Delia’s Song by Lucha Corpi, Oddsplayer by Toe Rodriguez, and El Cóndor and Other Stories by Sabine Ulibarri

Abstract

278 Western American Literature Trail of Pancho Villa, Villa unknowingly charges into the movie just as Cassidy had done. The story is told by Charlie Siringo, who in fact had authored several popular books about his Pinkerton years. Cooke’sidea isall good fun but never pretends to set foot into the real world. The novel reads like the old silent films which are its subject, and despite the meticulous attention to historical detail, few of the characters become much more than shadows of their silent screen counterparts. The one exception is generated by the emerging authority of Siringo’s voice as the “author” of the book. The most interesting relationship is not the developing love affair between Siringo’s daughter, the star of the film, and Butch Cassidy, but rather the growing admiration and friendship between the lawman and the outlaw. By moving the characters into revolutionary Mexico, Cooke succeeds in moving them back in time—a more heroic time, the book suggests, when shooting straight was visible proof of one’s heroism. At the conclusion, the characters bury the dead, including their own beloved cameraman, a victim of the battle played out over five of the final chapters. However, this subdued denouement never quite succeeds in altering the sense that all the shooting and killing was pretty damn fun. Some of the book’s best moments come when the action, which over­ burdens the story at times, is subordinated to the imagery: a man and woman dancing to some inner music atop a boxcar of a slow-moving train; Pancho Villa’s camp in the mountains where “the lights of a dozen fires glowed beside a running stream whose waters flashed in the moonlight.” South of the Border is an entertaining journey into Never Never Land where, until the end, every­ body has nine lives, blood is only ketchup, and everyone gets back up and rides off into the sunset. ANN PUTNAM University of Puget Sound Delia’sSong. By Lucha Corpi. (Houston: Arte Público Press, 1989. 191 pages, $8.50.) Oddsplayer. By Toe Rodriguez. (Houston: Arte Público Press, 1989. 136 pages, $8.50.) El Cóndor and Other Stories. By Sabine Ulibarri. (Houston: Arte Público Press, 1989. 224 pages, $8.50.) With the publication of these three texts, Arte Público Press continues to offer the reading public works by U.S. Latino writers. The texts considered here are quite diverse in their appeal and their quality. Delia’s Song is Lucha Corpi’s first attempt at the novel. She has pub­ lished a book of poetry, Palabras de Mediodía/Noon Words (1980), and her short stories have appeared in various anthologies and journals. That she is a fine poet is apparent from the lyrical language that permeates Delia’s Song. Reviews 279 Especially in the novel’s stream of consciousness and dream sequences, the language is moving and powerful. Corpi successfully experiments with struc­ ture and time in this ultimately uneven work. The first third of the novel consists primarily of the experiences of Delia, a young, idealistic Ghicana student at Berkeley during the turbulent 60s. From the perspective of Delia and her friends, the reader experiences the struggles, the victories and defeats of the students as they fight for the rights of Ghicanos and other Third World people on campus. This look at the inner workings of a fledgling political movement and at the price exacted on the lives of the students who will not compromise their beliefs is absorbing, moving, and inspiring. Unfortunately, while the writing remains consistently engaging, the rest of the novel slips into a melodramatic exploration of Delia’s confusion as to what to do with her life after her years at Berkeley. The main focus becomes Delia’sinability to commit herself to one of the two men in her life. At this point Delia becomes a selfabsorbed , long-suffering, uninteresting character. As Delia struggles to under­ stand herself, the theme of writing as a means toward self-knowledge and self-empowerment emerges. Despite some very interesting characters presented in the last two thirds of the novel, the novel does not live up to a very auspi­ cious beginning...