Rain God

Arturo Isla's style of storytelling flows through deliciously subtle prose. He reserves his most detailed descriptions and observations for what truly deserves it. Thus his writing never seems too tedious and the work is left at a slim but poignant 200 pages. Although family members come and go with disquieting regularity, it is Miguel Grande's wife, Juanita who seems the most tragic. Compared with everyone else, her appeal as a character stands out as the most visceral. We may know a mother or two in our own lives who has been made to bear similar circumstances and whose only response to it can be the most essential one of all: to continue onward with dignity intact, ensuring the welfare of those you love regardless of what you're given in return. Even when she knows he's leaving to be with Lola for a long while, she keeps his stomach full and his clothes ironed, even offers to do the duty long distance if only he'd send them to her. As much as Juanita loathes on a fundamental level what Lola has done to her marriage, she is torn between missing her best friend and finding the same woman's new role in her husband's life intolerable. On the cover, Miguel Grande's large hands lay resting upon Juanita's shoulders while his tranquil gaze is fixed upon Lola. Juanita's eyes remain set quietly outward at nothing in particular, demonstrating a practiced detachment from the situation. In the time leading up to the moment when Miguel's conscience finally drives him to confess to her, she has already been visited by similar word from friends and family. She ignores it, knowledgeable of his previous indiscretions and unwilling to confront a dear friend this time around. Of comparable tragedy is that of Miguel Grande's brother, Felix. Despite living a well adjusted life of his own with a wife and children, Felix displays a fetish for young boys, sometimes taking mild yet loquacious physical liberties while examining certain patients. This particularly scandalous penchant precipitates his life's violent end one evening at the hands of an offended young soldier who only wanted a ride home from the bar. Once Felix takes a detour and attempts to seduce him, the young man quickly beats him to death on impulse. Felix's sudden death mortifies even his brother who, despite his many years on the police force dealing with all the worst aspects of humanity, is scarcely prepared for the degree of mutilation he sees when asked to make an identification. The young soldier is found to have acted in self defense and remains uncharged. One might say Felix received his comeuppance, but his family is nonetheless devastated with his daughter Magdalena's wild streak taking a harder turn and his son JoEl turning to the obliterating comfort of drugs and drink. The elder matriarch of the Angel family, Mama Chona (never abuelita), maintains a fastidious devotion to social status and piety, usually donning a long black dress, a pair of gloves and an umbrella to shield her skin from the sun when going out. When an unknown man's bullet kills her college-going firstborn son, she is approached after the fact by revolutionaries as well as the Mexican government in separate turns. The revolutionaries declare her son a hero while the government calls him a patriot. Mama Chona keeps the government letter, presidential signature stamp and all, but only wants her son back. Afterward, both of her daughters drown during a brief lapse in supervision and she flees Mexico with her remaining family. She maintains a staunch refusal to do any type of chores, keeping maids around to do dishes and housekeeping, even when they can not be afforded. Despite existing largely upon a self-made pedestal, Mama Chona cares deeply for her family and had taken pains to instruct the youngest on a daily basis in language and etiquette before they began attending American schools. The peaks and valleys of the Angel family were meant to be presented in a trilogy. Sadly, AIDS claimed Islas in 1991 before he was able to fully consummate this project, with the second volume Migrant Souls being the last of his work. Within the two works we were ultimately given, however, his greater intentions pour forth. Those of social awareness and noble strife as well as those of the difficulties surrounding assimilation into foreign culture in the name of seeking a better life for one's family. A troubled soul of his own, Islas struggled with mental illness, the private intensity of which couldn't help but pour forth in the emotional underside of his writing. The reader who sees between the lines of his understated prose may find a personal connection with this book as well as the one following.

Great book, I enjoyed it a lot.

A book that is lovely and wise and sheds light on border cultures and people living on both sides of various borders.

good

The case fit!! The screen protector was not the right fit though. The book was very interesting and different from what was expected

Excellent book

There's no semblance of a plot and almost nothing interesting about this book. Horribly mundane.

Order this book and received it prior the beginning of class.

Schnelle Lieferung, ein interessantes und gut geschriebenes Buch. Gut geeignet, wenn man sich ein genaueres Bild über die Chicano Kultur machen möchte.