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Chango's Fire, by Ernesto Quinonez
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From the acclaimed author of Bodega Dreams comes a stunning novel about the changing face of the American city.
Julio Santana is an arsonist. For a fee, Julio burns down buildings looked upon as unseemly by investors trying to transform the very face of the Spanish Harlem neighborhood he calls home. Julio has pocketed thousands of dollars from people who want to profit from the forced gentrification of his neighborhood, money he has used to make his parents proud by purchasing them a place of their own.
By controlling the flow of those streaming into the neighborhood, the true power players behind this insurance scam have made a fortune. So when Julio falls in love with Helen, a white woman who just moved into the neighborhood, he makes it his priority to stop setting his own neighborhood ablaze and enter into a life of clean, honest living. Little does he realize that his change for the good has angered his employers and promises to threaten Julio's life, along with the lives of everyone he loves.
As Julio struggles to live up to his decision, he is surrounded by characters who both complicate and enlighten his life. From the well-intentioned neighborhood pastor who sells illegal American citizenship papers to undocumented workers, to the Santero priest who is wise sage to all who know him, to Julio's doting, streetwise parents, the characters here are given life by Qui#241;onez in a novel whose themes are both current and timelessly universal.
In the end, Chango's Fire is a work about what every city in America is currently undergoing. Using his signature prose, Qui#241;onez paints the face of a neighborhood we can all identify with, helping to solidify his status as one of the preeminent literary chroniclers of our time.
- Sales Rank: #137020 in Books
- Published on: 2004-09-28
- Released on: 2004-09-28
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.00" h x .97" w x 6.00" l,
- Binding: Hardcover
- 288 pages
From Publishers Weekly
With the money he makes burning down houses as part of an insurance scam, Julio Santana, 29, a reluctant professional arsonist in Spanish Harlem, strives to make a better life for himself and his parents in this heart-on-its-sleeve novel of urban Latino life by Quiñonez, author of the critically acclaimed Bodega Dreams (2000). Despite his ambitions to make good—he's also in night school and working an above-board demolition job—Julio is wary of the gradual gentrification of his beloved neighborhood, which takes a personal turn when white girl Helen moves in downstairs. Her swings from condescension to belligerence are rather jarring (and not entirely credible), but Julio falls for her and embarks on a doomed relationship. Meanwhile, his old friend Maritza is running a church on the ground floor of his building, which she uses as a front for anti-AIDS crusading and shady immigration dealings. Erratic plotting jolts the reader from one neighborhood drama to the next, as Julio wrestles with questions of identity and ethics. But when he's blackmailed by his boss into doing one last arson job, a plot twist lets him (and Quiñonez) take the easy way out. Quiñonez has a comfortable familiarity with his turf and the catchy Spanglish most of his characters speak, but he tackles too much in this sometimes preachy, sketchy novel.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
"New York City, like the country it's in, is a place that promises you everything but gives you nothing," contends Julio Santana. So the young man struggles to save his crumbling piece of Spanish Harlem even as he works for Eddie, an insurance-fraud specialist responsible for destroying much of Julio's neighborhood. Hanging onto the notion that "in America, it's where you end up that matters, not how you get there," Julio hopes to pay for night school and fix up the apartment building floor he owns by setting fires for Eddie and watching over the old man's unacknowledged son. Soon, though, the flames from Julio's hidden life threaten to consume everything he has worked for--along with his parents; his Santeria priest friend, Papelito; and gallery owner Helen. In his searing portrait of a community at the tipping point, Quinonez ably illuminates the sordid politics of gentrification and the unexpected places new immigrants turn to for social and spiritual support. His exploration of the often misunderstood Santeria--the title references the religion's trickster god, Chango--proves especially fascinating. Frank Sennett
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
About the Author
Ernesto Qui#241;onez is the author of Bodega Dreams, which was chosen as a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers title as well as a Borders Bookstore Original New Voice selection. He lives in Harlem.
Most helpful customer reviews
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful.
Better than his first novel, but...
By Guy L. Gonzalez
There is something simultaneously appealing and frustrating about Ernesto Quinonez's second novel, a marked improvement over his highly-flawed debut, Bodega Dreams, but in the end, still something of a disappointment. This time, the problem lies in his biting off more than he can chew with too many subplots rolling around what is essentially one man's coming-of-age story at its heart.
He's inexplicably combined the systematic burning of Spanish Harlem, insurance fraud, organized crime, gentrification, Santeria, pseudo-socialism, illegal citizenship papers, a shady government agent and a few other random nuggets into a muddle-headed plot that rests precariously, and unsuccessfully, on a straight-out-of-Hollywood interracial romance...and frankly, he's just not up to the task. When the cliches aren't jumping off the page at the reader, the heavy-handed didacticism is smacking them in the face.
His protagonist, Julio Santana, is a philosophizing arsonist yearning for the old days while trying to turn his life around after the proverbial "last job." Almost every other character is either an archetype or a stereotype, none ever fully coming to life beyond the "issue" Quinonez has chosen them to represent. After some hit-or-miss character and plot 'development' in the first two-thirds of the book, the hasty climax gets sloppy and, just like in Bodega Dreams, includes an out-of-left-field occurrence to wrap things up. The too-convenient epilogue only makes matters worse.
That said, Quinonez is no hack and with a less ambitious plot that focused more on the characters he obviously had a connection to, especially the engaging babalawo Papelito, he could have had something really special here. Personally, I could see a viable sequel springing from this effort, focusing only on Julio's journey to his Asiento, his strained relationship with his parents and a fleshed-out romance with Helen and the issues that arise from it. The first two things represent the strongest aspects of Chango's Fire, while the latter's potential got buried in melodrama.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
Another new author to keep track of
By Joseph Palen
Good opening on the subject of arson in the Puerto Rican 'hood in simple style fitting the Puerto Rican narrator, Julio. About two thirds through it seemed to get tangled and the writing style seemed to me uneven and choppy - I was thinking of downrating to 3 stars. However, the author pulled everything back together for a nice ending and the rating went back up. Except for that section, which seemed to need more editing, it is basically a well-written socialogical novel with interesting array of characters: atheist woman do-gooder preacher, retarded friend, loving ex-musician father and firey funny mother, naive perky white girlfriend, undercover INS agent, homosexual voodoo priest/hero, etc. All in all, quite entertaining, but not a comedy - serious stuff. Interesting information about slum clearance by arson (everyone benefits except the insurance company stock holders and the tenents), and about the little known religion of Santeria ("way of the Saints"). I liked it well enough to think about reading his first book, Bodega Dreams, and definitely will keep a lookout for Mr. Quinonez' next novel.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
Great Book!
By J. Santos
I purchased the book for a Latin Literature class I am currently taking, it was an assigned book. The book is an easy read (I thought a little too simple for the class I am in) but, it really brings to life the community that Spanish Harlem was and is currently changing to. My family migrated to Spanish Harlem in the 40s and we all have lived here since than and Quinonez's depiction is pretty spot on. I am an instant fan and plan on picking up his other book, Bodega Dreams once all my reading is done for the semester.
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