Reviews

A personal tale of queerness in 90s San Fran.
As someone who's been dealing with my mother's immigration status from El Salvador for several years now, a lot of the anxieties and feelings presented in this book felt super familiar.
They are the best parts of the book and I wish we could have had more of a POV on Isaac's experience.
The book combines this in parallel with the story of a traumatic incident and a manipulative hustler that contains also many elements of more negative queer experiences. The two worlds don't always mesh the best together and often it feels like one side of the story is distracting from the other.
But it ends up smoothing out towards the end.
I loved the exploration of LAW and what it means to a society with how they're placed and enforced, while we don't get a lot of it there's enough that I enjoyed.

Quite enjoyed this one and got through it rather quickly.

babygirl's review

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informative reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Read this because I could not sleep, which ties to the title interestingly. A devouring time.

This family had a long history of forced (im)migration, across generations and continents. How do you know what to take with you, which parts are your favorites or just things you haven't had the time to make a part of you? Which languages, terms of endearment, recipes, dances, parts of you to most identify with?

The author revealed at the end that this was a purposeful mix of personal/fiction, a memoir that grew distance. Hard to consider as an outsider, especially when I initially approached this fully as a work of fiction, with details of interiority perhaps lent from real life experiences (ie what San Francisco was like in the 90s, etc.). How to know which parts are too far-fetched, like the Silva character, who was a stalker who did not identify as gay but did pursue men/encouraged older men to pursue him, someone who knew how hard immigration cases are but worked industriously to deport another man, who killed and attacked many but was often seen as incredibly innocent? His character was a lot. His villainy was beyond measure, to the point where it seemed a bit fairytale -- including his end.

Writing style-wise, it reminded me of pulp fiction novels -- the arcs for each chapter was unique in content from any other book I've read, but the structure of it was familiar. It was interesting to see which aspects of the protagonist was lent sympathy, both from the text and other characters. The relationship with Simon would have raised many questions in my mind as a parent/sibling/partner, but everyone was pretty automatic in assuming he would have to do the same thing (talk to the parents about the death). I was a little surprised but how much of that was a given. It also felt like very much a 'book' at times, such as when he is sitting around the campfire, feeling forced to tell this story; it felt like we needed that to have the plot advance, but it is an engaging way to reveal character background and made sense with the relationship at the time (protag wants to share more with partner who is urging him/feels left out about secret past after cheating/relapse reveal). So, understandable, just felt a bit formulaic at times? But again, better than others' exposition dumping/meandering. Just got funny at times, personally.

Interesting book. I really enjoyed the relationship between the father and son, and the twin brothers. It must have been hard to have been cut off so completely and not know why; and being so sure that this clean blade was the best choice; and feeling so, so lonely, and wrong, and wronged. I'm unsure what happened to the mom, towards the end -- she seemed like there was hints of a sickness and/or jealousy (esp towards the lawyer), in my reading, but it didn't really go anywhere. She was also a sympathetic character who was trying her best with what was going on, and I thought how unapologetic she was about eavesdropping between her husband and son/son-in-law was really funny/right. I wonder if they will all move to Canada together? I also liked that they all lost in going no contact for so many years, and continued on with their lives, and have to find a way to get back together.

Also! It kind of reminded me of Becoming's writing, because of how much is held so close to the chest. The protag shared a lot of his life, but a lot was held back, both by him and other characters. There was a lot of restraint, in the editing. I'm not sure if I'm wording this the best way right now, but reading this book really reminded me that lawyers are trained to talk and report back in a structured, recognizable manner.