Chasing Shadows: Stories

by Lucrecia Guerrero

Lucrecia Guerrero's shimmering debut collection paints a vivid, beautiful, and haunting portrait of life in a fictional U.S./Mexican border town as it traces the crossed paths of a cast of characters whose lives intersect in surprising ways. By turns funny, poetic, and clear-sighted, appealing to readers of Laura Esquivel, Isabel Allende, and Sandra Cisneros, Guerrero's stories reveal the moments in which we consciously and unconsciously reveal ourselves. A mother and twenty-year U.S. citizen still ashamed of her "imperfect" immigrant background, agrees to report illegals at the border with a pair of loaned binoculars. A local man's rough but naive past lets him confuse a momentary connection with a female bus passenger as part of an entire romantic future in which he has no place. An aging and meticulous dandy known as the "White Dove" is accompanied by his daughter to meet an old friend who she secretly knows will never arrive. Two young brothers infatuated with the same self-possessed girl adopt different attitudes to sweet and shocking result. As their lives interweave between the stories, the resonance of their hopes and fears in shared circumstance draw a deep sense of collective emotional longing and a sense of place that is simply unforgettable.

Genres: Cultural, Short Stories

176 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2000

Reviews

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

These eleven short stories are all set in the fictional Arizona border town of Mesquite. Unlike a Texas border town, there is no river; which projects a more impoverished and desolate mood into this Texan's mind. Frontera Street is divided by a fence, from which there is not a crossing point. Most of the characters of this book either live on Frontera or come to visit. The characters, like the setting, too are bound by a fence. They are bound by little or no hope to better their lives, they are bound by superstition; making them feel very lonely like the place. Like Steinbeck's Monterey characters, they too are misfits; the "invisible people". Sprinkle into the mix a bit of the great Southwestern writer Rudolpho Anaya. Especially with the curanderas evoking the mores and folkways of the Southwest. Maybe this isn't fair, but Guerrero just didn't seem to have as much fun with these characters as Steinbeck would. Despite his misfit's flaws, he drew out more of their shine. Guerrero is descriptive and writes very well, but I felt none of Anaya's lyricism. It is rather harsh to make references to such greats, but I do commend Guerrero for her ability to delve into this realm for me to make the inevitable comparisons.

The progression of the short stories is interesting in that characters are reintroduced and become more intertwined with one another. Making this collection almost develop as a novella. However, there somehow wasn't a sense of completeness. One of the more interesting images was of a young girl pulling a water hose up to the border fence. Providing water through the fence to even poorer people with their assorted containers is a powerful image that'll stick with me for awhile. I do look forward to more from Guerrero.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Series of short stories about the residents of Mesquite, AZ, a poor, dusty little border town, this works like a hispanic soap opera of sorts. Love the intertwining of lives and the gamut of human experiences, some stories lingered in my mind, most had quieter endings. Characters include the young brothers Riquis, born with the misfortune of looking like his good-for-nothing father, and Flaco who is kinder and less angry and gets the girl who attracts the unwanted attentions of her teacher; Cookie the spy who wants to forget her past in Mexico; Delores who discovers she wants a steady man after being proudly independent for so long; Mono who finally finds love but must fight his sister for it.