Bookclub: The Devil's Highway, recap

Our bookclub discussion for The Devil's Highway was last night. There will be one more opportunity to share thoughts on the book in July, stay tuned for the date and time.

For now, I want to take a quick moment and follow up on last night's book club discussion. We had a nice exchange of ideas, regarding the book and the immigration issues it touches on. Some shared personal stories, or family anecdotes, it was definitely a book that struck a chord with many. One participant said she appreciated how the book humanized the immigrants crossing and a few regretted not having a novel format because we were left wanting to know more. I wondered if perhaps this was Urrea's way of conveying that desperation and feeling of not knowing feelings that perhaps the families left behind still live with.

Different passages stood out for a few of us. For me it was page 32, its a meager list of effects found on the victims that reads like a poem, for another person it was the top of page 165 that names the GPS coordinates that identifies where the journey ends for some victims, for another person it was page 128 that describes how walkers strip nude to escape the heat and how the clothing is found,"eerily neat, carefully folded and left in nice little piles."

Did you read the book and didn't have an opportunity to join us? Are there any thoughts you would like to share before the next book club discussion. We encourage you to post a comment here or send it to info@tianguis.biz.

New bookclub selection: The Devil's Highway

The Devil's Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea is our next book club selection! It's the first book that we pick that I have not actually read first. But I think its a safe gamble since it's a national bestseller and a Pulitzer Prize finalist.

The book recounts a true story about a group of Mexican immigrants that got lost in May of 2004, along the Arizona desert on a deadly stretch known as The Devil's Highway or La Carretera del Diablo.

I'm already half-way through the first chapter. I've also thumbed through different parts of the book, including the table of contents, the interview and readers questions at the back of the book. One item that stands out is the timeline summarizing the deadly five day journey these men went on. It begins and ends during the month of May. I'm beginning to feel that perhaps the timing of this book as our book club selection for the month of May is serendipity. In the last couple of months, we had considered a couple of titles by Urrea and just recently and unaware of this coincidence picked The Devil's Highway. The thought of that timing coincidence lingered as I began to read the first few pages, making Urrea's descriptions of desert and desolation all the more surreal.

In light of the ongoing immigration debate we think its a timely read for individuals on both sides of the argument. At the interview at the back of the book, Urrea is asked about how he kept his account objective, he responds, "If I was going to write a book hoping to deal with this issue fairly, how could I write with prejudice...I have to trust my readers to make up their own minds. Even if that means reaching decisions I didn't intend for them to reach."

We invite you to read along with us. If you have already read this book, we encourage you to revisit it and share your thoughts with us. You can do this either through the comment feature on this blog or by joining our book club discussion. Immigration affects us all at many levels, we hope this book can help spark some healthy dialogue in our community and perhaps inspire action leading to changes that ensure that tragedies like this no longer occur.

There are four weeks to read the book. The next book club discussion gathering will be Wednesday, June 6th at 7 p.m. Can't wait to see you.

The Devil's Highway (Bay Back Books, 13.99) is for sale at Tianguis.

--Irasema Gonzalez