Rubén Degollado

Ruben Degollado's The Family Izquierdo has been one of my favorite reads this year. It's a novel/short story collection that recounts events in the lives of three generations of a South Texas latin@ family. Papa Tavo (short for Gustavo), the patriarch, has worked his whole life to bring his family a level of security he never had growing up. Guadalupe, the matriarch, is deeply religious, a trait she's passed on to almost all of her many children—though that religiosity has taken them in many different direction. She has that gift of mothers who know that raising children isn't a project of replicating one's self; it's more planting an unknown seed and watching how it grows, loving it without trying to force it into a specific shape.

The Family Izquierdo has multiple narrators, members of each of the family's generations, which creates a kind of richness that would otherwise have been impossible. Two major threads run through this book. The first is the ongoing tensions and resolutions within this large extended family. Resentments and disagreements occur naturally, but over time they're also resolved naturally. The second is the family curse—purportedly the work of a neighbor across the street who is jealous of the family's size, strength, and working-class financial security.

Papa Tavo's declining mental health is seen as the initial, most significant evidence of the curse. The curse (or those events credited to the curse) is also manifested in other family members' concerns about their mental heath, a sort of agorophobia, and tensions within marriages. It's also complicated by different family members' religious perspectives on that curse. Some family members believe completely in the curse and the brujeria behind it. Others are dubious about the curse, but recognize that its manifestations are undeniably real. It also confirms and challenges the various Christian denominations family members embrace.

Degollado's depiction of life in South Texas and of the family's daily interactions is—as far as I can tell, since I am not latin@ and have never spent much time in South Texas—detailed and accurate. The specificity and recurrences of events within the family create a sense of normality that allows readers to enter the story and live within its events, even if the have little first-hand knowledge of Tejan@ experience. This isn't an outside-looking-in novel. It's a novel that pulls readers inside as members of the family, particularly because of the different internal musings the many characters contribute.

Degollado's The Family Izquierdo is an impressive addition to the literature of America-as-it-actually-exists as opposed to American literature depicts a narrower vision of American identity. Whether one sees one's self directly reflected in it or enters new territory while reading, The Family Izquierdo is a satisfying, life-affirming title—the kind of book that we can always use and enjoy more of.

I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via EdelweissPlus; the opinions are my own.… (mehr)

The Family Izquierdo is a family saga focusing on the titular family in McAllen, Texas. Each chapter is told from a different character's perspective, making the story feel like one that has been passed down through the generations.

There is a lot to like here. Degollado does a great job of making each character distinct, despite the sheer number of family members. While it can be difficult to keep some of them straight at the beginning, it quickly becomes easier as the key players appear in subsequent chapters, and I never felt like I was reading the same life story about different characters. The prose itself is written well and flows easily from one chapter to the next, even when the timeline is making a jump, and I'm always a sucker for any stories about or set in Texas.

The two main things that didn't work for me essentially boiled down to what I was willing to believe. The first was pretty simple: a lot of the dialogue felt stilted, as though they weren't real people speaking the words. This was more obvious in the beginning chapters; I find it hard to believe that Papa Tavo and Abuelita just sat down and decided the day they arrived at their new home what they wanted their future grandkids to call them. It gets better as the book goes along, but there are still moments like this throughout.

It also took me a while to figure out that Contreras was actually (supposedly) casting spells against the Izquierdos; I thought this was just the family superstition for the majority of the book, but eventually you realize that it appears to actually be true (at least, true to all the characters on both sides of the issue). No one questions this for a second, even as unlikely as it seemed to me as a reader. I think it would have made for a stronger point if one of the family members doubted that Contreras was behind all the family's woes - then Degollado could easily set up how that character was wrong.

Overall, though, this was an interesting family story, and one I'd recommend for those interested in the genre. I'll be adding Degollado to my list of authors to look out for.

Thank you to W. W. Norton and NetGalley for providing a copy for review.… (mehr)