"Ocotillo Dreams", an Appreciation

I recently read Melinda Palacio's wonderful "Ocotillo Dreams" and have been thinking about it quite a bit. If you don't know the versatile and talented Ms Palacio, check out her site here. She's probably best known as a poet, but she's also a blogger, speaker, and now, a novelist to be reckoned with.
Like Isola, the heroine of "Ocotillo Dreams," I grew up in a family that sometimes embraced and sometimes barely balanced between two cultures; I have found myself fascinated more and more by my own blended culture--and drawn to others' hybrid identities--as each year passes.
I also grew up with a mother who challenged stereotypes, and created her own persona--part hippy, part activist, part "earth mother", and always her own woman--so I could relate to Isola's mixture of embarrassment and pride in her own mom.
The novel's story is deceptively simple--Isola comes to Arizona to settle her late mom's "estate" and finds herself involved with some undocumented workers that have crossed and are crossing the border. But the story is not the whole story--the deeper tale is one of identity, self-awareness, and belonging. Isola must learn about herself in order to learn about her mother--and in order to find her life's deeper purpose.
For those of us who live on the border, and confront these challenges daily, the book's characters and locations will feel specific and familiar, but no less intriguing for all that. For those unfamiliar with the Southwest U.S. and our border issues, this book is a great way to explore the territory and the culture--but more than all that, readers will be drawn into the novel and soon care deeply about the people they meet in its pages.
This week I've switched literary gears a few times--I finished the Hunger Games series, am currently reading "Black and White" Wes Albers debut police novel, set in San Diego. And of course, I'm preparing for the YA fiction class I'm teaching on March 31st at San Diego Writer's Ink.
Meanwhile, the wind is gusting hard under a bright blue sky--blowing my little boat about at its mooring, reminding me who is boss. Nature, that is.
hasta pronto!

Brave Nude World; Two Book Reviews

Just finished 2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America by Actor-writer-comedian Albert Brooks. The book takes place in the not-too-distant future, and while it is funny, and probably quite prescient, it is just not a novel--it's more a collection of characters wandering through a series of plots, in search of a heart, or even a unifying theme.
It most definitely suffered by comparison to Super Sad True Love Story: A Novel by Gary Shteyngart--which I read a couple of weeks ago.

Super Sad True Love Story (SSTLS) deals with the same premise, and I found it to be a much better book, overall; it grew on me slowly, though, and at page 50, I almost gave up on it as a "gimmick" book...Glad I didn't, as the eventual emotional payoff was worth it.
Both books came out recently, and both are enjoying some success, but personally, I don't think Albert Brooks book would have been published if he wasn't, well, Albert Brooks.
Both humorist-authors see the U.S. as heading toward becoming an economic "also ran" (duh) and see the population's widening age-and-money gap as a source of contention in the near future, with young and old furiously haggling for bigger pieces of the country's dwindling funds (double duh).
Some of the things that SSTLS foresees in our future are funnier and seems just as likely--constant shopping on our ever-present "apparati" (like an iPhone, plus some) as well as "Onionskin" brand see-though jeans, made to showcase young women's shaved genitalia. I can't say I am looking forward to that potential clothing fad--though many current styles ("booty shorts" for one) seems nearly as odd.
Anyway, it's a brave new--or nude--world a comin,' according to our current novelists. Be prepared.
Meanwhile, I'm back to re-reading Jane Austen; this time it is Emma. And some non-fiction... More on that later.
Hasta pronto!