House With Two Doors - Softcover

Ricardo Pimentel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0927534673 ISBN 13: 9780927534673

Publisher: Bilingual Pr (Bilrp), 1997

Synopsis

Vietnam-era novel of Mexican life in California

About this title

From the Back Cover

In 1967 San Bernardino, the Rivera family is on the verge of upheaval. Fidel, the family patriarch, is discovering that his normally docile wife, Soledad, is no longer content to share him with his mistress. Soledad, fed up with double standards, is determined to stand up for her rights and insists on a change. Meanwhile, their eldest son, Bert, is on his way to fight in Vietnam, leaving behind his pregnant wife, and their precious younger son, Gaby, is being enticed into the glamorous and violent world of gangs. When Soledad falls in love with the sergeant who has recruited Bert, she exacts from him a promise that will permanently change the way the Rivera family think and feel about each other.

Review

The Rivera Family is on the brink of collapse. Soledad, long-suffering wife and mother, kicks out her philandering, macho husband, Fidel. Normally docile and timid, Soledad begins a quest for independence and fulfillment that includes a secret lover. Bert, Soledad and Fidel's eldest son, is off to Vietnam, where most Latino kids will find themselves used as cannon fodder. Meanwhile, the youngest son, Gabby, is becoming friendly with The Lords, a neighborhood gang. Pimentel offers an engaging portrait of a family under the pressure of warring social forces (patriarchy vs. feminism, patriotism vs pragmatism, change vs. tradition) that threaten, yet fail, to tear it apart. House With Two Doors is a vivid, well-written, and engaging work of fiction by a particularly able and gifted writer. --Midwest Book Review

Edition details

• Publisher: Bilingual Pr (Bilrp)
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0927534673
• ISBN 13: 9780927534673
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 168