The Madonnas of Echo Park
A Novel
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4.3 • 32 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Reminiscent of Sherman Alexie and Sandra Cisneros, acclaimed author Brando Skyhorse’s “engaging storytelling” (Vanity Fair) brings the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles to life in this poignant and propulsive novel following several generations of Mexican immigrants through their shifting cultural and physical landscapes.
The Madonnas of Echo Park is both a grand mural of a Los Angeles neighborhood and an intimate glimpse into the lives of the men and women who struggle to lose their ethnic identity in the pursuit of the American dream. Each chapter summons a different voice—poetic, fierce, comic. We meet Hector, a day laborer who trolls the streets for work and witnesses a murder that pits his morality against his illegal status; his ex-wife Felicia, who narrowly survives a shooting and lands a cleaning job in a Hollywood Hills house as desolate as its owner; and young Aurora, who journeys through her now gentrified childhood neighborhood to discover her own history and her place in the land that all Mexican-Americans dream of, “the land that belongs to us again.”
Reminiscent of Luis Alberto Urrea and Dinaw Mengestu, The Madonnas of Echo Park is a brilliant and genuinely fresh view of American life.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Skyhorse maps in his vivid debut the spirit of L.A.'s Echo Park, where Mexican-Americans define themselves either in alignment with or in opposition to their barrio. Each story-like chapter tells the tale of a character who has grown up in, moved to, or fled Echo Park, such as an itinerant construction worker hired to dispose of a murder weapon, a woman who converses with the Virgin Mary, and a hustler who swears he's going to stay out of prison this time. These lives coalesce around a random shooting that claims the life of a young girl. Family epics also emerge, notably the story of Aurora Esperanza, whose absent father narrates the opening story and whose mother was at the center of a tragedy. Aurora herself closes out the book, drawing together threads of homecoming that weave throughout the novel. Though a few of the narrators' voices aren't distinct enough, Skyhorse excels at building a vibrant community and presenting several perspectives on what it means to be Mexican in America, from those who wonder how can you lose something that never belonged to you? to those who miraculously find it.
Customer Reviews
Wonderful book!
I first saw this book a while back, but finally decided to take the plunge and buy the iBook. I am so glad I did! Skyhorse does a marvelous job of connecting all of his characters together in a way that keep you at the edge of your seat hoping to find out whose story is next. I cannot recommend this book enough!
The madonnas of echo park
Fabulous! A definite MUST read! U literally get goose bumps as the stories interconnect! Hope more books by the author keep coming!
Why just OK?
The books hold such promise in the beginning. A colorful stories of "madonnas" and old Latin LA in Chavez Ravine, a mix of music and color wafting through a historical and cultural series od snapshots of Los Angeles that is new. Not so fast, unfortunately.
The are some snapshots like that but too few and the parts that are mostly in the middle are a morass of weak philosophical mumbo jumbo that almost made me let go of the book entirely. I can only say that I held on because I am a lover of Los Angeles and especially of it's Mexican roots and I was rewarded towards the end with a wonderful passage about a girl, Los Angeles and her dog. Whew!