Albuquerque

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Chicano novelist Anaya's explosive study of political patronage and the search for ethnic roots takes its title from a New Mexican legend. In 1880, an Anglo stationmaster reportedly took the first R out of Albuquerque's name, a move that symbolized the emasculation of the Mexican way of life. Set in the present, this absorbing novel focuses on a young boxer, fair-skinned Abran Gonzales, who is shattered by the revelation that his parents adopted him. He meets his real Anglo mother, dying of cancer, on her deathbed, then sets out on a quest for his Mexican father--who, the reader quickly learns, is Abran's acquaintance, the writer/professor Ben Chavez. Unscrupulous, rich lawyer Frank Dominic becomes Abran's manager, promising that he will hire a detective to locate Abran's father and reveal his identity to the slugger during the big comeback fight of his career. Dominic, a con artist who wants to turn Albuquerque into a Venice-like tourist trap, complete with casino-lined canals, is running for mayor against Marisa Martinez, an independent maverick. Dominic acquires nude photos of Martinez in compromising positions, which threatens to derail Abran's true romance and the city's future. Anaya ( Tortuga ) spins a touching love story woven into a tale of treachery, a microcosm of the social and economic dislocations squeezing the American Southwest. (Aug.)

Library Journal

In his fifth novel, the best-selling author of Bless Me, Ultima ( LJ 2/1/73) sets an archetypal quest for the father in the city of ``Alburquerque'' (according to Anaya, the legendary spelling of the name), in which various characters vie for political power. Abran Gonzalez, a former Golden Gloves champion unaware that he was adopted, learns this secret from his biological mother on the night she dies. The revelation triggers a search for his father's identity that involves New Mexican politicos, a Rocky -like boxing match, and a man who believes his ancestors were bears. Other main characters also have murky ancestry; one Italian American even tries to prove that he was descended from the Duke of Albu(r)querque. At times melodramatic, the work has an intense spirituality that ultimately makes it mesmerizing. Highly recommended.-- Harold Augenbraum, Mer cantile Lib., New York