Gods Go Begging

Rating:
Summary: An excellent read
Review: albeit a harsh and very real one in which we live. Alfredo Véa Jr knows this and his experience, empathy, and compassion contribute a texture to this novel which imparts an indelible memory to the reader. One leaves this novel with a permanently altered insight into what it must be like to be a Vietnam vet. On an organic level, we are left gasping at the ugliness of the war many still fight and at the ultimate beauty of the magic which sometimes graces us.

Rating:
Summary: Gods Go Begging
Review: Alfrodo Vea shows the way that war realy efects people not only on the battle field but also the people that the soldiers leave behind when they die. The story is of two battles one fought in Vvietnam and another fought on the streets of San francisco. As the book progresses the reader finds out more and more about the story up until the shocking This is a great book chock full of Vea's twisted humor and many interestring facts and I would recomend it for anyone who enjoys a good truthful novel about the vietnam war.

Rating:
Summary: Phenomenal!!!!!
Review: Great book. I am in high school, and found it to be one of the best books I've ever read. A definite must-read, although not for the conservative or faint of heart. Put down what your doing and go get this book!!!

Rating:
Summary: The best book I've read in college!
Review: I recently read Alfredo Vea's brilliant novel Gods go Begging for my Chicano/a Literature class. It has since become one of my favorite books. Vea's novel is an incredibly complex narrative in which events in the past and the present come together in a beautifully imagined way. The text is rich with imagery, both evocative and painful. Vea's prose is often poetic, and sometimes deeply disturbing. The pain held within the text is immense, and Vea allows the reader to feel the pain without letting it completely takeover. Vea's novel is rich with elements of Greek myth, which is great if you have a background in Greek mythology because it brings up different approaches to reading the text. Gods go Begging is one of the best novels I have read in years. It is a work of brilliance!

Rating:
Summary: One of the greatest recent war novels
Review: If I had to fault this book, it would be that all the plots weave together with too much coincidence, to the point of being hokey. But if that were my objection I would be missing the point of what is, in fact, a thoroughly great novel.

I found this in the book store. The cover itself is a captivating photo of an anonymous grunt on the air strip in Vietnam, ready with a rifle and a guitar. So, I picked it up and read the first chapter, which details the deaths of two anonymous women by narrating their autopsy. It was such a PLEASURE to read that chapter. And I found in reading the novel that almost any chapter can stand on its own as a compelling narration.

Like a mystery, or perhaps like assembling the pieces of a jury trial, or one's own life experiences, the big picture starts to come together in the later chapters. This book ought to be worth my re-reading not only because I'll have different expectations of the chapters given my first reading of the book, but because each chapter is a joy to read.

This book bears similarity to the movie "Memento" except that the plot makes sense at the end, and it has the feel of Magical Realism characteristic of Latin-American novels by authors like Marquez.

Rating:
Summary: An original and groundbreaking work of pure genius!
Review: Named one of the best books of 1999 by the Los Angeles Times and the
winner of the Bay Area Book Review Award for Fiction, this novel, by
Alfredo Vea, is not just a good book; it is a work of art. Born in a
migrant worker family in Arizona, Mr. Vea served in Vietnam and then
put himself through law school. His understanding of the job of a
public defender, the peculiar horrors of the Vietnam war, and the
racism and violence in our society go far beyond the surface. It
comes from deep within and takes the form of surreal poetic prose.
I found myself gripped in its magic.

The story is ambitious and
complex. There's a Mexican-American attorney at its center, who is
charged with defending a young African-American boy for a double
murder. This is just the barest outline of the story which includes an
excellent portrait of the San Francisco legal system and its
lawyers. The two victims of the crime are a North Vietnamese woman and
an African American woman who are opening a restaurant together in a
slum of San Francisco. There's a bond between these two women that go
beyond the fact that each of them have lost husbands and Vietnam. The
depth to which the author takes their characterization goes to levels
I have never seen explored before.

The book moves along as the
connections between the well defined and poetically described
characters weave together in a tapestry that is nothing short of pure
genus. The writer has a mastery of words and images as well the
courage to take chances. The reader must suspend disbelief a bit; but
it is worth it. I found myself mesmerized by the swirling words and
images which keep the tension high with action, insights, and
multi-leveled metaphors. Gods Go Begging is nothing short of a
literary masterpiece and I give it my very highest recommendation.


Rating:
Summary: Reader Replete
Review: Not a Spoiler, just an invitation. I'm not a reviewer, can't ever pretend to be, because 'dispassionate' is not in my vocabulary if I love a book inordinately.

Gods Go Begging by Alfredo Vea will stick in this brain for good, in the best possible way. I almost didn't purchase this novel because of the book jacket-a picture of the back view of a solitary guitar/rifle/gas mask toting soldier in half regalia standing on what looks like an airport runway, a small bag with a Vietnam insignia resting by his boot. I assumed a story predominantly about war in the conventional sense. Could not have been more mistaken.

There are at least four wars being *raged* here among these taut and yet simultaneously lovely pages, all framed within rich language and insightful narrative.

Jesse Pasadoble is a defense attorney in San Francisco waging a war against the stupidity of the typical clients and prejudice in the courtroom. He is joined frequently in the courtroom, in the cafe, and in his daily life by others who share their recollections both of darkly humorous cases and the unacceptable unmentionable dark sides which eventually seal off all human beings from one another.

After a crime of tragedic proportions occurs, Jesse's story and that of the victims and the perpetrators, here and now, plus the unmanageable then on another hill in Vietnam thirty years ago, unfold. What follows comprises an incredible novel of pain and waste, devastation and redemption, caring and investigation, revealed by passionate observation of the lunacy of existence through careful, perfect words.. But, and this is a big *but*, the novel flows like silk through the counterpoints of love, ultimate sadness, and intense meaning.

This is a modern day lawyer, detective story which encompasses inner city bleakness, evil, post traumatic shock syndrome, our *lovely* court system, the inability to share ourselves while our very core cries out to do just so, and a sense that metaphysical, mystical reality is just as real as beans.

My bottom line is that while the ideas and emotion rage rampant, the narrative is superb, nearly perfect. What a terrific story. I think it is very, very big in heart and scope, possessing a duality of the mundane and the metaphysical which meld perfectly for the reader, especially toward the conclusion of the novel.

I always yearn for the elusive words which are not forthcoming, those orbs needed for adequate expression, but inchoate, they are yet imbedded in the soul of this reader. Accused of hyperbole, so be it. This is one fine book.

Rating:
Summary: My Greatest Novel?
Review: Not My meaning "mine," of course; just My meaning "My Choice for..."

...Hard to say...Was my favorite novel when I read it, but then so was It. I'm a bit removed from Vea's words now, though I can say its a damn shame that the last review of this book is from 2003...not enough folks breathing this air. This story is air, and air is essential, right?

Greatest or no, I will never forget the ultimate revelation of Gods Go Begging - the most beautiful experience I have ever had with literature. True love was never more pure, more real.

Even my memories breed tears.


Rating:
Summary: Definitely Intriguing
Review: The style used to write the book is amazing. I love most how it continually jumps back and forth through different times and memories of the main character, Jesse Pasadoble. By doing this, it only lets the audience find out little portions of the story at a time. By the end of the novel, everything comes together and makes for a beautiful plot line. Alfredo Vea also forces you to fall in love with several of his characters by making them so charismatic. The reader, shortly through the book, begins loving to read every single line about any one of the amazingly created characters. If you read it, you will love it.