The Truth (New Issues Poetry & Prose) - Hardcover

Rips, Geoff

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1930974736 ISBN 13: 9781930974739

Publisher: New Issues Poetry and Prose, 2008

Synopsis

In his debut novel, The Truth, Geoff Rips creates a moral universe in a series of tales narrated by the palsied hunchback Chuy Pingarrón who spends his days on the front porch of a San Antonio whorehouse and is proud to dubbed “the standard of perversion” by those whose stories he tells. Through his twisted perspective we meet the Midwife who is also the house’s madam, the philosopher Don Apolo who lives in an iron lung, and Angelita, famous for her hands. Chuy relates the sad story of the impenetrable Soledad, deemed by her mother to be a saint; of la Ramona, whose one eye looks into your soul while the other looks away; and of the enigmatic la Verdad, whose customers seek her out to learn their fortunes. At turns comic and tragic, Chuy’s story meditates on the most ancient questions: how do you live a life and what does it mean?

About this title

About the Author

GEOFF RIPS was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. He is a former editor of the Texas Observer and has been a Soros Open Society Institute Fellow. He has worked as the Freedom-to-Write Committee coordinator for PEN American Center and was principal author of its report, UnAmerican Activities (City Lights Books, 1981). Rips has worked with community organizations along the Texas/Mexico border to bring water and wastewater services to border colonias. He has published poetry, fiction and journalism in various places over the years. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife, Nancy Maniscalco, and two daughters, Gabriela and Sascha.

Reviews

Ten reflective, connected vignettes set in a San Antonio, Tex., whorehouse comprise the haunting debut by former Texas Observer editor Rips, winner of an Association of Writers and Writing programs AWP Award. The 60-something narrator, Chuy Testimonio de Felíz Pingarrón, is the son of one of the bordello's working girls (now dead). He still lives in the house, and he's plagued by a congenital spinal condition that has left him twisted and in pain. Most days, he sits on the front porch observing the comings and goings of the customers and musing on the various prostitutes. He dwells especially on his favorite, Angelita, famous for her hands. The misery he witnesses in the women's lives reflects his own blunted condition. Often Chuy visits with Don Apolo, deformed and immobilized in an iron lung, who was abandoned at the house more than 30 years ago and has lived in a back room since, whose words are sage and saintly. Rosa Milagros, known as the Midwife, runs the whorehouse and commands Chuy's respect because she takes back a little of the control that the world tries to keep all to itself. Chuy resists salvation and embraces his sad, sordid life. Unsparing and a little raunchy, the novel bears out the Midwife's aphorism: Everything that happens in the world sooner or later drags itself into this house. (Jan.)
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Edition details

• Publisher: New Issues Poetry and Prose
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1930974736
• ISBN 13: 9781930974739
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 164