{"id":941,"date":"2018-12-31T14:50:20","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T14:50:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=941"},"modified":"2018-12-31T14:50:20","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T14:50:20","slug":"lone-star-book-reviewsby-michelle-newby-nbcccontributing-editor-97","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=941","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>MEMOIR<\/p>\n

Jos\u00e9 Antonio Rodr\u00edguez<\/span><\/p>\n

House Built on Ashes: A Memoir<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

University of Oklahoma Press<\/p>\n

Paperback, 978-0-8061-5501-2, (also available as an e-book), 208 pgs., $19.95<\/p>\n

February 16, 2017<\/p>\n

\u201cThe lessons you\u2019ve been taught about that golden land of promise called the United States sparkle before you like a glass of crystal cold water, and you marvel at your good fortune \u2026 becoming something mighty and tall with all that no one must ever doubt is right, becoming something you don\u2019t know yet you hope will render you almost unrecognizable to who you are now, becoming one of them, becoming American.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jos\u00e9 Antonio Rodr\u00edguez grew up in McAllen, Texas,<\/span> the youngest of ten children born to a homemaker and a citrus-farm field hand. On weekends, they crossed the river to visit family in the tiny Mexican village where Rodr\u00edguez was born. During the summers he worked Panhandle onion fields, as his mother told him to do well in school so he won\u2019t have to pick onions when he is her age. Rodr\u00edguez excels and is placed in the Gifted and Talented Program in school. Eventually, he applies for naturalization because the scholarship he needs is only available to U.S. citizens. He\u2019s conflicted when he swears the oath of loyalty, forsaking Mexico forever: \u201cUp until this moment, that village over there across the river with its border guards and police dogs seemed like nothing but outhouses, sweat, and dirt,\u201d Rodr\u00edguez writes. \u201cNothing to miss. Nothing at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

House Built on Ashes: A Memoir<\/span><\/a><\/span> by Jos\u00e9 Antonio Rodr\u00edguez<\/span> is the twentieth volume in the University of Oklahoma Press\u2019s \u201cChicana & Chicano Visions of the Am\u00e9ricas\u201d series, the editorial board of which boasts Rudolfo Anaya, Denise Ch\u00e1vez, and Rolando Hinojosa-Smith, among others. House Built on Ashes<\/span> is Rodr\u00edguez\u2019s account of a creative, sensitive, intelligent child growing up not quite here and not quite there; realizing he\u2019s gay as he begins to question the logic of antiquated customs, chafing against a macho culture; learning that there\u2019s no such thing as a small humiliation, and that dignity is essential but costly.<\/p>\n

House Built on Ashes<\/span> is structurally atypical. Loosely chronological, the story is told in lyrical yet spare prose, creating evocative sketches, like linked short stories. Rodr\u00edguez has a fine eye for small details that tell a large story and envelop you in a place and time. When his father leaves to find work in Texas, \u201cOne day the evening came, but he didn\u2019t. One morning the rooster called but didn\u2019t wake him.\u201d On childhood tradeoffs: \u201cNow we must wear shoes all the time. And the fence keeps people from stopping by to talk to Am\u00e1, the way they did on the other side.\u201d On the jarring dislocation of moving to the United States, where his aunt\u2019s house includes a garage: \u201cWhy would cars need a room?\u201d Rodr\u00edguez is a master of the simile. At the border inspection, they \u201cstare at our hands like we didn\u2019t always have them\u201d; his cousin\u2019s bed is \u201ctall and full like cakes from a bakery,\u201d \u201cher curls tight like her giggles.\u201d<\/p>\n

Packing for a Thanksgiving trip from Rodr\u00edguez\u2019s upstate New York university to Texas to visit family serves as catalyst to excavate the past. \u201cI think then of who we are before we are taught customs, flags, pledges of allegiance, names of nation-states, their margins on a map, and the armed men who guard them,\u201d Rodr\u00edguez writes. \u201cI think of what we lose when we win.\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-941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941","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=941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}