A Nation of Amor

Christopher McConnell

ISBN 10: 1877946400 / ISBN 13: 9781877946400

Published by Permanent Press (NY), 1994

About this Item

Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Bookseller Inventory # GRP69691346

Bibliographic Details

Title: A Nation of Amor

Publisher: Permanent Press (NY)

Publication Date: 1994

Book Condition:Good

Edition: 1st ed.

About this title

Synopsis:

While the Latin Kings, a Puerto Rican street gang, has degenerated from defending the ghetto to selling drugs, one of its former leaders, Reynaldo, tries to start a project to reeducate his community

From Kirkus Reviews:

Social melodrama set in Chicago's Puerto Rican neighborhood, where the Latin Kings street gang, real-estate developers, and ambitious politicians battle for turf and where an alternative school may provide a chance: an ambitious but flawed debut. Cynicism reigns in Westtown, and the Matos family is in the middle of it all. Reynaldo Matos, one of six narrators, runs the alternative school after having served three years in prison. He lectures students on their history and recalls his past, including an affair with a Chicago heiress--all in a self-consciously idiosyncratic, sometimes hard-to-follow voice (``Fucking Protestants, any tenet validating a personal relationship with God destroys the Trinity of the gangstered: fear, guilt and self- preservation''). Meanwhile, nephew Flaco wants to stay straight and finish school; gangbanger nephew Mano lives with and abuses his pregnant girlfriend; and Polish-Irish rich boy Thomas Stolarz teaches at Reynaldo's school--having an affair with a Latina dropout while aiding his father's scheme to redevelop Westtown and get the Puerto Ricans out. The six alternating voices give McConnell the chance to explore varieties of diction (street slang, ironically elevated speech, political rhetoric); the voices of Mano and his girlfriend communicate the attempt to hold onto hope and honor while living on the edge; Thomas exudes a mix of snobbery and self-contempt; and Reynaldo mostly provides social and political background. The mix rarely melds into a satisfying narrative: too disjointed for traditional readers, while shallow characterizations and stereotypes will disappoint the more literary-minded. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.