Rain of Gold
by Víctor E. Villaseñor
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 451)
Read in August, 2005
recommended to Claudia by:
Regina Brown
I so love this book! You all know I’m a slow reader so when I got it for my Birthday and saw this huge book in my hands the 1st thing that came in to my mind was……”I’m never going to finish this one!” But that’s not the case. I love it so much. I started it two weeks ago and I’m like 3 thirds into it already [that’s fast for me=0)]. It’s so good! You guys all have to read it!
It never made sense to me why we celebrate Cinco de Mayo when they don’t even make that much o...more
It never made sense to me why we celebrate Cinco de Mayo when they don’t even make that much o...more
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Read in March, 2008
recommended to LisaRose by:
It was a book club selectionrecommends it for: I wouldn't
Just not getting all the great reviews for this book.
I'm reading it for my book club and ugh! It's plod, plod, plod, trudge, trudge, trudge...one voice for all the main characters, and a simplistic writing style. My fourth graders wrote this way. There's no depth to or challenge in the ideas. While I understand it's a family history/history of the Mexican Revolution & migration of Mexicans into the United States, I believe the writing could have been much more dynamic. Phrases suc...more
I'm reading it for my book club and ugh! It's plod, plod, plod, trudge, trudge, trudge...one voice for all the main characters, and a simplistic writing style. My fourth graders wrote this way. There's no depth to or challenge in the ideas. While I understand it's a family history/history of the Mexican Revolution & migration of Mexicans into the United States, I believe the writing could have been much more dynamic. Phrases suc...more
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Read in February, 2007
This is a wonderful story, made that much more impressive simply by the fact that it is the true story of the author's family. It is impossible to not feel what the characters are feeling and, as a reader, you become emotionally invested in the story very quickly. I found myself crying when the characters cried, feeling scared when they felt scared, and basically emulating all emotions reflected in the book. It's a bit long and looks like a text book at first glance (with black and white photos ...more
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I read this book in high school for class, and I immediately fell in love with it. It is just so beautifully written, it's romance, it's drama, it's comedy, it's everything - and best of all it's all true. While reading this, the characters, places and situations are written so vividly I kept thinking of my family and the stories I've heard over the years. While in college, Villasenor came to our campus to sign copies of his new book and I asked him to sign my poor, tattered copy of this one and...more
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Read in February, 2008
recommended to Melissa by:
Agood friendrecommends it for: Those with a latino background
This book gave me a better sense of what happened during the Mexican revolution. Victor Villasenor captured every moment perfectly. Not only were you able to visualize what he was writing about, but you were also able to feel what his family went thru to survive. It was touching to read about two families striving to survive during a war and in the end come together. It truely captured the power of love and the importance of family during time of war and time of hardship.
This book is based on ...more
This book is based on ...more
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Read in May, 2003
La lluvia de Oro...puede leer en espanol tambien.
I read this book back during the undergrad years, and absolutely fell in love with it. I hesitate to call it fiction, because it it based on the stories of the author's grandparents journey from Mexico to the U.S. I saw Victor Villasenor speak, and he said that as a child, he always assumed his grandparents were making the stories up, since they were so far-fetched, however after returning the Mexico and following their stories, he came to f...more
I read this book back during the undergrad years, and absolutely fell in love with it. I hesitate to call it fiction, because it it based on the stories of the author's grandparents journey from Mexico to the U.S. I saw Victor Villasenor speak, and he said that as a child, he always assumed his grandparents were making the stories up, since they were so far-fetched, however after returning the Mexico and following their stories, he came to f...more
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Read in January, 1998
I LOVED this book! It was so interesting and the author does a great job of telling this story. (It probably helps that it is his own family he is writing about). I read this book my senior year of high school and passed it on to my mom who loved it and then I never saw it again. Recently I was in the bookstore and saw it on the shelf behind the register and the story came flooding back to me. I promised myself that I was going to read it again one of these days.
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Sometimes called the "Roots" of American Latinos, Rain of Gold was part mysticism, part history, and part family memoire. Although some parts of the book seemed to last forever (for example, Villasenor could have used some restraint in detailing his father's youth), overall it painted a realistic picture of what two families experienced when they came to America. A great foundation for reading other books about Mexican immigration. The Tortilla Curtain
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Read in January, 2007
This is a great book, seriously one of the best books I've read in a long time. The story spans several generations, it is well written and a wonderful look at the Mexican American expierence. The fact that this is an autobiographical story makes it all the better. You can really imagine the trials and tribulations that the characters endure. The women in this book are wonderful and strong, a true picture of the family dynamic during this time in history.
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Read in January, 2007
Picked it up cuz it's been on the house bookshelf...
Interesting to hear about the Mexican Revolution besides anarchist and anti-capitalist accounts that omit the fact that in war, people are killed.
Too bad this family mythology ultimately ends in American assimilation, and that here as in so many real-life examples - oppressed nations and cultures survive by keeping heteropatriarchy intact!
Interesting to hear about the Mexican Revolution besides anarchist and anti-capitalist accounts that omit the fact that in war, people are killed.
Too bad this family mythology ultimately ends in American assimilation, and that here as in so many real-life examples - oppressed nations and cultures survive by keeping heteropatriarchy intact!
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Read in January, 2008
recommended to Serene by:
My mexican side of the family :)recommends it for: anyone who loves the latin american heritage
After leaving the book for several months for a lack of interest, I decided to start again where I left off and it was intriguing I couldn't put it down. A beautiful non-fiction story about 2 families who leave their separate villages in Mexico due to the Mexican Revolution and settle in the United States eventually to find their lives intertwined. It made me feel proud of my mexican heritage.
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Read in March, 2007
recommends it for:
everyone
This book is so awesome. I can see the places and the people he describes so clearly and beautifully. I feel like I understand the Mexican-American immigrant experience in a whole new and more powerful way after reading this. The man (Villaseñor) is a genius! I laughed. I cried (lots). Anybody who doesn't get something out of this book need a good pinch because they must be asleep!
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Read in January, 2004
recommended to Pamela by:
Melissa Reid
I read this book and LOVED it. I actually read it in Spanish and thought it was written so well. The characters were amazing and I was really sucked into the story. I could hardly put the book down, and was sad when it ended. Again...the historical info included about the Mexican civil war and the experiences of families as they immigrated to California wasw really interesting.
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Read in June, 2007
recommends it for:
Lovers of mexican culture and everyone that lives in the Southwest USA
This was a phenomenal book about the stroy of a mexican boy and a mexican girl and how their lives lead them together and how they fell in love. It is so much more than a love story though. It tells the story of how the culture migrated to the United States and the struggles that they faced once they arrived and their quest to retain their culture. A must read for everyone.
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Read in January, 1999
Victor Villasenor tells the story of his family and their journey from Mexico to the U.S. There's some gut wrenching and very emotional parts where I actually had to put the book down for a while.I guess its because any person from a family of that has immigrated to the U.S. can relate to their struggles. Villasenor has a very powerful storytelling style.
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Read in October, 1992
recommended to Joanie by:
Tracy Border
Amazing story about 2 children fleeing Mexico with their families during the Mexican Revolution in the early 1900s. I love how their stories run independently through the book and then connect as they meet in their late teen age years. Great cultural insights, beautiful story telling, a book I couldn't put down until I had finished the entire thing.
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This book was entertaining, but the writing was poor. Specifically, the author used way too much foreshadowing. It was annoying. And the characters were pretty evil, especially the two Mexican mothers, who bugged me to no end.
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Read in January, 2000
This story touched me because it had characters that came from the same part of Mexico as my ancestors. As the story progressed they settled in areas of the US that I have lived. Since i am so disconnected now from any of my mexican culture, I felt like I reconnected if only for the brief time that I was reading the story.
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I started re-reading this as a candidate for my book club. I began marking pages for beautiful text that I wanted to copy, in the way you might with poetry. So beautiful. Only drawback (and sometimes this can be a good thing, so whatever) it covered so many years that I felt worn out when it's over, but loved it.
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Read in February, 2008
This book had everything in the rich Hispanic storytelling tradition-terrific characters, love, violence, courage and persevering craziness. Everyone that has an opinion on the immigration issue should read it. As with many great books, the true story is so complex and rich it could not be fiction
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