Book : Mecca A Novel - Straight, Susan

-Titulo Original : Mecca A Novel

-Fabricante :

Farrar, Straus And Giroux

-Descripcion Original:

Review An Amazon Best Book of March 2022: There’s something unexpected and quietly sinister about Susan Straight’s new novel, which not only makes it impossible to put down but also gives it the feel of a fever dream. Set in the canyons and highways of California, Mecca follows the intertwined lives of Californians who navigate wild fires, racism, ICE raids, death, love, and “la corona.” There’s so much to think about when reading this book and Straight does a magnificent job building out her characters in a way that engenders deep and expansive empathy and wry, guttural laughter. Conjuring the vibes of Joan Didion, Denis Johnson, and Rachel Kushner, Mecca is a rush of fresh air from the Santa Ana winds and a love letter to all the people that call California home. -Al Woodworth, Amazon Editor One of The Washington Posts Ten Best Books of 2022. Finalist for the 2022 Kirkus Prize. One of NPRs Best Books of 2022. A New York Times Book Review Editors Choice. A wide and deep view of a dynamic, multiethnic Southern California . . . Susan Straight is an essential voice in American writing and in writing of the West. The New York Times Book Review From the National Book Award finalist Susan Straight, Mecca is a stunning epic tracing the intertwined lives of native Californians fighting for life and land Johnny Frias has California in his blood. A descendant of the state’s Indigenous people and Mexican settlers, he has Southern California’s forgotten towns and canyons in his soul. He spends his days as a highway patrolman pulling over speeders, ignoring their racist insults, and pushing past the trauma of his rookie year, when he killed a man assaulting a young woman named Bunny, who ran from the scene, leaving Johnny without a witness. But like the Santa Ana winds that every year bring the risk of fire, Johnny’s moment of action twenty years ago sparked a slow-burning chain of connections that unites a vibrant, complex cast of characters in ways they never see coming. In Mecca, the celebrated novelist Susan Straight crafts an unforgettable American epic, examining race, history, family, and destiny through the interlocking stories of a group of native Californians all gasping for air. With sensitivity, furor, and a cinematic scope that captures California in all its injustice, history, and glory, she tells a story of the American West through the eyes of the people who built it and continue to sustain it. As the stakes get higher and the intertwined characters in Mecca slam against barrier after barrier, they find that when push comes to shove, it’s always better to push back. Review Straight showcases intricate intersections of personal and familial histories to create a wide and deep view of a dynamic, multiethnic Southern California . . . Susan Straight is an essential voice in American writing and in writing of the West, and Mecca is a meaningful addition to this canon. She heralds important ways of storytelling that shift how we see the land and one another. Caribbean Fragoza, The New York Times Book Review A terrifically engaging novel about a network of people related by blood, love and duty . . . what might be most impressive about this novel is how large it becomes without ever feeling bloated by extraneous plotlines or too neatly sewn up . . . Remarkably, the most persistent impression here is not one of suffering but of determined survival, even triumph. Ron Charles, The Washington Post [Straight] succeeds mightily in writing a new novel to be savored by not just Californians but all Americans who’ve been around the last couple of years . . . Mecca is a hymn of love and lamentation. Bethanne Patrick, Los Angeles Times A fine set of interwoven tales from her California . . . [Straights] writing is both luminous and sharp and told, as usual, through richly layered family histories. Karen Grigsby Bates, NPR Triumphant, polyphonic . . . the working people behind t