ahream

In the immortal words of Monty Python’s near corpse: “I’m not dead...I feel fine...I think I’ll go for a walk.”

And in the equally immortal words of the body collection agent: “You’re not fooling anyone, you know.”

Okay, it’s not the plague. But I’m up to my scrawny little neck in research for the latest book. And after a dozen research trips, the hundredth phone call, the millionth reference book and the billionth peanut butter and jelly sandwich eaten on the steps of, of – which freakin’ library am I at today? – it starts to feel like the plague.

My wake-up call came the other day when my best friend sent me an e-mail with the subject line “Hellooo?” Clearly, it has gotten out of hand.

But I haven’t forsaken my blog. Really. I swear. I haven’t. And I’m almost sure I’m not dead. As proof, I offer a long overdue book review.

THE HUMMINGBIRD’S DAUGHTER by Luis Alberto Urrea is, unequivocally, one of the best pieces of literary fiction I’ve read in a long, long time.

Set in the late 1800s in Mexico, a young girl, Teresita, is born stone-soup poor to a mother who abandons her, an aunt who abuses her and a father unknown to her. Taken in by a medicine woman in the house of the great ranch owner, she begins to learn the old woman’s secrets, the secrets within herself and the secrets that lie in the big house. The book follows the girl’s supernatural path from urchin to figure of hope and revolution for thousands.

Although I haven’t researched it myself, the author’s note and bio say that the story is a true one and that the woman, Teresita, is Luis Urrea’s great-aunt whose life he spent twenty years researching. When you’re at the bookstore, pick it up, flip to the back and read the note. If his descriptions of studying the secret ways of a Mayo medicine woman don’t convince you to buy it, I’ve got no shot here.

Richly descriptive, it’s one of the great “passport books,” those that pick you up and carry you to another time and place so completely, it’s startling to discover yourself still sitting on your own couch when you’ve finished.

Worthy of a standing ovation, I can’t recommend it enough.

ahream Dispatches from the City of Angels I'm a mystery writer living in and writing about Los Angeles. You can catch my short story, "Running Venice," in the new anthology LAndmarked for Murder. Look for it in bookstores and on Amazon.com now. In the meantime, feel free to poke around. Over at my website you can find even more blog entries than I could fit here, as well as a few other ramblings. Enjoy and come back often.
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