What It Takes to Get to Vegas - Softcover

Murray, Yxta Maya

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0802137377 ISBN 13: 9780802137371

Publisher: Grove Press, 2000

Synopsis

What It Takes to Get to Vegas has been described by The Arizona Republic as "a juicy tale of ambition, passion and grit that is as much fun to read as a good trash talk session with your best friend." Growing up among the championship hopefuls and alleyway gladiators of East L.A., Rita Zapata sees in boxing a ticket to something better. At eighteen, she's earned the title "Queen of the Streetfighters." Then she meets Billy, an enigmatic, intense fighter from Mexico, who begins systematically clawing his way to the top. Their passionate connection gives Rita two things she's never had: real love, and respect in the neighborhood. From the alleys off Cesar Chavez Avenue to the carpeted suites of Caesars Palace, Rita learns exactly what it takes to get to Vegas, as Billy turns out to be the best thing that has ever happened to her -- and the worst. In exuberant prose sparkling with wicked wit, Yxta Maya Murray has given us a sass-talking, big-hearted heroine with a story we will not soon forget. "Frenetic, bittersweet, and often hilarious ... Rita Zapata is who Holden Caulfield would want to be if he were alive in 1999." -- The Boston Globe; "From the get-go, [Yxta Maya Murray] pulls you into her latest book with its flowing Spanglish and bittersweet observations." -- Seventeen; "Somewhere between a telenovela and the passion of St. Theresa de Avila ... precise, hilarious, and swinging ... Rita's world dance[s] around beside us after we put the book down." -- New Times LA; "Murray's elegant prose beckons those who fear this land of urban blight to venture into it, to stay a while and meet its citizens ... Stellar." -- Los Angeles Times Book Review

About this title

From the Inside Flap

Her first novel, Locas, established Yxta Maya Murray as a writer of incendiary power and stunning lyricism, and was described by the Los Angeles Times Book Review as "fierce and persuasive." What It Takes to Get to Vegas is an arresting novel of desire and ambition set among the gyms and street fights of East L.A.'s boxing hopefuls.

Growing up, Rita Zapata knows her destiny is not to be a good girl. In a neighborhood whose heroes are made under the bright lights of the boxing ring, Rita attaches herself to the circle of wanna-be fighters in hope that she'll meet her ticket to something better. At eighteen, she's earned the title "Queen of the Street Fighters." Then she meets Billy, an enigmatic, passionate fighter from Mexico who begins systematically clawing his way to the top of the fighting heap. Their passionate connection gives Rita two things she's never had: a love that is real and respect in the neighborhood. From the alleys off Cesar Chavez Avenue to the carpeted suites of Caesars Palace, Rita learns exactly what it takes to get to Vegas, as Billy turns out to be the best thing that has ever happened to her-and the worst. In exuberant prose, sparkling with wicked wit and beauty, Yxta Maya Murray gives us a sass-talking, bighearted heroine with a story we will not soon forget.

"In What It Takes to Get to Vegas the contrapuntal viewpoints--defiant and self-doubting, calculating and fuzzy-headed--are combined into a single stream of consciousness. Frenetic, bittersweet, and often hilarious, Rita's voice is at once specifically American in its rhythms and syntax, and indisputably female.... Rita Zapata is who Holden Caufield would want to be if he were alive in 1999."--The Boston Globe

"[What it Takes to Get to Vegas]'s strength lies in Murray's candid though poignant description of the 'Eastelayer' world-of the bustling consumerismo of Cesar Chavez Avenue, of boxing champions whose personal mythologies are memorized by every schoolchild, of the sad-sack lives of wannabe boxers who wind up working at Denny's."--The New York Times Book Review

Yxta Maya Murray is the author of Locas. She has written fiction and nonfiction for Buzz, Glamour, Zyzzyva, and many other publications. She is a professor of law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.

Edition details

• Publisher: Grove Press
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0802137377
• ISBN 13: 9780802137371
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320