Rating: 
Summary: The Devil's Highway
Review: One reviewer described author's Luis Alberto Urrea's style in this book as "...controlled, righteous rage". This is an apt description. Urrea is fair-minded and searching in his appraisal of the tragedy which beset a group of 26 men in the Sonora Desert in May 2001 most of whom were from Vera Cruz and Guerrero. While remaining suspcicious of American and Mexican immigration policies and the border officers who apply them, he nonetheless does not fall into kneejerk stereotyping. They, like most who work in or for government bodies, are caught between festering popular political rage, skewed immigration policies and the reality of the people's lives with whom they must contend each day. In Urrea's depiction many of the border officials are far more humane than those political or economic actors who are responsible for designing the policies in the first place. Urrea's true rage is unleashed towards the conclusion at the international economic actors and the forces they unleash, political leaders for whom immigration is simply another issue to score cheap political points and univocal America firsters and their ilk who fail to comprehend the depths of the problem. Measuring the tragedy of human lives lost in mere dollars (and inaccurate figures on top of that!) is profane in the true sense of that word. Reading "The Devil's Highway" only leads me to support responsible efforts to find common ground on institutional levels which lead to the demise of "the border" as a meaningful political entity.
Rating:
Summary: Crackerjack writing
Review: This is a factual book that reads like a novel. Once you start, you will not be able to sleep or eat or-- well, you may have to take a break for some essentials-- but you will have a hard time putting it down for anything. The writing is excellent and the information presented is timely and provocative. What is really impressive is how he shows all sides of the story. This is not another diatribe against the heartless gringos who force immigrants to die in the desert. He makes clear Mexico's blame for putting people on the "devil's highway" through corruption and stupid politics. But he also shows how misguided U-S policy has been and he reveals enough about the victims to make you truly mourn for them.
Rating:
Summary: Crackerjack writing
Review: This is a factual book that reads like a novel. Once you start, you will not be able to sleep or eat or-- well, you may have to take a break for some essentials-- but you will have a hard time putting it down for anything. The writing is excellent and the information presented is timely and provocative. What is really impressive is how he shows all sides of the story. This is not another diatribe against the heartless gringos who force immigrants to die in the desert. He makes clear Mexico's blame for putting people on the "devil's highway" through corruption and stupid politics. But he also shows how misguided U-S policy has been and he reveals enough about the victims to make you truly mourn for them.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting story, poorly written
Review: This story of the Yuma 14 had the potential to be one helluva of a story, as it does read as though it is fictitious. The fact that it's true is the driving force behind the story, only to be marred by the author's sloppy and at time irreverent writing style. He uses repetition of words and phrases in extremis, and he for some reason feels compelled to stick one-liners at the close of all his sections. The material is interesting enough without the reader having to be bludgeoned by tongue-in-cheek punchline passages. It really got annoying and detracted from the larger story of struggle.
Rating:
Summary: Powerful, Profound and Poetic
Review: This was my first experience of Urrea's prose, but from the opening pages the narrative sang with the voice of poet - lyrical, vivid, and rich in language and pathos- yet it remained attentive to fact and detail with the finest of journalistic skill. Urrea brings you inside the worlds of everyone entrenched in this tragedy on both sides of the border to reveal the humanity and the horror. This was a truly engaging and enlightening read. It's inspired me to explore his other works.
Rating:
Summary: "They did not have enough items to fill a carry-on bag"
Review: Urrea delivers a moving novel based on the true story of the Yuma 14, fourteen Mexicans (from a group of 26) that tried to cross the border and enter the US illegally through the Arizona desert and succumbed in the attempt. The author presents the facts efficiently and his conclusion follows: Mexicans trying to cross the border are human beings like everyone else that had the bad fortune of facing tough economic condition; they should be respected. The author describes the conditions and historic events that lead to the beginning of the illegal immigration into the US and draws a clear parallelism with our times, when there are several tasks in the US that Americans are reluctant to do, thus illegal immigrants are needed for this. When price changes in international markets adversely affected the Mexican economy and overpopulation became a problem, some Mexicans decided to come to the US. They ended up with a comfortable life, so when others found out, a growing interest in crossing the border developed. Organizations of coyotes were formed to provide supply for the growing demand, and the poor people seeking a better future became just a means to an end. These individuals in their attempts have to fight against the heat of the desert, thirst, exhaustion, "la migra" (Border Patrol) and the coyotes themselves. On top of this, the control at the border has intensified throughout the last years, so the groups seeking a new future have to go through more dangerous paths each time. In the case of the twenty-six Mexicans that are the center of this story, the point of entry was the Devil's Highway, a deadly desert in Arizona that has claimed numerous victims through the years. Urrea shows his outstanding knowledge of the topic in question and uses this in his descriptions with no holes barred. One of the most shocking passages of the book was the explanation of the different stages of death by heat, which go from Heat Stress to Heat Stroke. The realism and brutality of this account left me absolutely breathless. Overall, the quality of the novel is outstanding and even though it is a tough read at some points, in the end it is extremely satisfying and enlightening.
Rating:
Summary: Gut-wrenching
Review: Urrea employs great writing skills and techniques to tell the story of a group of Mexican immigrants who get lost in a trek from Mexico to the United States in search of a better life. The details of their journey are gruesome and described with terrifying clarity. This book is not for the faint of heart. But it reads like a good novel. Each character is well described; Urrea masterfully paints a human face on the victims we so easily ignore. The victims are not limited to the pollos. Even border patrol agents suffer trying to implement our nation's ill-conceived policies on the front lines of this war. Right and wrong get discarded and all participants are left in an insane struggle for survival. This book should be a wake-up call to those who write immigration policies in this country. And to those who foolishly think we can isolate ourselves from the rest of the world and its problems. We are all in this together.
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