Crossing Vines (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780806135281)

In the grim reality of Southern California's grape fields, even the sun is a dark spot. For the migrant grape pickers in Crossing Vines, Rigoberto Gonz疝ez's novel that spans a single workday, the sun is a constant, malevolent force. The characters endure back-breaking, monotonous work as they succumb to the whims of their corrupt bosses. Each minute the sun rises higher in the sky is an eternity.

The textures, smells, sights, and emotions of their daily existences engulf the lives of the Mexican laborers. Scarce drinking water, sweltering heat, splintered fingers, contempt for the job, and violence toward one another compose their unflinchingly dark world. In Gonz疝ez's brutally honest story, the characters are compelled forward mercilessly by the rising crisis that envelops their interconnected stories. This uncompromisingly thought-provoking tale gives names and faces to the anonymous agricultural laborers, whose lives are like the tangled vines of the fruits of their labor.

Not since Tom疽 Rivera's . . . And the Earth Did Not Devour Him has a novel converged on the lives of migrant workers so profoundly. Like Rivera, Gonz疝ez employs nostalgia for Mexican tradition as he looks at the family feuds, economic injustices, and racism prevalent in the migrant worker experience.

Author: Rigberto Gonzalez
ISBN-10: 080613528X
ISBN-13: 9780806135281
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
Language: English
Published: 09/15/2003
Pages: 214
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 0.90lbs
Size: 8.44h x 5.86w x 0.83d
Award: IndieFab awards - Editor's Choice

Review Citation(s):
Poder Hispanic 09/01/2003 pg. 88
Booklist 09/01/2003 pg. 55
Library Journal 09/15/2003 pg. 91
Multicultural Review 03/01/2004 pg. 67