No Poem Is the Only Poem. No Story Is the Only Story. No Kings.
The endings of the two songs reflect different directions: future and past. Paul M.’s protagonist makes another jaunty request to his partner: “Send me a postcard, drop me a line . . . .” He is planning for life in the future. But Paul S. warns: “Preserve your memories, they’re all that’s left you.”
Oscar Cásares’ distinguished yet understated novel provoked a lot of questions in this reader’s mind-especially because of the restraint with which it dealt with volatile issues connected with illegal migrants. The story keeps to the human scale and has a rare eloquence. In the ‘book club’ of the mind, these are the questions I would like to ask.
Lives, whole lives coming and going playing out their brief journey just like that
When we try to conceptualize complex cultural movements the sometime clumsiness of language can from the start distort what we are saying and lead us down a dark noir alley of error.
I felt warped out, brain-blasted. At one point I looked down, and my hands became my father's hands.
The hand that touched the paper That moved the ink with inner light.