Product Details
Free Press, June 2010
Hardcover, 224 pages
ISBN-10: 1439170800
ISBN-13: 9781439170809
Description
We slipped into this country like thieves, onto the land that once was ours. With these words, spoken by an illegal Mexican day laborer, The Madonnas of Echo Park takes us into the unseen world of Los Angeles, following the men and women who cook the meals, clean the homes, and struggle to lose their ethnic identity in the pursuit of the American dream. When a dozen or so girls and mothers gather on an Echo Park street corner to act out a scene from a Madonna music video, they find themselves caught in the crossfire of a drive-by shooting. In the aftermath, Aurora Esperanza grows distant from her mother, Felicia, who as a housekeeper in the Hollywood Hills establishes a unique relationship with a detached housewife.
The Esperanzas' shifting lives connect with those of various members of their neighborhood. A day laborer trolls the streets for work with men half his age and witnesses a murder that pits his morality against his illegal status; a religious hypocrite gets her comeuppance when she meets the Virgin Mary at a bus stop on Sunset Boulevard; a typical bus route turns violent when cultures and egos collide in the night, with devastating results; and Aurora goes on a journey through her gentrified childhood neighborhood in a quest to discover her own history and her place in the land that all Mexican Americans dream of, "the land that belongs to us again."
Like the Academy Award–winning film Crash, The Madonnas of Echo Park follows the intersections of its characters and cultures in Los Angeles. In the footsteps of Junot DÍaz and Sherman Alexie, Brando Skyhorse in his debut novel gives voice to one neighborhood in Los Angeles with an astonishing— and unforgettable—lyrical power.
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"A literary glimpse into the often unseen world of Mexican Americans trying to make it as Americans."—USA Today
"In its depiction of what amounts to a parallel social universe The Madonnas of Echo Park provides a master-class in non-linear narrative, written with imaginative generosity and emotional precision, poignant, brutal and refreshingly unsentimental. Brando Skyhorse has what can't be faked: talent. His book is an understated triumph."
— Glen Duncan, author of Death of an Ordinary Man and I, Lucifer
— Glen Duncan, author of Death of an Ordinary Man and I, Lucifer
"The hard, bitter grit of life in Echo Park, especially for women, is made quite wonderful by warmth and bright color, humor and compassion; in its keenly felt insight into the human condition, Echo Park is the world: this is who we are, like it or not. Altogether a terrific book by a highly accomplished new author – where has he been?" – Peter Matthiessen, National Book Award-winning author of Shadow Country and The Snow Leopard
"In this insightful book, Brando Skyhorse reveals himself to be a trenchant and passionate observer of the forgotten underclasses of Los Angeles. He's fashioned a desperate La Ronde for Echo Park and a requiem for the '80s."
-- Glen David Gold, author of Carter Beats the Devil and Sunnyside
"In this gorgeous and suspenseful book the admirably talented Brando Skyhorse takes his readers to a kingdom that he has made very much his own, Echo Park, California. I loved reading about his richly imagined characters, both Mexican and American, and how their lives intersect with our much more familiar versions of Los Angeles." —Margot Livesey, author of The House on Fortune Street & Eva Moves the Furniture
"A beautiful sweep of Los Angeles, told through multiple viewpoints that showcase Brando Skyhorse's breadth. The Madonnas of Echo Park is a terrific journey, where characters re-emerge unexpectedly until by the end, the book has created a full and vivid world."
—Aimee Bender, author of The Girl in the Flammable Skirt and Willful Creatures
—Aimee Bender, author of The Girl in the Flammable Skirt and Willful Creatures
"Brando Skyhorse writes with great compassion and wit (and a touch of magic) about the lives of people who are often treated as if they are invisible. The stories that make up this novel weave together to create a complex and vivid portrait of a Los Angeles we seldom see in literature or film. The Madonnas of Echo Park is a memorable literary debut."
—Dan Chaon, author of Await Your Reply
—Dan Chaon, author of Await Your Reply
"First-time novelist Skyhorse offers a poignant yet unsentimental homage to Echo Park, a working-class neighborhood in east Los Angeles where everyone struggled to blend in with American society but remains tied to the traditions of Mexico...Essential for fans of Sherman Alexie or Sandra Cisneros but with universal appeal for readers who favor in-depth character-centered stories, this is enthusiastically recommended." - Library Journal (starred review)
"Vivid...Skyhorse excels at building a vibrant community and presenting several perspectives on what it means to be Mexican in America, from those who wonder "how can you lose something that never belonged to you?" to those who miraculously find it."
—Publishers Weekly
—Publishers Weekly
"[V]ivid...These are the people we pass every day and never give much thought. Now Skyhorse demands our attention as he deftly humanizes their stories...Eye-opening and haunting, Skyhorse's novel will jolt readers out of their complacence." —Booklist
"[A] potential best-seller... [Skyhorse] has a way with fiction, as he demonstrates in this lovely debut novel about Mexican-Americans in LA. The engaging storytelling, informed by a keen understanding of contemporary immigrant life, is reminiscent of Junot DÍaz and Chang Rae-Lee." —Vanity Fair
"What does it mean to be a Mexican in America today? Brando Skyhorse tackles this question in his debut novel, The Madonnas of Echo Park. The book...explores questions of identity and belonging." —The Christian Science Monitor, Summer 2010 Reading Guide
"Gritty...a bitersweet love letter to the neighborhood [of Echo Park]." —Los Angeles Magazine
"Culture, identity, and politics are just a few of the threads masterfully woven through The Madonnas of Echo Park...What happens to a neighborhood that's overrun by gentrification and warring intracultural factions? Violence, for one thing—but also, finally, in Skyhorse's indelible storytelling, something that begins to look like hope."—O, The Oprah Magazine
"This first novel tells the intertwining stories of three Mexican-American families in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, from the 1980s to today…As the narrators pass the story backward and forward in time, the characters unknowingly bounce off one another like particles in the Large Hadron Collider." — The New York Times
"Memorable...Brando Skyhorse connects us with voices that typically dwell in the background of everyday Los Angeles life but here are granted license to tell their own harrowing, hair-raising, heartwarming, hilarious and fascinating stories...His character descriptions are ripe with detail; his dialogue impeccable, crafting startlingly poignant moments." —The Seattle Times
"Brando Skyhorse brings a chronically invisible community to sizzling, beguiling life...With this debut novel, Skyhorse has earned comparison to Sherman Alexie, Junot Diaz and Sandra Cisneros...And like those writers, there's little danger Skyhorse will be pigeonholed as an ethnic writer: his work is simply too good...In The Madonnas of Echo Park, Skyhorse claims the disparate elements of his life and spins them into gold." —The Oregonian
#1 Bestseller, The Tattered Cover Bookstore, Denver
Pick of the Week, The Boston Globe
"Wonderful...moving, lyrical...a complex, multifaceted portrait of the community [of Echo Park]." —Washington City Paper
"The work of a significant new voice, full and rich and richly subtle…. "Rules of the Road" is filled with so much texture and detail and humanity and the kind of weirdness that seems utterly true and believable [and] the rest of the [book is] filled with the same qualities…Also, for a man, Skyhorse has an amazing eye and ear for the way women talk, look, behave — and think and feel….Brando Skyhorse's first book is the real deal."
-- Chauncey Mabe, Open Page.com, Florida Center for the Literary Arts
Asbury Park Press, June 6, 2010
...pachyderms. OK, the book is a tad long, but "It" is a subject worth exploring in depth. THE MADONNAS OF ECHO PARK by Brando Skyhorse (Free Press, $23) Can anyone really resist the author's name? We can't. This debut novel is set in the Echo ...
USA Today, May 26, 2010
...The book The Madonnas of Echo Park By Brando Skyhorse Free Press, $23, out Tuesday What it's about: Debut novel set in a Mexican neighborhood in Los Angeles, where a dozen girls, acting ...
PublishersWeekly.com, April 5, 2010
...and fearless—that readers into the darker end of the literary spectrum won't want to miss. (June) The Madonnas of Echo Park Brando Skyhorse. Free Press, $23 (224p) ISBN 978-1-4391-7080-9 Skyhorse maps in his vivid debut the spirit of ...
