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Reviewed by:
  • Far from Gringo Land
  • Deborah Stevenson
Myers, Edward. Far from Gringo Land. Clarion, 2009 229p. ISBN 978-0-547-05630-2 $16.00 R Gr. 7-10

The plan is simple: seventeen-year-old Rick will spend the summer in Santo Domingo, Mexico, staying with old friends of his parents and helping them build their new house in the yard behind their current tiny residence in the barrio. The reality is considerably more complicated, as Rick the gringo (as the neighborhood terms him) struggles to stay afloat in a sea of cultural difference, linguistic limitation, and financial strictures that make him keenly aware of his privilege as a middle-class American kid. Myers writes with understated openness about the challenge such an experience presents to even a well-meaning and capable young guy like Rick and a friendly and welcoming host family such as the Romeros. Characterization is impressively solid, with individual Romeros well differentiated: Don Julio is an adventurer, his wife, Emiliana, a fighter and a realist, and their nearly adult son, Francisco, is perceptive and loyal. Rick's constant anxiety about missteps and recurring awareness of his own good fortune (even the physical work on the house assumes a familiarity with hard toil that he simply lacks, though he staunchly labors on nonetheless) speak volumes about his good heart as well as the difficulties of the situation, and the book deals honestly with the complexities his presence brings. The progress of the building adds momentum and tension (the roof needs to be up before the rains come), and Rick's relationship with a visiting American girl, kept on a tight leash by her xenophobic father, provides broader perspective as well as a sprinkling of romance. Mostly, though, it's a warm and unsentimental tale of a summer spent well for both guest and hosts, and of the way good people can come together across all kinds of divides.

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