped, not by the valentine version of love, but by Biodanza, the dance of life. And biodanza, which I stumbled upon in the back room of that women’s bookstore on Hipolito Yrigoyen, took me directly to universal love, freedom, and happiness. Yes, all that, one dance at a time.

BIODANZA—I’d seen the word plastered on posters for cultural happenings in Bogotá but I didn’t know what it was and I was too chicken to go and find out. I had reason to be scared. Because biodanza is not a set of choreographed dance moves—it’s a way to find yourself in your body in the presence of others, with music and with purpose. It’s like being intimate with your self in public. Yet it’s also fun, playful, and creative. Imagine being a five year-old spinning in a playground. Or strutting around at home, uninhibited, to a sensual salsa tune. But you’re not alone—you’re in a circle with strangers, dancing, at times holding hands, swaying hips, or looking into their eyes.

Rooted in anthropology, psychology, shamanism, biology and philosophy, biodanza originated in Chile in the 1960s as a result of Rolando Toro’s studies on the effect that dance and movement have on the human psyche. Toro found that the mixture of music, movement, and expressed emotions stirs the human potential and connects individuals to each other. The magic happens within classes called vivencias, on-the-spot life experiences orchestrated by biodanza instructors who come to class with a lesson plan and a CD of carefully selected music cued up.

It’s really hard to describe biodanza because you have to experience it to get it. I’ll try, nonetheless, but be forewarned. It’s like trying to tell someone what it feels like to peel a ripe mango and become briefly intoxicated with that scent.

Each vivencia has its own flavor. As a whole, the class may have a pre-selected theme, such as the yin-yang archetype, angels, totem animals, gods and goddesses, or one of the four elements. Each dance has a specific intention, such as connecting to mother earth, breathing in beauty, feeling the heart center, or flirting with desire. Biodanceros give in to the moment and to the rhythm at hand—samba, salsa, classical, rock, pop, flamenco. The music is critical and as a true melomaniac, I appreciate that the music is real and organic, as opposed to computerized techno types of tunes.

The biodanza instructor leads the way and demonstrates an interpretation of the dance at hand. She sets the tone, often with a poetic script: Dance your pleasure… Dance like now or never… Walk the walk of your life… Feel a oneness with all that is connected to the universe… Dive into the sea of humanity.

But the rest of us are without words. We dance in silence, listening inward. We do as we are told: Hold hands and dance in a circle to the rhythm of samba and greet each other with the eyes. Let go and walk tall, happy and proud to Queen’s “I Want to Break Free.” Breathe in universal love and float with the sounds of Enya. Reach into the root of the earth with the beat of African drums. Dance and touch each other with the fingertips. Caress the hair of the person in front of you.

We go inside, quiet down, even as Kitaro’s “Sundance” is pulsing inside our bodies. That is the beauty of biodanza.

I sought out biodanza in Los Angeles after that fated encounter in Buenos Aires and found Jaquelin Levin, who had just relocated here after being invited to teach a biodanza seminar at Esalen. A native of South Africa, Jaqueline trained with Carolina Churba in Johannesburg and later apprenticed with Patricia Martello in the United Kingdom. She recalls her first vivencia in Cape Town. “I was so disconnected from my body, I questioned being in that first class,” she said, adding that she masked her embarrassment with giggles. “But I went back the next week and something shifted in me psychologically and physically.” Soon after, she was hooked. “The woman [instructor] from Brasil demonstrated the dances and moved with such comfort and sensuality. I wanted to be like her.”

I do too. Not that I want to be exactly like anyone, but I want to be in my body in a happy, expressive and fluid sort of way. Like swimming, but on land.

Here in Los Angeles, Jaquelin offers a series of vivencias (weekly classes resume on September 24). She has an intensive workshop coming up at the Goddess Temple of Orange County (October 3), a workshop at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur (January 5-10, 2010) and a Caribbean cruise for International Women’s Week (February 28-March 10). Graduates from the San Francisco School of Biodanza may also offer vivencias in California. And if you google around, you can find biodanza in many cities in the U.S.

A few nights ago, I joined Jaqueline and her group of biodanceros on the beach for a vivencia beneath a full moon in Aquarius. I don’t know if it was the soft sand and ocean breeze or the intimacy with strangers mixed up with lunar magic, but something clicked all over again. I woke up, ever so briefly, in the pleasure of the moment. Even now, I close my eyes and sway in the circle of communion, arms wrapped around fellow biodanceros in our safe nest of humanity. I can still hear the chorus of Deva Premal’s “So Much Magnificence”: “There is so much magnificence near the ocean, waves are coming in, waves are coming in.”

Yes, they are. And it’s just so damn cool.

***

For additional information about biodanza, see:

Biodanza USA with Jaqueline Levin, “Explore Your Soul”

Biodanza in the US with Belisa Amaro

Biodanza in the UK with Patricia Martello

***

Totó la Momposina in Los Angeles

And if you’re in Los Angeles, don’t miss your chance to experience the fabulous Totó la Momposina on Friday, August 14^th in downtown at the California Plaza for Grand Performances.

The shows (at 12 PM and 8 PM) are free. Totó is a talented and dynamic traditional Afro-Colombian singer and she’ll be swinging it with some top-notch Colombian drummers.

oportunidades

CALL FOR ENTRIES FOR NAMIC WRITERS' WORKSHOP

As part of the ongoing effort to increase the representation of African American, Asian and Latino creative professionals in the communications industry, the National Association for Multi-ethnicity in Communications (NAMIC) is proud to announce its Fall 2009 Writers Workshop. Enter to be one of 20 writers of color selected to take part in an extraordinary 2-day intensive workshop, led by Carole Kirschner, veteran television executive and architect of the CBS Diversity Institute Writers Mentoring Program.

The program includes:

professional evaluation of submitted material
one-on-one meeting with script analyst to review coverage
intensive day-long writing class taught by successful, working writers
overview of the business and self-marketing seminar
hands-on New Media training

Hone your craft. Learn how to translate your writing into on-line entertainment. Discover how to sell yourself and your projects.

Scheduled for October 5-6, the Workshop will be held at the American Management Association in New York City. The entry deadline is August 20, 2009.

Click here for information on how to apply for the NAMIC FALL 2009 WRITERS’ WORKSHOP

About NAMIC

NAMIC is the premier organization focusing on multi-ethnic diversity in the communications industry. Founded in 1980 as a non-profit trade association, today NAMIC comprises 2,000 professionals belonging to a network of 18 chapters nationwide. Through initiatives that focus on education, advocacy and empowerment, NAMIC champions equity and inclusion in the workforce, with special attention given to ensuring that the leadership cadres of our nation's communications industry giants reflect the multi-ethnic richness of the populations they serve. For more information, visit www.namic.com.

WRITING CONTESTS
A few doors to knock on (some have entry fees) --

PEN Center USA
Emerging Voices Fellowships
Emerging Voices is an intensive eight-month program for writers in the early stages of their literary careers. The program includes free classes at UCLA Extension Writers’ Program; one-on-one mentoring with a professional writer; Q&A evenings with professional writers, publishers, editors, and agents; Master classes by genre with a published PEN author; Day-long work shops on various elements of publishing; a $1,000 stipend. The program culminates with a public reading and reception. Emerging Voices focuses on writers from underserved communities, though selection is not based solely on economic need. Participants need not be published, but the program is directed toward poets and writers of fiction and creative nonfiction with clear ideas of what they hope to accomplish through their writing. There are no age restrictions.

Get all the details here. Deadline is August 14.

Writer's Digest 10th Annual Short Short Story Writing Competition
Deadline: December 1, 2009
Writer's Digest is looking for fiction that's bold, brilliant...but brief. Send us your best in 1,500 words or fewer. Enter the 10th Annual Short Short Story Competition for your chance to win the $3000 First Prize! Click here to enter or for additional information.

Writer's Digest Pop Fiction Awards
Deadline: November 2, 2009
Writer's Digest is now accepting entries in the Pop Fiction Awards. Submit your entry for your chance to win $2,500 cash, $100 worth of Writer's Digest Books and the 2010 Novel & Short Story Writer's Market.

Five Categories:
Romance
Mystery/Crime Fiction
Science Fiction/Fantasy
Thriller/Suspense
Horror

Click here for additional information or to enter online.

Robert Frost Foundation
Poetry Award
A prize of $1,000 and an invitation to read the winning work at the Robert Frost Festival is given annually for a poem written in the spirit of Robert Frost. Submit up to three poems totaling no more than three pages with a $10 entry fee per poem by September 15. Send an SASE, call, e-mail, or visit the website for complete guidelines.

Robert Frost Foundation, Poetry Award, Lawrence Public Library, 51 Lawrence Street, 3rd Floor, Lawrence, MA 01841. (978) 725-8828.
Mark Schorr, Executive Director.
frostfoundation@comcast.net
www.frostfoundation.org

Bear Deluxe Magazine
Doug Fir Fiction Award
A prize of $1,000 and publication in Bear Deluxe Magazine is given annually for a short story about the natural world, sense of place, or environmental issues. Jon Raymond will judge. Submit a story of up to 5,000 words with a $15 entry fee, which includes a copy of the prize issue, by September 8. Call, e-mail, or visit the website for complete guidelines. (See Recent Winners.)

Bear Deluxe Magazine, Doug Fir Fiction Award, P.O. Box 10342, Portland, OR 97296. (503) 242-1047. Jess Dolan, Senior Editor.
bear@orlo.org
www.orlo.org

The Bukowski Contest
Send your best Bukowski inspired, Bukowski-esque, or Bukowski worthy story. All usual Submission Guidelines apply. Include Bukowski Contest in the subject line of your e-mail. The deadline for submitting to this contest is September 30, 2009. Winners will be announced in the October 2009 issue of The Legendary and published in November 2009. Works that are not chosen as winners will still be considered for publication in future issues. First prize includes feature publication in The Legendary, Legendary stickers, and the four DVD course Building Great Sentences: Exploring the Writer's Craft, twenty-four lectures by Professor Brooks Landon of the University of Iowa, an English professor and Collegiate Fellow of that institution, as well as director of the Iowa General Education Literature Program. Learn more here.

AND ...
Fellow bloguero Daniel Olivas is the type of writer who makes his own opportunities - he's literally in dozens of places at once, talking or writing about writing and writers, and getting plenty of his own writing out there for readers. Check out a good interview with La Bloga's Monday Man at the Examiner, at this link.

This is the weekend for the Chicano Music Festival at Su Teatro's new digs, 215 S. Santa Fe, Denver. Go back to last Friday's post for a schedule of events. Always a good time.

I've been looking at cover art for my next book, another way to have a good time -- can't say too much yet, but it's suave, esé. Stay tuned for all the details.

I like to think that summer is only half-over - optimistic, I know (fall officially begins September 22.) It's been a good one, for sure. If you live in one of the latitudes where there are real seasons, may I suggest that before it's too late you take a book out in the sun, soak up rays and do some reading. Tanned and taught in one afternoon.

Later.

Paul Martínez Pompa: His Aim Is True

Paul Martínez Pompa

Paul Martínez Pompa earned degrees from the University of Chicago and Indiana University, where he served as a poetry editor for Indiana Review. His chapbook, Pepper Spray, was published by Momotombo Press in 2006. His first full length collection, My Kill Adore Him, was selected for the Andres Montoya Poetry Prize in 2008. He currently lives in Chicago and teaches composition and creative writing at Triton College in River Grove, Illinois.

What people who know are saying

“This is one tough, smart poet. The poems of Paul Martínez Pompa are gritty and visceral, but never cross the line into sensationalism. They are poems that vividly evoke the urban world, especially Chicago, without ever lapsing into urban cliché. They are poems that seek justice for the Latino community without ever resorting to the overheated language that all too often consigns poetry of social conscience to oblivion.”

— Martín Espada, 2008 Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize judge

"Like the poet’s native Chicago, even when violent or troubling, Paul Martínez Pompa’s poems risk beauty. His work possesses a fluidity that appears both effortless and well earned. His is a Chicago Renaissance of one Gwendolyn Brooks’s Bronzeville and Carl Sandburg’s 'city of big
shoulders' becoming a 'city of broken lovers' and 'an entire city in your ears' in Martínez Pompa’s capable hands. Playful and political and passionate, the poems in My Kill Adore Him mark an important debut, one you’ll surely adore."

--Kevin Young, author of Dear Darkness and For the Confederate Dead

Paul Martínez Pompa deconstructs with a deft sword. Straddling literary strategies, no supposition nor paradigm is safe. He slays the stereotypic dragons within as well as without, putting popular culture, elegy, nightmare, personal narrative, identity and gender politics in the same hat, and drawing from the source, Pompa plays a poetic hand for keeps. Every turn
of trope is more delightful than the last. A breakaway collection from an exciting new writer.

--Lorna Dee Cervantes, author of Drive: The First Quartet

What I say.....

Paul's writing hits deep, hits purely, hits true. Whether it's gender identity/visibility/invisibility and the unerring pull of desire, or whether it's the disembodied voices of poisoned workers on the border---Paul leaves his mark on you, indelible and irrevocable. There is an amazing passion in the writing, and yet Paul is also somehow observer and voyeur. He is able to capture the tragedy of desire unspoken, bones in the desert undiscovered and unburied. His writing makes my heart race and my palms sweat. It breaks and enters my sleep. It is not to be missed.

From the monster of a book....

Men Watching Men
—El Gato Negro Bar

I’m not drunk
enough so I order one
more bottle. He shoves
a lime down its throat
& I see myself

surrounded by men
who watch the night
in a mirror
behind the bar.
We smoke

our cigarettes
with purpose, pretending
courage is something
we can suck in.
Click of the jukebox

& the treble
cuts the air. A man
holds his woman
tight enough to feel her
penis press his belly.

Dance floor strobe light
captures their bodies.
Her cheek on his
shoulder, her breath
on our necks.


Sieve

i am searching for a way. to fall
into your skin. to erase. what grows
under. your hospital bed a home
away from. memory. the vanishing act
who fathered your children. how to reconstruct
the ruins. no fist small enough. to unravel this
knot in my chest. as if i could. heal. how easy
he is to hate. a wound. in a wound
labeled your body. a diagnosis on a slip
of paper. not a story. the empty space
i too have colonized. forgive my desire
to pour you. through me. embrace
the damaged parts. i am searching for
a way to fall. a way to bleed. him. me.

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Lisa Alvarado

Adriana Domínguez, Former HarperCollins Executive Editor, Joins Full Circle Literary

Adriana Domínguez has joined Full Circle Literary as its newest agent, effective immediately. Ms. Domínguez has over ten years of experience in publishing, most recently as Executive Editor at HarperCollins Children's Books, where she managed the children’s division of the Latino imprint, Rayo.

Prior to her work at HarperCollins, Ms. Domínguez was Children’s Reviews Editor at Críticas magazine, published by Library Journal. She is also a professional translator, and has worked on a number of Spanish-language translations of best-selling children’s books.

At Full Circle Literary, Ms. Domínguez will continue her strong list of children’s picture books, middle grade novels, and literary young adult novels. She will also represent authors writing for adults in the following genres: literary fiction, women’s fiction, and historical fiction. For her adult nonfiction list, she will seek women’s interest, multicultural, pop culture, and how-to books.

Full Circle Literary founder Stefanie Von Borstel says, “We are very excited to have Adriana on board. Her eye for spotting and developing authors is unparalleled and we feel her taste is very much in tune with our global interests. Adriana and I met while working on projects at Rayo. I was impressed by her detail-oriented editing and her strength as an advocate for authors throughout the publishing process. I am certain that those skills, among others, will make her an excellent agent.”

“I am very much looking forward to helping published and unpublished authors develop their work and navigate the complex world of publishing from concept through publication, and beyond,” adds Ms. Domínguez. “I am particularly excited about having joined an agency that shares my interest in publishing the work of Latino authors, and that has the awards and recognition to prove that it does it well.”

Ms. Domínguez will be based in New York City and will serve as Full Circle Literary’s
East Coast representative. She can be contacted by e-mail at Adriana@fullcircleliterary.com or by phone at 858-824-9269.

Full Circle Literary is a California-based literary agency. Founded in 2004 by Stefanie Von Borstel and Lilly Ghahremani, the agency represents a wide range of children’s and adult authors. For more information, visit their website: www.fullcircleliterary.com.

A Note from Adriana Dominguez

Dear Friends,

I am writing you today because I want you to get these wonderful news directly from me.

After leaving HarperCollins Children's Books a year ago, I was
flooded with an overwhelming amount of support that made me feel truly appreciated, and led me to wonder what I could do next that would be worthy of such praise and encouragement. And so, over the past year I have engaged in many wonderful chats with friends, family members, and colleagues, and done a certain degree of soul searching. I asked myself, over and over again: How can I best help ALL authors— and Latino authors in particular—get published using the skills I've gathered over a decade of work in the publishing industry?

About a month ago, the answer to this question became very clear to me, so I began to take steps to make this happen. And so, it is with great joy and a good deal of hope that I announce my new role as agent and East Coast representative for Full Circle Literary Agency. I chose this agency in particular because I worked with them in the past at Harper, and in the process of doing so, came to really appreciate and respect their professionalism, deep concern for their authors, and attention to detail. These qualities, along with their interest in helping Latino authors get published, makes me believe that we will complement each other very well, and that only wonderful things can come from this new venture!

I invite you to share the news with authors and colleagues to help me launch my new efforts, and look forward to finding new and exciting ways for us to collaborate!

Thank you for your continued support, and good luck with your own
ventures!

Best regards,
Adriana

Check out VOCES, a blog about Latino authors and books!
www.adrianadominguez.com

Review: Yankee Invasion. Ignacio Solares.

Yankee Invasion

A Novel of Mexico City

By Ignacio Solares
Translated by Timothy G. Compton
Introduction by Carlos Fuentes

ISBN: 978-0-9798249-4-4

Michael Sedano

Imagine yourself a resident of Baghdad in March 2003. It is the eve of the United States invasion. You know your own military’s weakness is the perfect foil for the invader’s fabled power. Some of your men in uniform will fight fiercely, but they will surely die. You know your nation’s political leadership engenders little loyalty from a restive citizenry, so you hold no hope for massive resistance when the invaders raise their flag from the conquered rooftops. A feeling of dread begins to seep into your every waking thought. The first bombs drop, the first tanks turn the corner, and everything you feared turns out as you foresaw, only it’s worse because all these fears are real, and they’re happening to you.

Now put yourself into the same frame of mind, except the year is 1847 and you are living in Mexico City. The Yankees have already stolen Texas, the evil clown Santa Anna having held a state funeral for his dead leg, now has gone into hiding to avoid battle. Only poorly armed rasquachi soldiers stand in the way of General Scott’s invading giants. The Yankees have bombarded Veracruz. The Yankees have overwhelmed Puebla. The Yankees are in the Zócalo about to raise the stars and stripes above the Palacio Nacional.

Such parallels are inescapably part of the ambiente of Ignacio Solares’ Yankee Invasion, a Novel of Mexico City. Such is the bad P.R. the United States has earned from its many years of military adventures in foreign lands that the novel doesn’t need to make the parallels explicitly. Solares feeds the flames an anti-Yankeeism in this historical novel, so it is not a novel for “my country right or wrong my country” tipos. Solares doesn’t waste a lot of tears for Mexicanos, either. One of the key side characters, Father Jarauta, stands for fighting against the Yankees and the Mexicans who support them. Moreover, the story comes to us ten years after the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo has ceded half of Mexico into US control, and 1848 was a long time ago.

Solares uses the invasion as backdrop for the story of a courageous surgeon, a troubled writer, and an indictment of an inept government, then as now. We hear about war but see precious little. Much of the battle action takes place in hearsay narrative, in rumor, in newspaper reportage. And this is a good thing because readers who are Veterans of the U.S. military do not want to read about Mexicans—or anyone—killing GIs or Marines, whether from the halls of Montezuma or the banks of the Euphrates.

The medico is Dr. Urruchúa. He’s troubled that his patients die with regularity after childbirth and other procedures. He’s frustrated that a few tragos of rum are all he can offer a patient about to feel the doctor’s saw cut into an amputation. Urruchúa suspects that washing hands and instruments might alleviate virulent infection, and ruminates that hypnotism could be useful in surgery. The doctor is a genuine hero. During the battle for Mexico City, the doctor goes from hospital to hospital without food or rest tending to wounded. A grievously wounded Yankee gets as good as the doctor can give—just as Yankee medicos tend to wounded Mexicans.

Among the doctor’s closest friends is Abelardo, the frustrated writer. Dr. Urruchúa theorizes Mesmer’s treatments could reduce Abelardo’s chronic depression, not just an amputee’s. But the best the doctor can offer his friend is some pills and a sympathetic ear.

Abelardo experiences hallucinations borne of his depression. He sees colors and auras, contemplates suicide as his one sure cure, and perhaps the best way to escape the consequences of the Yankee invasion. But unlikeable Abelardo is a man of inaction, preferring to discuss politics with his other rich friends than take up arms in defense of la patria.

Abelardo’s story is at once comic and frustrating. Comedy grows from his relationship with Magdalena, his wife, and two women whom Abelardo refers to as the true loves of his life. Magdalena hectors the frustrated writer to stitch together the drawersful of newspaper clippings and scribblings, along with Dr. Urruchúa’s notes, Abelardo has collected over the years. She’s heard bits and snippets of the history throughout their married life and Magdalena’s fed up with the story’s sketchiness. She, too, wants details on the two women, daughter and mother.

This novel, in fact, is the result of Magdalena’s goading urgency. But, in the end, Magdalena refuses to accept Abelardo’s version of events. To the reader’s frustration, Abelardo acknowledges that Magdalena is probably correct, telling her that many details are pure fiction or wishful thinking. In Abelardo’s untrustworthy mind, there’s no difference. Still, history has a concrete referent for much that transpires. The U.S. did invade. Chapultepec was taken. Mexico City was occupied. The trains ran on time, as it were, from United States administrative reforms. And maybe--given its dismal leadership and powerless easily riled plebe--Mexico got what it deserved, the invasion and loss of half its former territory.

Readers will find Yankee Invasion, A Novel of Mexico City, a worthwhile endeavor because the twisted story of the two women is deliciously salacious without being dirty, because the patriotism of the troubled primera clase Abelardo is sincere and genuine, because the underlying satire of Solares’ costumbrismo takes big bites out of Mexican pride, because the narrative is fun as it swings like Abelardo’s moods between straightforward historical account to confessional first person elements when Abelardo steps out of the narrative to address his readers directly, because of its imaginative structure.

Imagine yourself in the assembled masses. The occupying authority summoned attendance to hear the victory proclamation. U.S. cavalry and infantry clean up their appearance as well as possible, a few hours removed from the bloody battle to occupy el Castillo de Chapultepc and fight their way to the seat of government. An officer reads an English language proclamation—pendejo, the people think, screw you and whatever you’re saying in your foreign language. One GI is honored to haul the U.S. flag up the pole. A shot sounds from a nearby rooftop. The sniper’s aim drops the Yankee in his tracks. The crowd explodes in frenzy, pulling invaders to the ground, beating them with brooms and hammers and stones, tearing their dirty uniforms from bleeding corpses. You’re running for your life away from the carnage when a dying Yankee grabs your ankles. In desperation you pull a knife and thrust it into the Yankee’s body again and again until you smell his last breath. It is your own personal moment of triumph. If it happened. Ni modo, there’s a novel in it.

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