Fotografía de autor
3 Obras 44 Miembros 3 Reseñas

Obras de Patricia Santana

Etiquetado

Conocimiento común

Nombre canónico
Santana, Patricia
Género
female

Miembros

Reseñas

I remember reading this book years ago and loving it. Since I can’t remember exactly when, I checked the copyright page, a first edition from 2002. I checked Amazon and it says 2004. I just remember loving it. I’ve had its follow up, ghosts of el grullo, on my shelf for years. I wanted to read that, so I knew that I had to go back and read this one so the story would be fresh.

The time is 1969. Vietnam is raging. Chuy Sahagun is coming home from the war, and one of his sisters (there are five) is so excited. Chuy is fourteen-year-old Yolanda’s favorite of her four brothers. The story opens as the family is preparing for Chuy to arrive at their San Diego suburb home. The decorations are going up, the food is being prepared, and the music is being selected. No one know for sure when Chuy will arrive, but they want to be ready.

When he does arrive, it is obvious that he is not the same person. He hardly speaks, and stands at attention. The family feels the strangeness, yet don’t push him. After only a few days at home, he takes off on a motorcycle, without a word to anyone, which he has just acquired.

The Sahagun family is quite worried, but life goes on. We see Yoli struggle to grow up in a three-bedroom home where eleven people (well, now that Chuy is gone, ten) people live.

After four months away with barely any contact, Chuy arrives home on July 20, the day Neil Armstrong walks on the moon. Chuy pulls up just as the event is about to happen and the family misses it. Chuy still hasn’t returned to his former self, and winds up being diagnosed with PTSD and in and out of the VA hospital.

Yoli is the narrator or this first-person tale about life growing up in the summer of ‘69, when America was changing faster than a teenager’s body. Chuy and his struggle to adapt once he’s back home is the catalyst that propels this novel.

I didn’t like care for motorcycle ride on the sea of tranquility as much as I did when I first read it. It’s a great read, but the Spanish words that weren’t translated made it seem a little choppy. Still, I found that old fondness for Yoli’s wonderful voice, which prompts motorcycle ride on the sea of tranquility to receive 5 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.
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Denunciada
juliecracchiolo | otra reseña | Feb 16, 2018 |
ghosts of el grullo is the follow-up to Patricia Santana’s debut novel, motorcycle ride on the sea of tranquility, which was selected as one of the best fiction books for young adults by the Young Adult Library Services Association, a division of the American Library Association.

The time is now 1973. Many things have changed for the Sahagun family. Carolina has married her boyfriend Tom, Ana Maria is still secretly dating Tony, Antonio is married, and Octavio has chosen bachelorhood and lives in a trailer park a few doors down from Chuy. Chuy remains haunted by his tout in Vietnam back in 1969. The narrator, Yolanda (or Yoli for short) is still best friends with Lydia. But now Yoli has been accepted at the University of California---San Diego and is preparing to go live in a dorm.

When Mama dies from cancer and Papa decides to sell the house, Yoli struggles between wanting to keep the family together (she, Ana Maria, Monica and Luz are still living in the family home) and wanting to cut all the ties and live life on her terms. In an effort to understand her mother now that she is gone, Yoli goes to visit her aunts, her mother’s sisters, in El Grullo, Mexico. There she encounters the ghosts of past and present. She learns what her parents were like before they married: Mama an upper-class senorita who fell for her poor Papa.

I struggled to find Yoli’s voice in this second novel. There were times when I could hear the voice and that kept me reading. I had trouble trying to care about what happened in El Grullo; I was much more interested in what was happening in the San Diego suburb of Palm City where the Sahagun home was located.

I Googled Patricia Santana to learn if she had written any more follow-ups or other stand-along novels. I was disappointed to find her website only this book and motorcycle ride on the sea of tranquility. I think she is a wonderful writer.

As much as wanted to love ghosts of el grullo as much as I loved motorcycle ride on the sea of tranquility the first time I read it, I found myself just not caring about Yoli’s search for her past, present, or future. That’s why ghosts of el grullo, receives 3 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.
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Denunciada
juliecracchiolo | Jan 23, 2018 |
This book truly captures the time and flavor of my high school years. I love the family dynamics in the book and the behind-the-scenes look at machismo.
 
Denunciada
SusanJeanStevens | otra reseña | May 18, 2011 |

Premios

Estadísticas

Obras
3
Miembros
44
Popularidad
#346,250
Valoración
½ 3.5
Reseñas
3
ISBNs
7
Idiomas
1