The Silver Cloud Cafe
by Alfredo Vea
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other reviews (showing 1-19 of 19)
Mayhem, miracles and revenge in the 1990s Mission District underworld? Oh yes.
Vea explores the themes that inform the rest of his work - the retention of culture in an alienating and assimilating landscape, the influences of war and crushing poverty on a person's metaphysical development, the transgressive force of transformation. You can see him trying to step out of his earlier work and into a faster-paced potboiler medium. Read this one for its memorable characters and the striking lyric ...more
Vea explores the themes that inform the rest of his work - the retention of culture in an alienating and assimilating landscape, the influences of war and crushing poverty on a person's metaphysical development, the transgressive force of transformation. You can see him trying to step out of his earlier work and into a faster-paced potboiler medium. Read this one for its memorable characters and the striking lyric ...more
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Read in June, 2005
Although the reviews evoke Raymond Chandler and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Vea is his own man. Garcia Marquez might find a cousin among these pages, but Chandler belongs to another night, despite the detective story frame. A man falls in love with a ghost, angels offer commentary and a little boy grows to be a man among the ragged furrows of California's Central Valley and the pre-dot.com streets of San Francisco. I'd like to believe Vea could rub shoulders with Hammett's ghost as they peer into Te...more
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Read in June, 2005
recommends it for:
those who love magical realism
A historical-fiction tale that has so many wonderful unforgettable characters. If pressed, I would probably define this book's genre as Latino/Magical Realism, but it is bigger than that. One of my all time top 10 favorite books.
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I hated this book. I'm just being honest. I don't care if ALL of my graduate professors are friends with the author.
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