Shelf Life

Andrés Segovia, named after the world-renowned classical guitarist, was a beautiful boy. But now he is an angry and sometimes violent man. His rage has landed him in jail and his lawyer has delivered him to the doorstep of therapist Grace Delgado. Like Andrés, Grace is haunted by her past. And, like Andrés, she can’t see how to put the ghosts behind her, to bury the dead.

At the age of 10 Andrés is suddenly orphaned. A well-meaning but terribly misguided older brother snatches Andrés and his sisters from the comfort of a loving foster family in El Paso and brings them across the Rio Grande to Juarez, Mexico. There the older brother, Mando, tries to keep the family together but life in a poor neighborhood in Juarez is brutal and soon the family is destroyed along with Andrés’s innocence and hope. Years later he comes to Grace Delgado with no real expectation of getting better.

Grace, a widow, meanwhile struggles with a strained relationship with her only son, Mister, and newly diagnosed cancer. In Andrés she sees the beautiful boy he once was and the fiercely intelligent man he is now. Even though she knows “people can be totaled, just like cars,” she refuses to give up on him. But even as she pushes Andrés to keep going she herself has given up and refuses treatment for her disease. Will their near-suicidal fatalism bring them both to bitter ends or will they find a way to push through the pain and fear that constrains them and find a way to survive?

Saenz, a National Book Award winner for poetry, writes in gorgeous, lyrical prose. He conveys pain and sadness, light and love as only a poet can. Like his young adult book, Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood, In Perfect Light is peopled with beautiful but damaged characters. He makes the reader love them which makes their experiences that much more painful. Though time shifts and changes in narrative voice make the story complex, and maybe confusing for weaker readers, this is a compelling, heart rending read.

Highly recommended for mature readers grades 10 and up.

By Mr. Doyle

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