Sammy & Juliana in Hollywood by Benjamin Alire Saenz

I don’t want to say this was a weak book. It wasn’t. It has emotional impact. It makes you think, particularly about the “necessary lies” of life. But I didn’t love it. In part, it just isn’t my thing. With a title and cover that makes you think “romance” it is, in actuality, a kind of fictionalized memoir. The author grew up in a barrio of Las Cruces, NM named “Hollywood”. He grew up poor, Hispanic and in a time when everything was changing – the sixties. The character of Sammy really seems to be the author, a good student with a sharp mind and dreams of getting out. Sammy struggles with the pull between the nature of his community and the shattering of normalcy as societal expectations change overnight. It is a sad book. A lot of people are “lost” along the way and a sense of hopelessness and expected doom reign throughout. In some ways, it reminded me of Irish culture in the tendency towards the morose. There are strong characterizations here, and the people are very real…so real that they speak Spanish throughout. While this lent a kind of naturalness to the dialog, I found it somewhat distancing as I could not figure out what the phrases meant. I also strongly felt the book was in need of an editor. Without any given through-line, it just meanders along. At one point, Sammy has struggles during Lent…unfortunately, that episode lands squarely in the middle of summer. It was disconcerting. Had the book been streamlined, I think it would have a beauty to it. At nearly 300 pages however, it was just one too many references to fistfights and the “Aztec chin”. Mr. Saenz has a lyricism to his text. I look forward to seeing what he comes up with next.