By the Lake of Sleeping Children
by Luis Urrea
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Book Summary Information
Author: Luis UrreaEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1996-09-01
ISBN: 0385484194
Number of pages: 208
Publisher: Anchor
Book Reviews of By the Lake of Sleeping Children
Book Review: A must read
Summary: 5 Stars
I just finished By the Lake of Sleeping Children: The Secret Life of the Mexican Border, and I would recommend it to anyone who has a heart and open eyes.
First, for the person who had a negative review of the book (2 stars), this is not "non-fiction" in the sense that you're used to. No where does the author state all he's writing is dry facts. He's a creative writer, and you can write creatively based on fact. It happens all the time. And why should the author be so PC by changing "gringos" to "American(o)s"? "Gringos" is to imply anglos, not Americans.
Anyway, this book is definitely not for the faint of heart because at times is can be graphic in detail. I told my husband about some on the stories, the center theme being the dump, and he said, "what? they live in a dump?" He's Mexican. He's never heard of that. And he's heard many things more than the average person. The thing you just need to take away from this book is not the brutality but the knowledge that other people do live in extremely harsh situations. Whether you want to do something about it is another thing, but the most you can do is talk about it. Mexico is not the only country with such extreme poverty, and this book shouldn't be viewed and as only Mexico's truth.
In the harshness, there is still life. The last chapter of the book demonstrates this. Also that people do try to help as much as they can.
This would be a great book to teach in High School, but I doubt it would ever make the reading list.
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