What do you think?
Rate this book
Retablos: Stories From a Life Lived Along the Border
Seminal moments, rites of passage, crystalline vignettes--a memoir about growing up brown at the U.S./Mexico border.
The tradition of retablo painting dates back to the Spanish Conquest in both Mexico and the U.S. Southwest. Humble ex-votos, retablos are usually painted on repurposed metal, and in one small tableau they tell the story of a crisis, and offer thanks for its successful resolution.
In this uniquely framed memoir, playwright Octavio Solis channels his youth in El Paso, Texas. Like traditional retablos, the rituals of childhood and rites of passage are remembered as singular, dramatic events, self-contained episodes with life-changing reverberations.
Living in a home just a mile from the Rio Grande, Octavio is a skinny brown kid on the border, growing up among those who live there, and those passing through on their way North. From the first terrible self-awareness of racism to inspired afternoons playing air trumpet with Herb Alpert, from an innocent game of hide-and-seek to the discovery of a Mexican girl hiding in the cotton fields, Solis reflects on the moments of trauma and transformation that shaped him into a man.
Praise for Octavio Solis's Retablos
"Unpretentiously and with an unerring accuracy of tone and rhythm, Solis slowly builds what amounts to a storybook cathedral. We inhabit a border world rich in characters, lush with details, playful and poignant, a border that refutes the stereotypes and divisions smaller minds create. Solis reminds us that sometimes the most profound truths are best told with crafted fictions--and he is a master at it."--Julia Alvarez is the author of How the Garc�a Girls Lost Their Accents, /p>
"The murky flow of the Rio Grande River, the border patrol we call la migra, demons, a petty crime of stolen candy, street urchins, family squabbles, eccentric neighbors, and bike rides in which dust envelops a skinny kid named Octavio Solis. When he stops peddling years later, he'll spank the dust from his clothes, but not all of it. Some of it clings to his very soul, and will cling to us, the reader, in this tender and perceptive memoir. This is American and Mexican literature a stone's throw from the always hustling El Paso border."--Gary Soto, author of The Elements of San Joaquin
"Octavio Solis isn't a painter, but he ought to be. He's not a poet, but he could be. His isn't fiction or memoir but, like dreams, might be either. His vision of El Paso and the border is as though through an undulating haze of desert heat."--Dagoberto Gilb, author of Before the End, After the Beginning: Stories
"Solis has written beautifully about his youth on the border, never flinching from his childish blunders, nor failing to find soul in the frailties of others. These stories soar and shimmer with poetry and a playwright's gift for dramatic compression, comedy and pathos running through them arm in arm. Retablos is deeply moving, and a joy."--Elizabeth McKenzie, author of The Portable Veblen: A Novel
"To enter into this book is like walking into a shrine, walls lined with beautiful paintings, each one colorful and visceral, depicting memories, life on the border, death and sadness and joy. This is one of the most memorable books written about the borderlands in years"--
Daniel Chac�n, author of Hotel Ju�rez: Stories, Rooms and Loops
"The short-short format is often called flash fiction these days, but Octavio Solis' stories are more like slow fiction: a moment unfolds, revealing a life, a way of life, generations. He explores the borderlands, not just the streets of El Paso where he grew up, just across the Rio Grande from Mexico, but also those liminal zones between fiction and nonfiction, childhood and adulthood, and magic and melancholy. Small but mighty, these stories will stay with you long after the moment has passed."--Frances Lefkowitz, author of To Have Not: A Memoir
"A retablo is a devotional painting, playwright Octavio Solis tells us. In this poignantly written, heart-warming coming-of-age memoir, Solis pays tribute to those cornerstone moments in his life, negotiating borders at once personal and cultural, with such color that the reader is left spellbound. Astonishing, what more can I say?"--Greg Sarris, author of How a Mountain was Made: Stories
The tradition of retablo painting dates back to the Spanish Conquest in both Mexico and the U.S. Southwest. Humble ex-votos, retablos are usually painted on repurposed metal, and in one small tableau they tell the story of a crisis, and offer thanks for its successful resolution.
In this uniquely framed memoir, playwright Octavio Solis channels his youth in El Paso, Texas. Like traditional retablos, the rituals of childhood and rites of passage are remembered as singular, dramatic events, self-contained episodes with life-changing reverberations.
Living in a home just a mile from the Rio Grande, Octavio is a skinny brown kid on the border, growing up among those who live there, and those passing through on their way North. From the first terrible self-awareness of racism to inspired afternoons playing air trumpet with Herb Alpert, from an innocent game of hide-and-seek to the discovery of a Mexican girl hiding in the cotton fields, Solis reflects on the moments of trauma and transformation that shaped him into a man.
Praise for Octavio Solis's Retablos
"Unpretentiously and with an unerring accuracy of tone and rhythm, Solis slowly builds what amounts to a storybook cathedral. We inhabit a border world rich in characters, lush with details, playful and poignant, a border that refutes the stereotypes and divisions smaller minds create. Solis reminds us that sometimes the most profound truths are best told with crafted fictions--and he is a master at it."--Julia Alvarez is the author of How the Garc�a Girls Lost Their Accents, /p>
"The murky flow of the Rio Grande River, the border patrol we call la migra, demons, a petty crime of stolen candy, street urchins, family squabbles, eccentric neighbors, and bike rides in which dust envelops a skinny kid named Octavio Solis. When he stops peddling years later, he'll spank the dust from his clothes, but not all of it. Some of it clings to his very soul, and will cling to us, the reader, in this tender and perceptive memoir. This is American and Mexican literature a stone's throw from the always hustling El Paso border."--Gary Soto, author of The Elements of San Joaquin
"Octavio Solis isn't a painter, but he ought to be. He's not a poet, but he could be. His isn't fiction or memoir but, like dreams, might be either. His vision of El Paso and the border is as though through an undulating haze of desert heat."--Dagoberto Gilb, author of Before the End, After the Beginning: Stories
"Solis has written beautifully about his youth on the border, never flinching from his childish blunders, nor failing to find soul in the frailties of others. These stories soar and shimmer with poetry and a playwright's gift for dramatic compression, comedy and pathos running through them arm in arm. Retablos is deeply moving, and a joy."--Elizabeth McKenzie, author of The Portable Veblen: A Novel
"To enter into this book is like walking into a shrine, walls lined with beautiful paintings, each one colorful and visceral, depicting memories, life on the border, death and sadness and joy. This is one of the most memorable books written about the borderlands in years"--
Daniel Chac�n, author of Hotel Ju�rez: Stories, Rooms and Loops
"The short-short format is often called flash fiction these days, but Octavio Solis' stories are more like slow fiction: a moment unfolds, revealing a life, a way of life, generations. He explores the borderlands, not just the streets of El Paso where he grew up, just across the Rio Grande from Mexico, but also those liminal zones between fiction and nonfiction, childhood and adulthood, and magic and melancholy. Small but mighty, these stories will stay with you long after the moment has passed."--Frances Lefkowitz, author of To Have Not: A Memoir
"A retablo is a devotional painting, playwright Octavio Solis tells us. In this poignantly written, heart-warming coming-of-age memoir, Solis pays tribute to those cornerstone moments in his life, negotiating borders at once personal and cultural, with such color that the reader is left spellbound. Astonishing, what more can I say?"--Greg Sarris, author of How a Mountain was Made: Stories
168 pages, Paperback
First published October 23, 2018
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 83 reviews
November 28, 2018
These vignettes about growing up a child of Mexican immigrants along the US/Mexico border were charming and touching and full of life. He is a beautiful writer and these stories flow easily. 4.5⭐️
October 12, 2018
With this collection of richly reconstructed scenes from his childhood and youth, Octavio Solis has created a vibrant collage of memories with an energy that reverberates throughout the reading experience. Passing through remembrances and thus musings on familial love and conflict, young passion and lust, a child's sense of freedom and constraint, racial conflicts across and alongside the border, one leaves this book a little wiser and also wondering about the lessons buried in our own stories.
March 27, 2024
I wanted to read this book while on vaca in NM last fall, for the aesthetic of desert and honoring the indigenous in a way. But here I am, having read it in the Midwest in early spring/but really it’s still winter. Traveling through different parts of the authors life, while he recounts moments of being Mexicano heavily drenched in mundane moments, pain, border woes, and the reality of being of color.
April 12, 2019
I’ve always been fascinated by memories, especially the way two people can have the same experience at the same time and yet remember different things about it. In this book, Solis shares his memories as a child of Mexican immigrants in El Paso. The very short stories in this book really aren’t stories. They’re memories, and, as such, they’re not always complete. And yet this book works beautifully. The time period, the locale, the culture, the experiences, all seem to resonate and touch the heart. Excelente!
June 18, 2020
The opening pages describe the seminal and perhaps outsized role certain stories and experiences play in our development of self. Solis explains, and ordinary experience corroborates, that such constitutive stories and experiences prime us to take in the world in particular ways. What is promised is some of the author’s personal collection of such stories and experiences. What is delivered, I feel, falls short of that tantalizing promise.
Some of the vignettes covered moments of childhood that many will have experienced, in one way or another. Octavio Solis's grace and eloquence made those moments vivid, and helped me make vivid for myself my own such moments. The most compelling vignettes, and the ones that left me wanting more, covered his experience as a Chicano child in El Paso and as a Mexican-America child of the Paso del Norte. He identified as Mexican and was raised by parents from Mexico. To some in El Paso, including U.S. border patrol agents, he was Mexican. In Juarez, the southern part of the Paso del Norte, he was a gringo.
I felt that the form, vignettes or retablos, gave each chapter a special weight, like an extended aphorism. I also felt that the form limited the detail and nuance that could be conveyed about life in Paso del Norte and its cultural and political significance. That limitation particularly disappoints because it is so plain that Solis has so much more to say. Reason to read and watch his plays and wait with anticipation for his rumored novel or whatever comes next.
Some of the vignettes covered moments of childhood that many will have experienced, in one way or another. Octavio Solis's grace and eloquence made those moments vivid, and helped me make vivid for myself my own such moments. The most compelling vignettes, and the ones that left me wanting more, covered his experience as a Chicano child in El Paso and as a Mexican-America child of the Paso del Norte. He identified as Mexican and was raised by parents from Mexico. To some in El Paso, including U.S. border patrol agents, he was Mexican. In Juarez, the southern part of the Paso del Norte, he was a gringo.
I felt that the form, vignettes or retablos, gave each chapter a special weight, like an extended aphorism. I also felt that the form limited the detail and nuance that could be conveyed about life in Paso del Norte and its cultural and political significance. That limitation particularly disappoints because it is so plain that Solis has so much more to say. Reason to read and watch his plays and wait with anticipation for his rumored novel or whatever comes next.
February 7, 2022
I love memoirs written like this one where each vignette makes the reader feel like they are the ones struggling to survive, struggling to stay true to their beliefs while making every effort to not let family down. Some parts where a bit stressful to read, especially knowing that still today immigrants along the border suffer immensely and aren't always treated as humans. The memories all came together nicely at the end. I will read more by Solis.
June 1, 2019
Snapshots of life growing up on the border.
October 19, 2018
I discovered Octavio Solis when Retablos was staged by Word for Word at a LitQuake event at the Elbo Room. The stories immerse you with their engaging prose, the universality of their familial characters, and small glimpses into Mexicanidad on the border. The author manages to infuse affection toward his bicultural identity and home, even when the reality was that he was growing up bicultural.ly on the border in a pretty racist environment given its proximity to Mexico and the continuous presence of the border patrol. It's comical, loving, and brutally honest. The dialogue is fast-paced (the author is a playwright). It was truly a pleasure to see it staged at this one time event and I look forward to seeing some of his actual plays someday.
May 14, 2019
Great one day read. Poetic,honest,emotional,funny...everything a life (or 20 years and the reminiscence of those two decades)should be. But also present is the environment, the threads of the tapestry, or the shades of paint. Octavio Solis is a master writer, he uses sentences and words in so many different ways. To keep the painting metaphor it is a little realism, a little avant grade,a little impressionism and a little Pollock....
Great book.
Great book.
Great book.
Great book.
July 15, 2019
This is a book of little vignettes - they are vignettes more than short stories - about the author's life growing up along the border. It was only when I finished the book that I realized how appropriate the title is because "retablos" are little boxes with scenes from life - usually as lived in Peru, but I suppose it could be anywhere - and these little stories are, indeed, scenes from a life that may be memories or scenes from childhood. These vignettes give the flavor of the border, as it was in Solis' childhood rather than as it is now in this unspeakably shameful era of children in cages. It is "muy acogedor" - really delightful
November 26, 2018
I wish I had time to formally write something but, in the meantime, I just wanted to say how I much I enjoyed reading Octavio Solis's memoir, "Retablos: Stories from a Life Lived Along the Border." The book is a perfect companion to Norma Elia Cantú's landmark "Canicula." Rather than Laredo, we get snapshots from Solis's memories in El Paso at a time when the border was more fluid and life was simpler (even if things were complicated at times). While Solis is best known as a playwright, this book shows that he is just flat-out a master writer regardless of genre. If you're interested in Solis, Texas, Latinx stories, coming-of-age stories, memoir, you name it, then absolutely read this book. You won't be disappointed!
January 31, 2020
For some reason GR deleted my "read" status and review? A pretty cool collection of short stories/moments about growing up in the 60's and 70's in El Paso - tightly crafted and with cool factoids of life from the era. My fav part(s) were the ravine where they kids went to ride bikes
December 30, 2018
A damn good book. When I finished, I closed the book firmly and dropped it on the table with the force of a heartfelt hug. Octavio’s vignettes inspired by his childhood and youth in El Paso are raw and explosive. He made me feel like I was right there with him. I felt like I knew those places, the people and the difficult relationships but it takes a great writer to remind us of the unexpected richness and complexity of those times in our lives. Poetry, darkness and the hard living of this Chicano family on the border in the 60’s and 70’s will grab you and pull you into the writer’s world. This book is a literary and cultural achievement. Highly recommended.
November 10, 2018
An excellently written series of vignettes about growing up in El Paso, which mixes memory and fiction. A homage in tightly written prose to familias and best friends and the Lower Valley and those of us who loved growing up in El Paso, however poor, despite the pain and confusion, and certainly because of the adventure and independence of being a young brown kid on the border.
February 5, 2019
An excellent collection of well-drawn stories. Each one of them stands on its own and yet they all gain from being grouped together. I particularly loved the book's introduction, it expressed something essential and resonant about the nature of family stories and Mr. Solis' motivation for writing them down. A true pleasure to read once and I feel certain that I will enjoy reading them again.
April 29, 2019
It hurt to read this book. There were days and hours when I simply couldn’t bring myself to get through yet another aching retablo (sp?). This is probably why this small book took me eight days to finish.
What a beautiful book! What poignancy!
What a beautiful book! What poignancy!
March 3, 2020
What probably most surprised me about this collection of vignettes is how little it is about life at the US-Mexican border specifically, and how much just about life, full stop. Some of the episodes in here have to do with border patrol agents, of course, with the strange symbiosis of Juarez and El Paso, and with the struggle of growing up darker-skinned in a country that values light skin above everything else, but so many others simply recall the adolescent struggles every last one of us knows, no matter if you've grown up in the Mexico, the US, Switzerland or a tropical island: first crushes, first defeats, having to leave friends and experiences and your own image behind, family conflicts, uncertainties about life, strange encounters, embaressments and those seconds when you feel like the king of the world. In this light, "Retablos" is less harrowing than it is beautiful, less thought-provoking than it is heartbraking, and one of those pieces of semi-autobiographical writing that at the same time manages to feel universal, politically relevant and so innocently intimate.
It is beautifully written – highly literary, but accessible throughout – and some of its details – the desolate boy called "Demon", the crippled younger sister at the high school dance, smooth-as-silk Cicsco who's been taken off to prison, and the wall being built along the Rio Grande, but most of all a certain Kitty – feel like memories of my own now.
Mind you, there's no stringent narrative to draw you in, no bigger statement being made, and so "Retablos" might feel a tad inconsequential at times ... But come to think of it, it draws its considerable power precisely from that fact.
It is beautifully written – highly literary, but accessible throughout – and some of its details – the desolate boy called "Demon", the crippled younger sister at the high school dance, smooth-as-silk Cicsco who's been taken off to prison, and the wall being built along the Rio Grande, but most of all a certain Kitty – feel like memories of my own now.
Mind you, there's no stringent narrative to draw you in, no bigger statement being made, and so "Retablos" might feel a tad inconsequential at times ... But come to think of it, it draws its considerable power precisely from that fact.
January 28, 2019
“A retablo is a devotional painting, usually laid on a small, thin plate of cheap, repurposed metal,” Solis writes in the introduction, “in which a dire event is depicted — an accident, a crime, an illness, a calamity, some terrible rift in a person’s life, which they survive thanks to the intercession of the Divine. They are ex-voto, that is, “from a vow,” commissioned and created as a form of thanks. At once visual and literary, they record the crisis, the divine mediation and the offering of thanks in a single frame, thus forming a kind of flash-fiction account of an electrifying, life-altering event. I imagined the stories of this collection in this same disconnected (and yet thoroughly interconnected) way."
An apt title for this revealing collection of memories that allows us to know Solis and his birth family with an immediacy that is painful, humorous, and filled with affection and discomfort—the tale of a family much like my own. Not memoir as such but close enough to have the sturdy spine of realism and the deep insight of this thoughtful American artist.
An apt title for this revealing collection of memories that allows us to know Solis and his birth family with an immediacy that is painful, humorous, and filled with affection and discomfort—the tale of a family much like my own. Not memoir as such but close enough to have the sturdy spine of realism and the deep insight of this thoughtful American artist.
March 12, 2022
I loved this book, and in full discloser I listened to it on Audible and the author is the reader. He is a great storyteller. The accent and inflection made the book that much better. Solis is a successful playwright for whom this is his first book. He was born and raised within a stone’s throw of the river in El Paso, the son of a legal immigrant mother and a father—a cook at a popular taco stand—whose immigration status was more fuzzy. The book is stories of his childhood, and if you follow me you know I’m a sucker for well written books on adolescent experiences. One of my favorite parts of this book is the reliance on “retablos.” Most of you would not know what that means (I didn’t), but a retablos is a representation of the divine. It isn’t the divine, but rather an image representing it. I like how Solis uses this to say this book isn’t his childhood; it is how he represents his childhood, how he chooses to remember his childhood. Is that true for us all? Fun book. Poignant book. Well-written book.
May 10, 2020
Retablos is a masterful example of short form writing.
This book is comprised of short stories--retablos--that sing with emotion and beautiful writing. The writing, the language, is poetic yet profane. And when I say profane I mean it in a a good way. Solis captures the beauty of every day speak, not just in the dialogue between characters, but also in the narration. The writing really drew me in and compelled me to keep reading just to swim and luxuriate in it.
Each story focus on an moment, person, or aspect of Solis's young life. And he's able to bring even the most mundane of moments into vibrant life. He exemplifies that old truism: it's not about what you write, but how you write about it. But it's more exact to say that he's able to show us the beauty of every day life, life that we often take for granted and ignore.
Read this book. It. Is. Uh. May. Zing.
This book is comprised of short stories--retablos--that sing with emotion and beautiful writing. The writing, the language, is poetic yet profane. And when I say profane I mean it in a a good way. Solis captures the beauty of every day speak, not just in the dialogue between characters, but also in the narration. The writing really drew me in and compelled me to keep reading just to swim and luxuriate in it.
Each story focus on an moment, person, or aspect of Solis's young life. And he's able to bring even the most mundane of moments into vibrant life. He exemplifies that old truism: it's not about what you write, but how you write about it. But it's more exact to say that he's able to show us the beauty of every day life, life that we often take for granted and ignore.
Read this book. It. Is. Uh. May. Zing.
September 16, 2020
Dry and stark is how I would describe these stories. They are vignettes, none of them very long. Some seem diffuse as a dream, while others are clear-eyed visions of a difficult life. "La Migra" is the most memorable for the way the young Solis recalls an encounter with two Border Patrol officers. The officers are in their vehicle, stopped at an intersection where Solis is waiting to cross the street. They are looking for someone and begin to question Solis. One of the officers asks (in Spanish) if Solis speaks Spanish. It's a trap.
"I want to say no, even if it's a lie. 'Cause to admit that I speak Spanish would [make me the guy they are looking for]. Just like that, he's made me ashamed of my original tongue, forced me to deny my father's language and thereby deny my father and his fathers before him."
"I want to say no, even if it's a lie. 'Cause to admit that I speak Spanish would [make me the guy they are looking for]. Just like that, he's made me ashamed of my original tongue, forced me to deny my father's language and thereby deny my father and his fathers before him."
January 13, 2021
The stage is set by the books dedication to Solis' parents who 'bravely undertook the life of every immigrant in America, and by doing so, changed it." Their sacrifices, struggle and strength ensure the 'events of the past are seen differently now', inviting us to also reassess the stories of our childhood.
Solis notes that these stories, these 'myths of our formation' are more real than what actually happened to us.
I recommend the audio book which Solis narrates. You'll be swept up in the 'complicated, deeply beautiful and troubled world' of a skinny brown kid in the desert and like Solis, you may learn to make more sense of what you were, who you are and the world we live in today. This immigrant's daughter did.
Solis notes that these stories, these 'myths of our formation' are more real than what actually happened to us.
I recommend the audio book which Solis narrates. You'll be swept up in the 'complicated, deeply beautiful and troubled world' of a skinny brown kid in the desert and like Solis, you may learn to make more sense of what you were, who you are and the world we live in today. This immigrant's daughter did.
April 19, 2019
Retablos is the perfect elixir of the Mexican American experience: a savory helping of faith; mixed with touches of magic; and, simmered in equal amounts of pain, suffering, longing and hope. I loved this book. As a writer, I can only dream of such talent. However, it takes someone who has lived enough hardship to be able to concoct these stories that are packed with a humanity. It made my eyes sting and my heart shatter into slow pieces of glass. I felt being human as something reverent, holy and raw.
Like any art form, the assemblage of words must move the reader. This book moved me to be a better writer. Bravo, Octavio. I await your next book with bated breath.
Like any art form, the assemblage of words must move the reader. This book moved me to be a better writer. Bravo, Octavio. I await your next book with bated breath.
February 22, 2019
The writing was spectacular and witty and fresh.
- Instead of letting it go, what I do like an idiot? I gather up all my hurt into this nasty little fixation and suck it up like a drug.
- Then come these black moods that I fall into like manholes.
- I find my dog-eared Brontë on the dresser. It’s assigned to us for English I, but right now I’m reading it for Biology.
-The greasy smell of gorditas frying on the skillet lends a little grace to the moment, but only a little. We’re both tense as fuck standing in the waning light of a sun sick and tired of our bullshit.
-We count our measly dollars and somberly drive over the river back to where we’re heroes. Only we’re no heroes and we never owned the night. The night, in fact, owned us. She’s the true whore slipping off our assumptions like a pair of dirty shorts and dancing on the condoms of our sweet American life for whatever it’s worth.
- Instead of letting it go, what I do like an idiot? I gather up all my hurt into this nasty little fixation and suck it up like a drug.
- Then come these black moods that I fall into like manholes.
- I find my dog-eared Brontë on the dresser. It’s assigned to us for English I, but right now I’m reading it for Biology.
-The greasy smell of gorditas frying on the skillet lends a little grace to the moment, but only a little. We’re both tense as fuck standing in the waning light of a sun sick and tired of our bullshit.
-We count our measly dollars and somberly drive over the river back to where we’re heroes. Only we’re no heroes and we never owned the night. The night, in fact, owned us. She’s the true whore slipping off our assumptions like a pair of dirty shorts and dancing on the condoms of our sweet American life for whatever it’s worth.
February 5, 2020
Life in a border city, vignettes through the eyes of a young boy who as the years pass begins to understand the complexity and helplessness of immigration.
As each story builds we begin to understand that for families who came over from Mexico, even when they are legally here, they live with fear, knowing that they are still considered outsiders. Yet when the author visits Juarez across the river, he is not accepted as a Mexican either.
Terrific book for young adults, book clubs or anyone trying to make sense of the "wall" .
As each story builds we begin to understand that for families who came over from Mexico, even when they are legally here, they live with fear, knowing that they are still considered outsiders. Yet when the author visits Juarez across the river, he is not accepted as a Mexican either.
Terrific book for young adults, book clubs or anyone trying to make sense of the "wall" .
March 28, 2020
I read this collection of short stories towards the end of my trip to Brazil and although I don't remember the content of each, they were very short vignettes or 'retablos' from the viewpoint of a young Mexican kid whose family moved across the border to the US. They reminded me a lot of the short stories of Junot Diaz that I read last year with the exception that these are less hard-hitting in that they are told by a younger version of the teenager/young man who is the narrator in This is how you lose her.
June 15, 2020
This is the kind of very short but moving book that stays with you. I am a bit familiar with El Paso, but Solis brings it to life as he writes brief retablos or vignettes about his youth, his family and the city. I have seen the works of Solis at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and heard him speak and this book did not disappoint. This book will interest anyone who has painful memories of the past, people interested in the culture of the borderlands, anyone who remembers but maybe cannot remember the facts, but remembers the emotional weight of the past.
September 30, 2021
My first read for Hispanic Heritage month. Short stories, slightly tough listening to one after the other. I think it would have been better to read them with breaks in between, however, I really liked hearing the author read his own words about his own life. Really engaging writing. A bit coming-of-age as the stories followed him from childhood, adolescence, into adulthood. Some very moving and some very funny…I think these would be great for a classroom. I’d definitely read more of his writing.
November 17, 2021
4.5 stars. As with any collection of vignettes, these aren't all created equal, and perhaps I just wasn't in the right headspace to properly receive all of them. You probably know the way it goes—when many of them do land perfectly, the ones that don't land quite as elegantly stand out more. That said, the majority of these retablos fall into the former category, and the book feels exactly as long as it needs to be. When the writing hits it's fucking stellar (and it hits often), and its intimacy and heart is undeniable.
April 11, 2022
I usually don't like short stories; I get too involved with one character, only to abandon him for the next. However, since Octavio is a main character in all of the stories, perhaps following along is more personable, relatable, and builds on the author's story so the reader understand him more. This particular reader found these stories to be beautiful prose, raw in their transparency, vulnerable about life as the child of immigrants, growing up with a mish mash of culture and belonging. I would not turn away another chance to read Solis.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 83 reviews