The Biblio Blogazine

Amigoland by Oscar Casares (2009)
Scheduled publication date 08/10/2009
Fiction, 368 pages
Little, Brown and Company

Review copy courtesy of Hachette Book Group

Elderly brothers, Don Fidencio and Don Celestino are stubborn and independent. However, for the older Fidencio, this independence has been taken away and he spends each day in a nursing home trying to remember his past, while trying not to think too much of the future.

. . . he didn’t like thinking about his life, how it used to be, how it was now, and what it would likely become, if God didn’t do him the favor of taking him soon.

All they want is to keep me alive for another fifty years. Tell me, tell me why it is nobody wants me, but nobody wants me to die either.”

Struggling against the injustices of age, both know that they must find common ground before it’s too late. They are all that is left of their large famil, and time is running out.

Brought together by an old dispute regarding the veracity of an old tale their grandfather told, and with the help of Socorro, Celestino’s housekeeper and girlfriend, they journey back to Mexico, and in time, to resolve old grievances and find out the truth regarding their heritage.

These two old men don’t just want to remember, they also want to be heard. Their memories, their lives, held importance – still do, but who really pays attention to them? Is this any way to live? To die?

Quite the lonely existence when you think about it.

I found it interesting that there is a twenty year age difference between the brothers, and more than thirty between Celestino and Socorro. Separate relationships that are the same in a very unique way. All the main characters must make a connection across a great distance, and each must work toward bridging this gap by tearing down prejudice and fears. Fidencio and Celestino have people in their lives that care for them physically and emotionally, yet there is always this “distance” that keeps everyone just far enough apart that there is no true intimacy.

Bridges are crossed repeatedly in this story, literally and figuratively. Also telling are Fidencio’s dream sequences which grow in meaning to ultimately reveal a truth that he refuses to acknowledge, but eventually learns to accept.

I did cry at the end. But not of sadness. Yes, there is a happy ending, but it isn’t sappy and is intelligently written. I loved it. I felt elated and a little sad that it was over. I cared about the characters that much, which is one of the reasons this book gets my highest rating of 5 stars.

Being that the copy I have is not a final one, I cannot fault it for any technical issues found in the narrative. The story and its characters are ones that will stick with me for some time.

Lets put it this way. This is a 368 page book and I read 3/4 of it in one sitting. The only reason I put it down was to get some sleep and to slow down as I felt I was rushing through the story as it is so good. I hope you feel the same.

Oscar Casares was born in a border town of Texas, the setting for his critically acclaimed story collection, Brownsville. The recipient of a 2006 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship, he is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and now teaches creative writing at the University if Texas in Austin. Amigoland is his first novel.