woostify domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home/latestwordpress/lonestar.a1professionals.net_public_html/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6131Review of San Antonio author Rudy Ruiz’s debut novel<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThe obituaries were always the first thing he turned to in the newspaper. He started doing it the day he learned she\u2019d married another man.\u201d What a hook, yes? It\u2019s 1986 and pharmacist Fulgencio Ramirez is performing his morning ritual with the newspaper obituaries when he finally spies the name he\u2019s been looking for.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n In 1956, Fulgencio Ramirez is a first-generation norteamericano, the son of Mexican immigrants, from a long line of \u201cranchers, minstrels, gamblers, and poets.\u201d A daring and ambitious high-school student, Fulgencio gets a job at the local pharmacy. There he falls head over heels at first sight with Carolina, the Anglo daughter of the pharmacist, as she and her friends sip milkshakes at the drugstore soda fountain, Elvis on the jukebox.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Fulgencio vows to become a pharmacist himself, the better to continue providing the Sue\u00f1o Americano<\/em> for his love. But this is the 1950s on the border and not everyone approves of this romance. Fulgencio has a rage problem, the product of a centuries-old family curse, and \u201che who gets mad loses.\u201d Twenty-five years later, from his headquarters across the border\u2014a ranch called \u201cEl Dos de Copas\u201d\u2014Fulgencio sets out to again woo the widow Carolina and put an end to the Ramirez family curse for good.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Resurrection of Fulgencio Ramirez<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/a> is the debut novel from San Antonio\u2019s <\/span><\/span>Rudy Ruiz<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/a>. Ruiz\u2019s first book, Seven for the Revolution<\/em>, a collection of short stories, won four International Latino Book Awards, and he was the recipient of the Gulf Coast Prize in Fiction in 2017. Ruiz\u2019s first novel is full of life, a brew of contemporary and historical fiction, a coming-of-age tale, adventurous, mysterious, and romantic, laced with social commentary, both spiced and sweetened by the grand Latinx tradition of magical realism. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The supernatural is natural, suffusing the lives of a large, dynamic cast. The Virgen de Guadalupe appears as a bas relief in a ranch-house wall; when she\u2019s joyful, she dances Irish jigs. A rosebush under Carolina\u2019s bedroom window blooms according to the vicissitudes of love; sometimes it shrivels to twigs, other times it grows to cover the wall. Fulgencio has as many friends and family who are ghosts as he does those who are still among the quick. Fulgencio\u2019s grandfather\u2019s ghost sits at the kitchen table, drinking whiskey and doing card tricks for la Virgen. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n These characters are also very funny, especially when the usual suspects are loitering at Fulgencio\u2019s pharmacy. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWalmart\u2019s gonna kill you. They\u2019re practically giving the drugs away over there.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhat kind of friend are you, Eleodoro? That you buy from the enemy?\u201d Fulgencio pondered.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThey have frozen French fries by the ton too!\u201d Eleodoro cried. \u201cHow can you compete with that? At least I bring you cabritos<\/em>. I don\u2019t do that for the Walmart.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019d throw you out if you walked in there with a dead goat,\u201d chimed in El Primo Loco Gustavo.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHe is <\/em>a dead goat,\u201d said El Gordo Jimenez. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n El Primo Loco has a doctorate from MIT.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n In Fulgencio Ramirez<\/em>, we inhabit many forms of el Otro Lado<\/em>. Ruiz sets his story in the fictional town of La Frontera, at the very tip of Texas. Across the river is El Dos de Copas, of which Brother William (also dead) waxes eloquent:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThis place is too pure for the church. No, let the church own the giant basilicas and ornate cathedrals. Let the church own altars encrusted with gold and chambers draped in velvet. This place is for God and His creatures . . . for you and for me. This patch of salt will be here still after we\u2019ve all expired, and after the church bells have tumbled to the ground . . .\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Congratulations are due the design team at Blackstone; this book is beautiful in dramatic black and crimson, from the sacred heart on the jacket to the endpapers sporting roses, guitars, and a 1950s-era car with fins out to here. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Resurrection of Fulgencio Ramirez<\/span><\/span><\/em> is a story as romantic as the traditional boleros he sings to Carolina; the plot twists are worthy of classic telenovelas. Ruiz\u2019s voice is distinctive, though the cadence is familiar, recognizable to readers of Gabriel Garc\u00eda M\u00e1rquez, Jorge Luis Borges, and Laura Esquivel, to name a very few. Ruiz\u2019s style is also somehow comforting, recalling literature past. Fulgencio has the medicine we need right now. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Review of San Antonio author Rudy Ruiz’s debut novel<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[894,1167,874,878,908,813,817,830,838,840,812],"class_list":["post-2266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-book-review","tag-contemporaryfiction","tag-fiction","tag-historicalfiction","tag-latinx","tag-lone-star-literary-life","tag-lone-star-review","tag-lonestarliterarycom","tag-review","tag-romance","tag-texas-author"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2266\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n