{"id":835,"date":"2018-12-31T14:14:07","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T14:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=835"},"modified":"2018-12-31T14:14:07","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T14:14:07","slug":"lone-star-book-reviewsby-michelle-newby-nbcccontributing-editor-87","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=835","title":{"rendered":"Lone Star Book ReviewsBy Michelle Newby, NBCCContributing Editor"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span>Michelle Newby<\/span> is a reviewer for Kirkus Reviews<\/span> and Foreword Reviews, <\/span>writer, blogger at TexasBookLover.com, member of the Permian Basin Writers’ Workshop advisory committee, and a moderator for the Texas Book Festival. Her reviews appear in Pleiades Magazine, Rain Taxi, Concho River Review, Mosaic Literary Magazine, Atticus Review, The Rumpus, PANK Magazine,<\/span> and The Collagist.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lone Star Book Reviews
of Texas books appear weekly
at LoneStarLiterary.com<\/a><\/span><\/h1>\n
\n

<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/a><\/span>LITERARY FICTION<\/p>\n

Edmundo Paz Sold\u00e1n<\/span><\/p>\n

Translated from the Spanish by Valerie Miles<\/span><\/p>\n

Norte: A Novel<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

University of Chicago Press<\/p>\n

Paperback, 978-0-2262-0720-9, (also available as an e-book), 312 pgs., $18.00<\/p>\n

October 26, 2016<\/p>\n

\u2018In Spanish there\u2019s an expression, \u201cperder el norte,\u201d<\/span> which means to lose one\u2019s way, to lose sight of a goal, to lose control, to lose the sense of where is up and where is down on a compass.\u2019<\/p>\n

Three tales are told in Norte:<\/span><\/a><\/span>that of Jes\u00fas, a serial killer from Northern Mexico who rides the rails across the United States; that of Michelle, an aspiring graphic novelist and dropout from a Latin American literature doctoral program in Texas; and that of Mart\u00edn, a schizophrenic artist locked in a California asylum, whose works eventually hang in the Guggenheim and the Smithsonian. Each of these characters have immigrant origins (some legal, others not): Argentina, Bolivia, Mexico. Everyone here is addicted to something: substances, sensations, emotions, people, power; and none of their American dreams are turning out as they\u2019d hoped.<\/p>\n

Norte,<\/span> an unflinching exploration of displaced people (\u201cmy wife and children are here Your Honor, I\u2019m a political refugee from my country Your Honor, if you send me back the narcos are going to kill me Your Honor, Your Honor, Mister Lawyer, sir, mister, mister, please, please, please\u201d), and physical and emotional violence, is Edmundo Paz Sold\u00e1n\u2019s<\/span> ninth novel, and the third to be translated into English. Originally from Bolivia, Paz Sold\u00e1n is a professor of Latin American literature at Cornell University. His previous works have won the Bolivian National Book Award and the Juan Rulfo Short Story Award, among others. Valerie Miles,<\/span> translator, editor, writer, and professor of literary translation at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain, translated Norte<\/span> from the Spanish.<\/p>\n

Norte\u2019s<\/span> construction is unusual, more a series of linked short stories than a novel. The narratives move backward and forward in time between 1931 and 2009, and the settings range from Texas to California to Mexico, and roam the country with Jes\u00fas on the railroads. In the end, these narratives come together in creative and unexpected ways.<\/p>\n

In unadorned prose with a noir-ish quality, Paz Sold\u00e1n shifts seamlessly between characters, settings, and perspectives, conveying stark contrasts. Jes\u00fas is uneducated, crude, and psychotic; Michelle is educated, middle-class, and aimless; Mart\u00edn is haunted, anxious, and poignant. Jes\u00fas\u2019s and Mart\u00edn\u2019s narratives are told in third person, Michelle\u2019s in first person.<\/p>\n

Norte <\/span>seems to draw from Paz Sold\u00e1n\u2019s biography. He pokes fun at the insular academic world (\u201cso self-absorbed, fascinated at hearing ourselves speak\u201d), and Michelle\u2019s creative breakthrough mirrors his own experience with the development of Norte. Paz Sold\u00e1n also draws from actual people and events. Jes\u00fas was inspired by the real Railroad Killer, and Mart\u00edn is Mart\u00edn Ram\u00edrez, whose works do hang in museums throughout the world. Paz Sold\u00e1n\u2019s channeling of Mart\u00edn\u2019s inner world is particularly moving, his imagery evocative (\u201cShadows conspired with each other along the rooftops\u201d).<\/p>\n

The publication of the English edition of Norte<\/span> couldn\u2019t be more timely. \u201cOr what if nobody was forced to migrate anymore? Leaving one\u2019s place on earth is a cruel experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

* * * * *<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michelle Newby is a reviewer for Kirkus Reviews and Foreword Reviews, writer, blogger at TexasBookLover.com, member of the Permian Basin Writers’ Workshop advisory committee, and a moderator for the Texas Book Festival. Her reviews appear in Pleiades Magazine, Rain Taxi, Concho River Review, Mosaic Literary Magazine, Atticus Review, The Rumpus, PANK Magazine, and The Collagist. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}