The Boundaries of Their Dwelling
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- $20.99
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- $20.99
Publisher Description
Moving between the American South and Mexico, these stories explore how immigrant and native characters are shaped by absent family and geography. A Chilanga teen wins a trip to Miami to film a reality show about family while pining for the American brother she’s never met. A Louisiana carpenter tends to his drug-addicted son while rebuilding his house after a slew of hurricanes. A New Orleans ne’er-do-well opens a Catholic-themed bar in the wake of his devout mother’s death. A village girl from Chiapas baptizes her infant on a trek toward the U.S. border.
In the collection’s second half, we follow a Veracruzan-born drifter, Manuel, and his estranged American son, Tommy. Over decades, they negotiate separate nations and personal tragicomedies on their journeys from innocence to experience. As Manuel participates in student protests in Mexico City in 1968, he drops out to pursue his art. In the 1970s, he immigrates to Louisiana, but soon leaves his wife and infant son behind after his art shop fails. Meanwhile, Tommy grows up in 1980s Louisiana, sometimes escaping his mother’s watchful eye to play basketball at a park filled with the threat of violence. In college, he seeks acceptance from teammates by writing their term papers. Years later, as Manuel nears death and Tommy reaches middle age, they reconnect, embarking on a mission to jointly interview a former riot policeman about his military days; in the process, father and son discover what it has meant to carry each other’s stories and memories from afar.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Sanz's notable debut collection brims with moments of culture shock and of characters negotiating with the tenuous hold on the land they call home. In "¡Hablamos!" best friends Emi and Frieda, both 17, travel from Mexico City to Miami after they win spots on a Spanish-language "Jerry Springer–style" talk show, where they are given cringe-inducing roles. Emi's meant to be a wayward daughter covered in gang tattoos, and Frieda plays her straitlaced sister who tries to bring her back into the family fold. In "Hurricane Gothic," which begins in 1964, 18-year-old Ben builds a home for his new wife, Anne, on land he inherits on Louisiana's Blood River bank. The couple has six children and weather a series of storms until 1999, when half of the house sinks. Ben's sons pitch in to help rebuild, except for their youngest, Judah, who at 19 is addicted to heroin. In the singular vignette "Oh, but to Be a Hearse," Hans-Georg, from Munich, visits New Orleans, where he is smitten by the sights, but fears his fiancée back in Germany won't appreciate hearing about them, prompting him to keep "these oddities to himself, like shaken bottles of beer he knew not to pop open." Sanz has a keen eye for details, and thankfully he hasn't kept them bottled up.