Some good writing. At its worst was like a book assigned for a bad sociology class. If I never read the term 'versed' again I'll be fine. ( )

Powerful. Excellent translation. Worth rereading; I suspect all of Herrera is. ( )

I enjoyed this book, and will probably read it again. It is deeper than its short length would suggest. I'll probably increase my rating when I have read it again and really thought about it. ( )

Yuri Herrera wrote a novella. Lisa Dillman translated it. It's mystical. I'm not really into mystical prose, but this had a rhythm to it that was engaging. It's about a young woman who is sent by her mother from a Pueblo in the south of Mexico to look for her brother in El Norte. Friends of her mother have people ready to help her on the way, and across the border; nevertheless it's dangerous, cold and a journey that leaves her with bullet marks. Struggling to find the trail her brother has left behind, she uses her wits to evade the bigots and cops who lay in wait.

The translator did a job that few could have done. Because of the way it's written, lyrically, mystically, the translator had to try to get those idea across in a language that is anything but mystical and Lyrical.

P.92
Last night I will go to the bar they will tell us about, he said in Anglo.
Oh, yeah? How was it, angloed her brother in return.
there will be many women, they will be so pretty, and they will all like the uniform.
Is that so? You speak to any?
Yes, I will speak, I will speak all night, she will give me her number, I will kiss her a little.
First base, huh? Good for you!
I will get very drunk after that. She will go but she will promise that we will see each other again.
Makina's brother laughed and slapped the guy's back, and he carried on his way to the barracks gate.
What was that about? Asked makina.
He's home grown, he said. Joined up just like me, but still doesn't speak the lingo. Whereas me, I learned it, so every time we see each other he wants to practice. He speaks on one day in past tense, all one day in present, all one day in future, so he can learn his verbs. Today was the future.

Makina writes words that so bewilder and mystify a cop, that he lets her and the group of "homegrowns" that he has lined up on their knees, hands behind their heads, go:
P.99
"we are to blame for this destruction, we who don't speak your tongue and don't know how to keep quiet either. We who didn't come by boat, who dirty up your doorsteps with our dust, who break your barbed wire. We who came to take your jobs, who dream of wiping your s***, who long to work all hours. We who fill your shiny clean streets with the smell of food, who brought you violence you'd never known, who deliver your dope, who deserve to be chained by neck and feet. We who are happy to die for you, what else could we do? We, the ones who are waiting for who knows what. We, the dark, the short, the greasy, the shifty, the fat, the anemic. We The barbarians." ( )

An excellent if challenging book that begs to be discussed in a group. Some images are clear, others are ambiguous (as are many things in life). Great book to read; likely even better to discuss ( )