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Six Kinds of Sky: A Collection of Short Fiction
by
Luis Alberto Urrea (Goodreads Author)
"Home isn't just a place, it is also a language."Born in Tijuana, the son of an Anglo woman and a Mexican father, Urrea says that "Home isn't just a place, it is also a language." In these six stories—each wandering beneath different kinds of sky, from the thick Mazatlan starry night to the wide open spaces of the Sioux Nation in South Dakota—Urrea maps the spiritual geogr...more
Paperback, 160 pages
Published
February 1st 2002
by Cinco Puntos Press
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The details in these stories wrap the reader right into the atmosphere of the setting; Urrea immerses us in the scene with description, and the characters feel authentic. I liked the magical twist at the end of "Mr. Mendoza's Paintbrush", and the adolescent narrator’s perspective was well done, really drawing me in to the boy's comical take on life in a small Mexican village. In “Taped to the Sky” I liked the character of Don Her Many Horses—he seemed to drive into the narrative fully formed, bo...more
This collection reminds me that one of my favorite genres is farce. When it's done well, farce makes you laugh at the situations without turning away from the hard realities it describes. This book does that - makes me laugh and almost cry at the same time. While I don't know much about the realities of Mexican-US border life, I suspect that the underlying realities that Urrea describes are actually as stark and unjust, even if the actual people are not as broadly drawn, as slapstick, as he writ...more
4.5+
I love Urrea's writing and will be reading more by him very soon. This is one of my favorite collections of short stories ever. There is a GGMarquez-esque magically real story and the other five are realistic, poetic, brilliant, and wonderful. I am not often a fan of short stories because I do not like to invest time in a world that will end so quickly. In these stories, Urrea creates worlds that exist on their own, suck you in, and continue to grow despite the relatively few pages they actu...more
I love Urrea's writing and will be reading more by him very soon. This is one of my favorite collections of short stories ever. There is a GGMarquez-esque magically real story and the other five are realistic, poetic, brilliant, and wonderful. I am not often a fan of short stories because I do not like to invest time in a world that will end so quickly. In these stories, Urrea creates worlds that exist on their own, suck you in, and continue to grow despite the relatively few pages they actu...more
I was unfamiliar with Urrea's work but I've been reading through my list of Latino authors and I have to say there was much to admire. I enjoyed "Mr Mendoza's Paint Brush" perhaps most out of the collection. Urrea gives a mix of straight story telling and farce and perhaps a bit of the surreal mixing in the story. This seemed to be a constant throughout the stories. I also enjoyed "Bid Farewell to Her Many Horses"--a story about a white guy muorning the loss of his wife. A nice mix of the tragic...more
I never thought a volume of short stories could move me as much as this did. Brilliant through-and-through. A Day in the Life and Father Returns from the Mountain are particularly powerful. Urrea's The Hummingbird's Daughter is big and epic but he's proven he can handle the short form just as deftly. I've got a library book right now and will be ordering this one because it needs to be on my bookshelf.
Six poetic, poignant short stories that knock you down, wring you out, and stand you back up again.
Urrea is truly a master of voice. The characters of his fiction are distinct and convincing (even the characters in the magical realism inflected first story seemed startlingly authentic). Each one of the six pieces in this collection seems to deal with 'home' or 'place' and the effort it takes to travel to it or escape from it (and even what 'it' really is).
six short stories. a bit uneven, but full of honest, eloquent turns around outcasts and generally underrepresented characters. this one's not for kids. and it's a fast read.
a really, really excellent collection. maybe one of my favorite books ever.
I love Luis Urrea, what can I say. One of my favorite authors.
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Luis Alberto Urrea is the award-winning author of 13 books, including The Hummingbird's Daughter, The Devil's Highway and Into the Beautiful North (May 2009). Born in Tijuana to a Mexican father and American mother, Luis has used the theme of borders, immigration and search for love and belonging throughout his work. A Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2005 (nonfiction), he's won the Kiriyama Prize (2006...more
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“Even if, at the moment, you can't sit down and do the gruntwork of stringing verbs and nouns together, you are writing. It is a way of seeing, a way of being. The world is not only the world, but your personal filing cabinet. You lodge details of the world in your sparkling nerve-library that spirals through your brain and coils down your arms and legs, collects in your belly and your sex. You write, even if you can't always "write."
However, writers write. Active, not passive.”
—
2 people liked it
However, writers write. Active, not passive.”
“I can't believe how many students don't read. They want to be writers, but they haven't read anything at all. They have looked at book covers, which usually allows them enough expertise to sneer, but they haven't read the books. How many young poets "don't like" poetry? How many fiction writers don't know Lehane from Nevada Barr?”
—
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