Eldorado in East Harlem

by Victor Rodriguez

Overview

René, all of seventeen and streetwise, is about to give up on the “American Dream.” Petty crimes, drug running and ghetto adventures bring him and his gang closer to an illusory Eldorado. But soon, his daydreams of limousines, fine clothes and finer women turn into a living nightmare that threatens to end his life and the lives of those he loves.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781518502606
Publisher:	Arte Publico Press
Publication date:	04/12/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	2 MB

Interviews

A Message from the Author
It is a well known fact that most, if not all, aspiring writers are always advised to start out by writing about themselves and their experiences. Odd isn’t it, that I should do so in my first novel, Eldorado in East Harlem, only to be accused by a critic or two of utilizing “stock characters” or conjuring improbable situations? With the exception of a minor figure or two the characters and setting one finds in Eldorado are based on facts and a real place: I grew up in East Harlem, and once encountered a merchant sailor as venomous as Fernando Fuentes met intricate women like Amanda Gomez, Luz Castro and Maria-Cristina Cruz and befriended a warmhearted, inspiring and erudite bibliophile like Silas Turnvil, who taught me a thing or two about life and triggered my lifelong passion for books. Not to compare myself to eminent authors of the past, but Rene Gomez, the protagonist of Eldorado, is as precious to me as Studs Lonigan was to James T. Farrell, David Shearl to Henry Roth and Ishky to Howard Fast. --Victor Rodriguez

Editorial Reviews

Eldorado in East Harlem is a lively, credible evocation of one family’s life in the barrio, caught between nostalgia for Puerto Rico and dreams of making it big on the mainland.

Los Angeles Times

Rene Gomez is 17 and poor in East Harlem during the summer and fall of 1960. Confronted with a dead-end life, he follows various chimeras in search of success and escape, much the way the early conquistadors searched for Eldorado, the mythic City of Gold. Unfortunately, as promising as the premise is, first-novelist Rodriguez's execution is flawed. After surviving as a basically good kid for 17 years, Rene suddenly, in a few weeks, loses his virginity, tries marijuana, and becomes a drug runner and a petty thief while retaining his appealing naivete. Moreover, the series of coincidences--Rene's first burglary is a mile away from his house but the victim later meets his mother and becomes the first serious suitor she has had in years--requires an impossible suspension of disbelief, as even the author seems to realize when he has Fernando, the suitor, show up at a propitious moment only to ask, ``Surprised to see me here?'' Finally, there are broad narrative gaps: Fernando, for instance, is supposedly a broke sailor when he first appears, yet is later revealed as a drug lord who sends Rene to collect thousands in cash. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Set in late summer of 1960, at the outset of the decade and in the midst of the Nixon-Kennedy presidential race, Rodriguez's short first novel succeeds best at conveying a strong sense of place and history. Seventeen-year-old Rene Gomez and his widowed mother Amanda live in a tenement in the Puerto Rican neighborhood of East Harlem. Rene falls into a life of petty crime as he struggles with becoming an adult in a world that offers him little or no hope of fulfilling his dreams. Unfortunately, the cliche-ridden writing does not measure up to the subject. This work is full of awkwardly constructed sentences, stock characters, and a plot that needs more time to work itself out in order to be believable. But for libraries seeking to add to the meager number of titles that feature Hispanic characters, this will be a welcome addition.-- David Dodd, Benicia P.L., Cal.

Library Journal