avmash's review
5.0
‘Texas: The Great Theft’ begins with a straightforwardly told encounter: the Sheriff of Bruneville (a small town on the Texan-Mexican border) ‘spits five words at Don Nepomuceno:
“Shut up, you dirty greaser.”’
The story is set in 1859, at the time of the Mexican-American border wars, and this encounter is the spark that lights the tinderbox of north-south relations. We follow the news as it spreads around town, and its consequences begin to unfurl, moving with it from one house or market stand to the next, and as we go we meet a varied cast of characters. Almost everyone in Bruneville, and a goodly chunk of the population of its Mexican ‘sister town’, Matasanchez, has their part to play in this story, be they an errand boy, a baker or a vacquero (cowboy). As the word spreads, we prepare for a revolt, and clear lines are drawn through Bruneville’s society.
The story is told through an omniscient narrator who whirls us from place to place and person to person, unfurling the inner workings of the town. No-one’s secret thoughts are safe. We learn about incest and abuse, about cowardice and violence, dreams of escape and dreams of power. Through it all the narrator builds a sense of urgency, using the short stay with each character to convey the passing of time, repeatedly telling us that there is more to share about an individual or a piece of gossip, but that we are out of time, we must move on to the next place and the next character, following the news as it spreads; or, conversely, allowing longer digressions to fill in background as the pace of events slows down. It’s cleverly done.
The sly humour and the power of the language do a good job of alleviating the weight of a period of history characterized by racism and brutality, and Boullosa has carefully counterweighted the dominant racism of the nascent Americans against the Mexicans by displaying the similar historic prejudice of the Mexicans against the native Indians – the story of dispossession has played out on these lands before. And even the Indians are not romanticized, as is made clear in their harsh life, violence, and treatment of women. This is not a morality tale, and there are no clear heroes. Instead there is a gritty, messy, eminently readable story of a period in history that many would prefer to imagine is more clear cut. This was the first book from new publishing house Deep Vellum, and it’s my first read from them. Judging by this, I’m expecting great things!
Full review available at http://goodbyetoallthis.com/texas-the-great-theft/
frondescence's review
3.0
With a creative style following a small piece of gossip all around the US/Mexico border and what happens as a result, Boullosa shares with us a wide collection of characters with a unique narrator. It's long for how winding the style is (there's no chapter breaks!) but it has some very fascinating moments and it's worth at the very least picking up.
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