At first glance, Luis Alberto Urrea‘s new novel Into the Beautiful North seems rather lighthearted: After all the young men in her small Mexican town leave to work in America, a young woman lives in fear of drug lords. Then she sees the film The Magnificent Seven and decides that she and her town need protectors like those in Yul Brynner’s band, so she heads north to lure the young men back. But Urrea’s book, which he’ll discuss today at Brazos Bookstore, also looks at the culture that drives the men to leave in the first place; as he said in a recent video, he’s out to show that “it’s not like Mexicans have an illegal immigrant organ in their body.” Urrea is again exploring the immigrant experience; in the most famous of his 13 books, the Pulitzer Prize finalist Devil’s Highway, he told the true story of immigrants lost in the Arizona desert. Here, he delves into dualities: the shame and ambition of those who leave and the anxiety and heroism of those they leave behind. 7 p.m. 2421 Bissonnet. For information, call 713-523-0701 or visit www.brazosbookstore.com. Free.
Tue., June 22, 7 p.m., 2010
This article appears in Jun 17-23, 2010.