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YA Review: Under the Mesquite by Guadalupe Garcia McCall

2/11/2012

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Under the Mesquite
Author: Guadalupe Garcia McCall
Publication Date: 10/31/11
Publisher: Lee & Low Books

Blurb (GR):  Lupita, a budding actor and poet in a close-knit Mexican American immigrant family, comes of age as she struggles with adult responsibilities during her mother's battle with cancer. A novel in verse.

Review:
I think this is my first novel in verse, and it’s a gorgeous introduction to the form.  Guadalupe Garcia McCall writes very simple, almost sweet poetry, but she also manages to convey so much about the experiences of a young girl, at home in two countries, and forced to shoulder much more than the average sixteen year old.

The novel as a whole is very short, and is strung together with two to three page verses which highlight different small parts of Lupita’s life: her role as the oldest sister in a family of eight children, her complicated relationship with her parents, her dreams, her Mexican-American identity, and her burgeoning independence.  And overshadowing it all, tying it all together, is the very moving story of Lupita dealing with her mother’s illness.

I love the juxtaposition of Lupita’s capable, resilient, perhaps overly responsible self at home with her complete
bewilderment and loss in the face of her mother’s illness.  I highlighted both of these passages, and reading them together just breaks my heart:

“Mami, I’m good for more than
changing diapers and putting little ones
to sleep.  I can bear up when things
go wrong.  You’re the one 
who raised me to be that way.”

“Suddenly I realize
how much I can’t control, how much
I am not promised.
The thought of it
hits me broadside.  More tears
squeeze out.  I wipe them away.”

How much I am not promised.
  Isn’t that beautiful? 

There’s a ten to fifteen page glossary in the back, to define the Spanish words which are used frequently in her verse; however, I doubt you will even need it.  She uses them so seamlessly…even in another language; it’s hard not to understand what she’s saying.

Perfect Musical Pairing

Lila Downs – Ceilo Rojo (Red Sky)

I think that this song is about a lost love, but when I was reading through the lyrics (in English…because I’m an ignorant American I only speak one language), I was so struck with all the feelings of loss that Guadalupe Garcia McCall so perfectly describes in this book.

While I'm sleeping
I feel that we walk
The two of us, 
very close to each other,
Towards a blue sky
But when I wake up - the red sky
You are missing.

4/5 Stars
 
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The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

2/6/2012

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The
The Fault in Our Stars
Author: John Green
Publication Date: 1/10/12
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile

Blurb (GR):
Diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer at 12, Hazel was prepared to die until, at 14, a medical miracle shrunk the tumours in her lungs... for now.

Two years post-miracle, sixteen-year-old Hazel is post-everything else, too; post-high school, post-friends and post-normalcy. And even though she could live for a long time (whatever that means), Hazel lives tethered to an oxygen tank, the tumours tenuously kept at bay with a constant chemical assault.

Enter Augustus Waters. A match made at cancer kid support group, Augustus is gorgeous, in remission, and shockingly to her, interested in Hazel. Being with Augustus is both an unexpected destination and a long-needed journey, pushing Hazel to re-examine how sickness and health, life and death, will define her and the legacy that everyone leaves behind.

Review:
The Fault in Our Stars currently has a rating of 4.74 on Goodreads, almost everyone I know has given it 5 stars, therefore I'm certain no one would want to read my sour musings, except me and maybe a couple of other like-minded and unimpressed.

What I'd love to know is this - what makes a writer undertake the topic of cancer? So much has already been written about it, so many Lifetime movies filmed, so many tears shed. It literally has been done to death. What new did John Green have to bring to the cancer table?

The way I see it, nothing. Having your terminally sick characters be ironic about their illnesses and swap cancer jokes isn't groundbreaking.

The Fault in Our Stars isn't a bad book, but it's a standard cancer book, and, sadly, a standard John Green book, with standard John Green humor and standard John Green characters speaking in the very same John Green voice.

You have a witty and intelligent protagonist (this time 2, Hazel and Augustus - a female and male versions of Miles/Quentin/Colin), a funny, slightly pathetic sidekick (Isaac - another version of Hassan/Chip/Marcus), a mysterious, unhinged girl, Gus's dead ex (Alaska/Margo clone), and, of course, the signature ROAD TRIP. I can't help but recognize these people and this plot, I've read all of Green's novels.

I understand why so many readers would have such an emotional response to the book. Nothing will get the ladies crying quicker than a kid dying of cancer. Add in some long farewells, painkillers, eulogies and funerals - you can collect buckets of tears. But, IMO, here Green aims for the most obvious, the most easily accessible emotions, for the most typical "life lessons." And for all Green's attempts to be subversive and to make fun of "cancer cliches" - inspirational quotes, heroic cancer survivors, etc. he ended up writing about exactly the same things.

Frankly, I think The Fault in Our Stars is Green's weakest work to date, weaker even than half-baked Zombicorns. Because this, unlike his earlier works, feels commercial and intentionally tearjerky and insincere. It will probably sell the most copies.

3/5 stars

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