Mario Alberto Zambrano

Good debut novel in beautiful packaging (deckle edge, smaller size, color art of all the Loteria cards starting each "chapter"). The story is told through the journal of 11 year old Luz, who is writing a memory that serves to advance the storyline associated with each Loteria card that she comes to in turn. The voice of the journal entries I can believe is that of an 11 year old girl, though the overall structure here too obviously bears the imprint of the adult author, taking me out of the illusion somewhat.

The story is of a dysfunctional Mexican-American family breaking apart. The trouble is that Papi is an abusive alcoholic who should be locked up for spousal and child abuse. Mom has physical fights with him. Luz and her sister Estrella hide and suffer as they must, though Luz feels a love and bond with her Papi nevertheless that she can't help. This comes through her journal entries pretty touchingly, I think.

One thing I could have done without was the constant insertion of Spanish phrases and sentences. Their inclusion doesn't really make sense from the point of view of the character: Luz was born in America and tells about her difficulty with Spanish and refusing to speak Spanish to her relatives, so why is she so peppering her personal journal with Spanish. Even when she's quoting someone she should be translating it to English to stay in character.

I suppose it does make sense in terms of marketing the book, as part of branding it as "Mexican-American". So there you go.… (mehr)

Years ago, when I added this to my to-read list, I somehow thought it would have been a much more uplifting novel than it ended up being. Which is ok, not everything needs to end on a good note, but I was none the less disappointed. I listened to the audiobook version of this, and I think I suffered for it, as I'm not very familiar with the cards mention in the novel, and the physical copy apparently has lovely illustrations.
Still, it was a well-written novel from a cultural voice I don't hear much from.… (mehr)