Arturo islas rain god desert tale pdf download

Share this book Facebook. Last edited by ImportBot. December 31, History. An edition of The rain god Subjects Novela , Fiction , Families. The rain god: a desert tale , Avon Books. Not in Library. Libraries near you: WorldCat. Rain God September 1, , Harper Perennial. The rain god: a desert tale , Alexandrian Press. A photograph of Mama chona and her grandson Miguel Angel-Miguel Chico or Mickie to his family-hovers above his head on the study wall beside the glass doors that open out into the garden.

Classifications Library of Congress PS First Sentence "A photograph of Mama chona and her grandson Miguel Angel-Miguel Chico or Mickie to his family-hovers above his head on the study wall beside the glass doors that open out into the garden. Community Reviews 0 Feedback?

Lists containing this Book Read it2 from Kirima Favorites from moni Skip to content Search for:. Arturo Islas. Leave a Reply Your email address will not be published. His was a very unique voice: he has the deft touch of a butterfly, light and subtle, a short, innocent phrase can gently pull your heart from your chest, abruptly but without violence, beating wildly and excitedly in expectation of what comes next. This writer ca The only thing I don't like about this novel is that its gay author is already dead.

This writer can take you from the past to the present back and forth like he holds time in the palm of his hand, telling a lot by saying so very little. One of the very rare times when I really wanted to re-read a book immediately after finishing it, for it felt that Arturo Islas had agonized for years deciding on each word until he had found the perfect place for each one of them. And I bet so few of us here have heard of this author or this novel before!

Why did we lose this jewel of a storyteller so soon? Sep 19, Kali Fajardo-Anstine rated it it was amazing. He was the first Chicano to sign a publishing contract with a major house.

His work explored the sadness and beauty of the Southwest and was robust in its inclusion of queer Chicano characters. I am very happy about this and only hope I live to see them. Jan 07, Ken rated it it was amazing Shelves: favorites. The Rain God is a personal account of a life-long search for identity and belonging. Like many others of his culture, his work was effectively suppressed, due to the fact that major book publishers considered the genre unmarketable, at the time.

After turning to an alternative, lesser-known publisher, his novel would sell eleven thousand copies in seven years. Islas never came out of the closet publicly, however he was not hesitant to write about his experience as a gay Chicano man, albeit, vicariously, through his fictional characters. In the search for identity at the blurred edges of the borderlands and the in-between spaces, mis-embodiment sometimes expressed as alienation and displacement of gay Chicano men is a shared phenomenon.

The double stigma was tripled for those who contracted AIDS. Being gay meant almost-certain rejection. However, "death by the wrong means" AIDS was far worse. In the eyes of the Chicano community, it left an idelible mark not only upon the victim, but also his family and friends. Apr 26, Paulina rated it it was amazing. The Rain God was incredible and heartbreaking and I can't stop thinking about it. If you come from a Mexican family as I do you'll know that family relationships can be complicated and unbreakable.

So even if you have a fight with a cousin or something unforgivable happens, you still can never be rid of them, they will always be your cousin, your family. Add to that crossing a border into the US and you get very complicated family and cultural dynamics. The Rain of God takes place in a small t The Rain God was incredible and heartbreaking and I can't stop thinking about it. The Rain of God takes place in a small town near the border of the US and Mexico, where a family and adopted family of comadres and compadres live and assimilate to the culture.

Assimilation of course also means bending moral codes or breaking them. Each member of the family has their own complicated story, a story of immigration or a story of love and loss or a story of identity that is rejected by society, plus many more. Imagine a carne asada, where everyone is telling everyone stories, well these are the ones that keep everyone sitting around the back yard drinking and listening to rancheras while the kids are made to go to bed. There would be trigger warnings for just about everything in this book, violence, hate crimes, and mental and physical abuse so do tread carefully.

This book is painful because it paints a too real picture of the complicated relationships Mexican immigrant families and their descendants have with the past, the present and the future of the family, the cultura, and their identity. I saw my own story reflected in some of these pages and it felt like home but also a place I didn't want to get to emotionally. So, I do recommend this to everyone, especially if you're an immigrant or come from a Mexican family!

Apr 11, Angie Sanchez rated it it was amazing. A love letter to the desert and all the malcriadas and sinverguenzas out there. I have never read a book that explored machismo, homosexuality in a machismo society, colorism, and family dynamics, among a range of other topics and executed these discussions so well and so succinctly.

We follow along the Angel family as they go through events in their life that help to exemplify the topics that Arturo Islas wished to share with the world in A time when Chicano meant many things and all of them wer I have never read a book that explored machismo, homosexuality in a machismo society, colorism, and family dynamics, among a range of other topics and executed these discussions so well and so succinctly.

A time when Chicano meant many things and all of them were stereotypes. Arturo Islas brought a Chicano family that went through many of the ups and downs readers are used to in family dramas. So here goes why I think you should read it. It showed the internal dislike that colorism has against the people that practice it.

How you can come to hate the color of your own skin and base likes and dislikes solely on someone having lighter skin tone than you. It showed how debilitating hiding emotions can be to men who do feel so many things but are forced to hide them under a veneer of machismo. It does all of the above by humanizing it in the form of the Angel family. I cried with them, I angered with them and in the end I was truly bruised by the damage that they all went through. This is definitely one of those books that for me felt like I could find many of the things that I have seen mirrored in my own life.

It helped me grasp a little bit of a better understanding into my own family. I never grew up with these books so seeing them now and using them as a tool to understand a little bit more of my own culture makes them feel like such a gift. I am truly thankful for this book. It is so beautifully written, tragic and so amazing.

I think what made it even more tragic was that this was meant to be a trilogy but sadly Arturo Islas died of AIDS complications as he was writing his third book. This is more the exploration of a United States-Mexican border town, a family and what they represent.

When I first picked it up, I thought it was going to be this "same-old" book about a boy coming to age while battling an identity crisis, but even with that the book focused primarily on the drama of the family. It focused on individual characters and gave the story depth and perspective.

There are a lot of references to religions, especially Catholicism. Throughout the story, there are a lot of references to the so called sp When I first picked it up, I thought it was going to be this "same-old" book about a boy coming to age while battling an identity crisis, but even with that the book focused primarily on the drama of the family.

Throughout the story, there are a lot of references to the so called spirits. It is amazing how certain things happen even though the book claims it to be faithful. Miguel Grande and Juanita make a confusing couple in the book. This is not at all what a Catholic believes. Cheating or "committing adultery" is a sin, but Miguel Grande had no intentions of repenting. This came as both shocking and amazing to me.

It seems unbelievable that Lola would betray her best friend this way when Miguel and Juanita loved each other deeply. All in all, I thought the book was OK.

The author's use of description and detail was done exceptionally done well, but the lack of efficiency in the book had me confused and lost. I give this book a 5 out of 10 and recommend it to people wo love reading books on family drama and religion.

This book hits upon several Mexican-American cultural touchstones: Day of the Dead, the role of compadres, the Catholic religion, indigenous bias, machismo, the Mexican Revolution, border life, etc. This was written by an intelligent author who knew how to develop the "otherness" inherent in Mexican-American border life. The Angel clan shows how a modern Mexican-American family life ebbs and flows with painful memories and even more painful, decisions, and it is agonizing to watch.

While heralde This book hits upon several Mexican-American cultural touchstones: Day of the Dead, the role of compadres, the Catholic religion, indigenous bias, machismo, the Mexican Revolution, border life, etc. While heralded as "already a Southwestern classic" and a "masterwork of contemporary literature," I find myself feeling fragmented and needing to re-read parts of this story to temper my own thoughts about the impact of this tale on my Mexican-American psyche.

This is complex and nuanced, and the reader will need to work for closure. Jan 12, Ben Moody rated it it was amazing Shelves: fiction. The late Arturo Islas left a literary legacy that was scant -- only two published novels, and others incomplete.

But his first, "The Raid God" reveals his extraordinary talent and unique voice. The novel follows although non-lineally three generations of the Angel family, who fled Mexico during the revolution and settled in a border town. The novel shows their gradual integration into the "American" lifestyle, how they come to terms with their mixed identities, and the eccentric, almost surrea The late Arturo Islas left a literary legacy that was scant -- only two published novels, and others incomplete.

The novel shows their gradual integration into the "American" lifestyle, how they come to terms with their mixed identities, and the eccentric, almost surreal nature of their family.