and the shadows took him : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Shadows
Review: "and the shadows took him" by Daniel Chacon is a wonderful novel. A bit of J.D. Salinger, a touch of Saroyan, a taste of Gary Soto, but all Chacon. His characters are true. His prose is clean and sure. A novel that can be enjoyed by all cultures.
Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Truth as Fiction Aztlan-style
Review: Daniel Chacon's new novel is good. No, it's good and tiene ganas. While there is some familiarity in the roles being played out by the Familia, ultimately, their fates--especially Joeys and his jefes--are in the shadows.

Like Stella Duarte's LET THEIR SPIRITS DANCE, this book pushes the margins of what many consider Chicano Lit. Pick up this new novel, forget what you might know about its author, and remember that we've come a long way, esa.

Rating:
Summary: extremely dark look at the American dream
Review: William Molina feels good that he is the first Hispanic-American to be promoted to management as a dispatcher in Fresno and shocks his wife Rachel, his teenage daughter Vero , and his two sons teen Billy and preadolescent Joey by taking them to dinner. The family has never been to a waitress based restaurant where a person serves the meal. Not long after that William knows he has obtained the American dream as he relocates to Oregon as a middle class worker.

However, Joey also realizes that leaving impoverished Fresno did not remove the stereotype label of Latino gang member. While Joey performs at his new school in the role of punk hood, William struggles with the darker side of the American dream that he finds lacks substance. Already known for his temper though he always controlled his fists, his anger may break his family apart if he does not learn to control his growing wrath.

This is an intriguing character study that takes an extremely dark look at the impact of the American dream on one's roots. The story line is driven by the five Molinas as readers get a close look at each of them and through them aspects of the Mexican-American culture. Daniel Chacon paints a deep tale that makes the case that assimilation is not all that it seems.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Great Read From A Masterful Writer
Review: Wow! A creative blend of reality, tragedy, and comedy generated from changes in one's physical, cultural, and social location. Chacon shows how Chicanos change from minor personalities in a Chicano-rich location to mini-celebrities in a Chicano-poor location based on concocted and unconfronted information from all members of society. What we are culturally can be greatly influenced by our immediate society. A Chicano in Fresno, California may become "more" Chicano or "less" Chicano in Medford, Oregon depending on others' perceptions or one's reinvented personhood.

Chacon is particularly brilliant in showing how "success" in the individual and the family creates paths and desires that benefit, harm, or significantly restructure the individual and family. A small but significant aspect of "success" centers on having a command of language for the group one desires or needs to fit into-this combined with a general wit for language makes one powerful.

Like the characters in "And the Shadows Took Him," I grew up in Fresno when it was the murder capital for years. Coming from Fresno and being a person of color was a two-edged sword, ascribing me with either favorable or unfavorable value based on whom I was interacting with and my location. Fresno was so violent for a period of time that a friend I was visiting gave me a tour of Oakland late into the night, assuring me that it was OK because "This isn't Fresno." Chacon deftly incorporates such experiences into his Chicano characters but with the added twist of a lengthy stay, a stay in which the characters not only gain unfamiliar power but also lose familiar power when inserted into a predominantly white community.

Chacon also bravely confronts how such changes both amplify and reveal problems within a Chicano family. Previously "acceptable" violence in the family, set within new social constraints and freedoms, are transformed into unacceptable forms or more revealing forms. A move to a new domain changes one into something else that one may or may not like.

A prominent feature of "And the Shadows Took Him" is Chacon's ambushing witticisms that draw craftily from the narrative. The witticisms were signposts reminding me that I had remembered and organized much more of the novel than I realized. I found myself either commenting or laughing aloud at the coffee shop and bookstore despite my efforts to read silently. This subtle feature reveals Chacon's mastery and forethought.

I was left with a pleasant experience of generating additional pages in my mind beyond the final word of the final chapter, like being satiated from dinner but with room to ponder possible desserts.