Under the Skin : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Good--But Not On Par With Blake's Other Work
Review: Is it merely coincidence that the anti-heroes in James Carlos Blake's ultra-violent passion plays are constantly crossing state lines, fences, deserts and rivers to reach their fates?

Don't count on it. Mankind's greatest stories from Homer to Hemingway have required their heroes to cross perilous thresholds, from their safe, familiar worlds into a place that would challenge their bodies, hearts and minds. To fail is to die; to succeed is to change irreversibly.

And blood is almost always spilled. Blake has merely elevated bloodshed to a fine art.

Blake's newest contribution to historical crime fiction is "Under the Skin," a borderland noir about love and crime in Depression-era coastal Texas and northern Mexico. But the real borders it crosses are not just geographic.

The bulk of the story is set in gritty and bohemian Galveston in the first few days of 1936, but it really begins 22 years earlier, when Pancho Villa and his most bloodthirsty captain visit an El Paso whorehouse and plant the seed of destiny.

Blake was born in Mexico and raised in Texas, and is among the brightest stars in historical fiction, particularly where bad men make good stories. All his books have been set in the turbulent times between the dawn of Manifest Destiny and the Depression, wherever humans could inflict the most inhumanity on each other.

"Under the Skin" is brutal and beautiful. Blake's savage crime saga isn't driven only by the body count nor its cold-blooded cruelty. What makes this book -- and Blake's others -- truly horrific are passages of pure poetry and the haunting beauty of Blake's writing.

Few writers can skillfully blend the poetic and the perverse, as if the esoteric and animalistic sides of the brain shared an impermeable border. But as Blake has shown, borders are made to be crossed: John Gregory Dunne ("True Confessions") and James Ellroy ("My Dark Places") are among the most seasoned travelers to cross that particular boundary, but Blake lives there.

His unflinching prose drives stake through fainter hearts, but Blake explores dark borderlands of the human spirit. He has rightfully been hailed as one of the most original writers in America today, and is certainly one of the bravest. "Under the Skin" and his other previous stories all have the seductive fascination of a beautiful song scrawled in blood.

Rating:
Summary: Elmore Leonard With Teeth
Review: This novel by James Carlos Blake reminds me of Elmore Leonard but tougher, maybe a little darker. Set in Texas and Mexico, it is a crime novel with the flavor of a later-day western. Since Pancho Villa appears briefly in the story it can be considered an historical western, but why quibble? On the back of the hardback, there is a quote from The Washingston Post about another of Mr. Blake's books but speaking of his work in general. "He knows in his bones," the Post reviewer declares of Mr. Blake, "that violence is at the heart of American history." Huh? Did this reviewer skip World History 101? The bloody tapestry of European history, woven with pogroms, inquisitions, psychotic rulers, incessant religious wars and ethnic cleansing, makes American history look like a Manhattan cocktail party. What we are talking about here is conflict. A novel without conflict is hardly a novel at all. Conflict resolution is at the heart of any story. Mr. Blake has chosen the crime genre for his current subject and the resolution of conflict among gangsters is -- yep, you guessed it --often violent. If you like Elmore Leonard, you will enjoy "Under The Skin".

Rating:
Summary: Undertones of dreams perverted by greed. Also a great story.
Review: This novel is the story of James Rudolph Youngblood, but you'll call him Jimmy Youngblood and drop the Rudolph if you know what's good for you! His father was Rodolfo Fierro, a Mexican revolutionary who ran with Pancho Villa during the decade long Mexican Revolution. Fierro was Villa's chief executionar and one day he killed 300 enemy prisoners in about 3 hours with a gatling gun. After that he crossed the border into Texas and visited a whorehouse for some much needed relaxation. He chooses a blue eyed, fair skinned prositute for the night and although neither of them can speak the other's language an undeniable and powerful connection is formed between them based soley on mutaual, instinctual, sexual desire. For reasons she does not herself understand the white prostitute, Ava, removes her contraception device during their night of sexual play and becomes pregant with Fierro's child. Fierro himslef of course left before before day break and goes back to fight the Mexican revolution and die his inevitably violent death, never knowing about his bastard son by an anglo whore. Ava, the white protstitute, decides that she wants to keep her child and agrees to marry a customer of hers, Cullen Youngblood, who keeps pestering her with the offer of marriage. At first she kept refusing but once she learns of her pregant condition she accepts Cullen Youngblood's offer on condition that she be allowed to keep the child even though it is not Cullen's. She even tells him that the child is probably Mexican. At first he is upset but decides to marry her anyway. Thus in such bizzare and unlikely cirumstances is Jimmy Youngblood brought into the world. Of course Ava does not tell anyone who Jimmy's father really is even though she secretly takes pride in the fact that her boy's father was such a notirious killer of men. Jimmy knows nothing of his mother's past as a whore and he does not even know she is his mother, he thinks his mother died giving birth to him and that Ava is his aunt. Jimmy has the brown skin of a Mexican but the blue eyes of an anglo. He grows up on Cullen Youngblood's ranch with his half brother Reuben. His life is uneventful except for the fact that he is so good at shooting it is scary. Eventually he runs into trouble with the law and is forced to run away from home and make his own way in the world. He ends up working for an Italian gangster named Rose Maceo who runs all organized crime, gambling, prositution, bootlegging, etc. in Galvaston County, Texas. The novel mostly takes place in 1936. Jimmy is the chief enforcer for Rose Maceo, he is the number 1 assassin for the organization. Jimmy is always beating, crippling, or killing someone but it is always someone who deserves it. His life changes when he encounters a beautiful young Mexican girl, Daniella, who herself is on the run from a rich but evil Mexican hacienda owner. This Mexican hacienda owner, Ceaser Cavalres, kidnapped Daniella from Texas and married her in Mexico on his extensive estate. At first she was awed by his wealth and agreed to marry him but she soon realizes that she is nothing but a prisoner in a gilded cage. She escapes to America and comes to Galveston and meets Jimmy Youngblood. Meanwhile, Ceaser Cvaleres has sent his henchmen after her in order to kidnap her and bring her back to him. It does not take a genius to figure out what happens next, let the mayhem and killing begin! Some nice plot twists for Ceaser Cavalres has a connection with Jimmy Youngblood's past even a experienced and savy reader wont see coming. Lots of moral ambiguity as their is no "good guy" in this novel. Even the "bad guy" Ceaser Cavleres has his sympathic momements. See Rodolfo Fierro, Jimmy's father, might have been a genuine revolutionary fighting for the poor and opressed in a fascist society but he was also a bloodthirsty convict who enjoyed mass murder. Ceaser Cavleres might be a tyranical, elitist land owner who makes his profits off of the hard labor of the peon but even he has feelings and needs. Jimmy himself is sympathic yet he is also somewhat evil as he kills and maims people on a reguar basis. His father may have been a revolutionary but he certainly is not for he works for a pure capitalist gangster. At the same time he is not as blood thirsty as his father. Complex and belivible characters make their choices in a world not sharply contrasted in black and white but like real life is a muddle of different tones of gray. This is no sappy love story, someone dies every 10 pages or so. Not Blake's best but far from his worst.

Rating:
Summary: Good--But Not On Par With Blake's Other Work
Review: While entertaining, I found this book too similar in plot to "A World Of Thieves", Blake's last novel. Both books, moreover, are substantially shorter than most of Blake's prior outstanding works. I hope this does not mean that we can look forward to Blake cranking out short, mediocre,and formulaic books in the future in order to cash in on his reader's loyalty (ala Larry McMurtry). Nevertheless, if you like Blake (and there is very much to like) you will undoubtedly enjoy this book.