- Paperback: 180 pages
- Publisher: Alexandrian Pr (September 1984)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0916485013
- ISBN-13: 978-0916485016
- Product Dimensions: 22.6 x 15 x 1.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 476 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #2,279,502 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Book Description
Already a Southwestern classic as beautiful, subtle and profound as the desert itself Arturo Islas's The Rain God is a breathtaking masterwork of contemporary literature. Set in a fictional small town on the Texas-Mexico border, it tells the funny, sad and quietly outrageous saga of the children and grandchildren of Mama Chona the indomitable matriarch of the Angel clan who fled the bullets and blood of the 1911 revolution for a gringo land of promise. In bold creative strokes, Islas paints on unforgettable family portrait of souls haunted by ghosts and madness--sinners torn by loves, lusts and dangerous desires. From gentle hearts plagued by violence and epic delusions to a childwho con foretell the coming of rain in the sweet scent of angels, here is a rich and poignant tale of outcasts struggling to live and die with dignity ... and to hold onto their past while embracing an unsteady future.
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
About the Author
The late Arturo Islas was our most acclaimed and accomplishedliterary explorer of Mexican-American culture. The publication of his first novel, The Rain God, marked the arrival of a new and unique voicethat could speak to both traditions.
Born in 1938 in El Paso, Texas, Islas grew up in the same desertcountry along the Mexican-American border that is the home of theAngel family in his novels. He earned his undergraduate, graduate anddoctoral degrees from Stanford University, where he continued as aprofessor of English. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, a WoodrowWilson Fellow and a University Fellow, as well as a recipient of theLloyd W. Dinkelspeil Award for outstanding service to undergraduateeducation at Stanford. One of Islas' most popular courses was alimited enrollment seminar, called "American Lives," that mixed readingsin literary autobiography with students' own attempts to chronicleimportant aspects of their lives.
He wrote Migrant Souls, the companion novel to The Rain God, a year before he died at home in Stanford in early 1991. He wasat work on a third novel.
--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Lyrical mosaic,
This review is from: Rain God (Paperback)
Islas's poetic story is about the Angel family, originally from Mexico, and now living in America near the border. Weaving back and forth across time and weaving the various threads of family members together, it gives a stunning portrait of its various individuals and the whole family stuck on the boundary of heritage, of class, of race, of religion. There's Miguel Chico who's avoiding his sexuality as he struggles to balance his Mexican identity with his American education. His father Miguel Grande loves his wife and his mistress equally, and when he's forced to choose, he finds he cannot. And Miguel Grande's brother Felix who is unable to escape his passions for young men, which brings his life to a violent end. And throughout it all, there's the women in the Angel family who are steady, patient, and at the heart of the family. It's a beautiful, poetic series of snapshots that flows with the reader like the water the desert lacks.
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Great American Novel,
By GodfreyD "godfreyd" (Parkville, MD United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Rain God (Paperback)
Arturo Islas's ten-year search for a publisher for this novel reveals the sad tragedy of commercialism and racism in the literary world. White editors told him that his book was not 'authentic' enough: where were the gangs, the poverty, the struggle of barrio life? Islas, an authentic Mexican-American, stood firm for a decade until The Rain God was at last published, to the great joy of all its readers. In just over 200 pages, it chronicles three generations of a family living in a border town in Texas, and probes at the borders and divisions in all of our lives: parents vs. children, modern vs. traditional, gay vs. straight, human vs. supernatural, and body vs. soul. Surprisingly, all of this is done with great subtlety and flow; you must be an active reader to pick up on Islas's themes. It is the type of book you can reread half a dozen times (as I have) and see something new each time. It is profound, haunting, and filled with music. The Rain God is the greatest American novel since The Great Gatsby.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Complexity of an El Pasoan explained,
By A Customer
This review is from: Rain God (Paperback)
If there is anyone, regardless of background that wants to comprehend Hisapnic culture, this story is the best source. It gives a good description of the beauty and confusion of the Hispanic culture and gives an insight of the unique culture and an affirmation that all Hispanic cultures are indeed unique. Also, the beauty of the "desert" is at last, given its true and deserved respect.
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