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Reviews
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Winner
of the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Fiction
A Booklist Editors' Choice
Americas Award Winner
An ALA Best Book for Young Adults
Grades 4 & up
"La
frontera...I heard it for the first time back in the late 1940s
when Papá and Mamá told me...that someday we would take
a long trip north, cross la frontera, enter California, and leave
our poverty behind."
The Circuit has been compared to Steinbeck's classic The Grapes of Wrath "combining stark social realism with heartrending personal drama." (Starred Review - Booklist)
Francisco Jiménez writes of his childhood growing up in an immigrant Mexican family. His narrative is simple, as from a child's point of view, but that same simplicity packs the power of a highly skilled storyteller.
Beautifully and authentically rendered by actor and playwright Adrian Vargas, these twelve stories tell of the almost unendurable journey most migrant campesinos undertake to find the American Dream. The recording concludes with an afterword recorded by the author.
The Circuit has been compared to Steinbeck's classic The Grapes of Wrath "combining stark social realism with heartrending personal drama." (Starred Review - Booklist)
Francisco Jiménez writes of his childhood growing up in an immigrant Mexican family. His narrative is simple, as from a child's point of view, but that same simplicity packs the power of a highly skilled storyteller.
Beautifully and authentically rendered by actor and playwright Adrian Vargas, these twelve stories tell of the almost unendurable journey most migrant campesinos undertake to find the American Dream. The recording concludes with an afterword recorded by the author.
This wonderful book deserves every one of the four awards it has garnered. Jiménez perfectly portrays an immigrant child's view of leaving Mexico for California to pursue a better life. The very hard times of the late 1940s are presented without sentiment or melodrama, both by Jiménez and Adrian Vargas. The narrator convincingly takes the listener back in time with a range of accents and ages. He also presents several short musical interludes. The best treat is an afterword presented by the author. Listeners of all ages should enjoy this bittersweet memoir and learn from it. S.G.B.
An award-winning recent masterpiece about a Mexican migrant family working in California's San Joaquin Valley tells of crossing La Frontera, working the vineyards and fields, and going to school when it was possible, until deportation by La Migra. Jiménez's simple, childlike tale of their experiences is vivid and spellbinding. The details of picking cotton, strawberries and grapes and living in shacks, tents and garages are graphic. Because the story takes place in the same California locale as Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath, one cannot help but compare the two different ethnic groups as they struggle to subsist in hard times.
Vargas' well-paced narration is excellent. His mild accent adds authenticity. This is compelling listening and a must for every library. Also available in a Spanish language edition. Mary I Purucker, Beverly Hills P.L., Beverly Hills, CA
Jiménez has created a moving autobiography that some critics have compared to John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath. The story, originally published in English as The Circuit, begins in Mexico when the author is very young and his parents inform him that they are going on a very long trip to "El Norte." What follows is a series of stories of the family's unending migration from one farm to another as they search for the next harvesting job. Each story is told from the point of view of the author as a young child. The simple and direct narrative stays true to this perspective, never falling into moralistic or clichéd patterns. The backbreaking work and the soul-crushing effect of the endless packing and moving are portrayed through a child's dismay at having to leave a school where he has just gotten comfortable or, worse, having to miss several months of a school year in order to work. Panchito's desire to help his family by working in the fields often clashes with his academic yearning. In that case, as in the case of many Mexican migrant farm workers, the American dream never comes to fruition. Lifting the story up from the mundane, Jiménez deftly portrays the strong bonds of love that hold this family together. An afterword recorded by the author gives even more background on his family. Vargas' narration offers an authentic and strong Mexican voice. Highly recommended for all collections and bookstores. - MOB. Children'sBookReviews
Francisco Jiménez was born in Mexico, entered California illegally as a very young child, and spent his boyhood alternating between migrant farm work and the classroom. This collection of autobiographical short stories was written years later, when Jiménez had become an established professor at Santa Clara University (CA), but they give immediate access to the feelings of the growing boy. Adrian Vargas reads in a lightly accented English, offering a voice that is evidently that of the full grown man remembering, rather than that of the youth he remembers. Each story is simple, direct, and redolent with the smells of the earth, the sounds of the ever-changing home with its growing number of siblings, and the amazing experiences each new schoolroom offers. The frustrations range from those specific to poverty and migrancy, including the inability to follow up on promises made by a good teacher because the family moved on the day the offer of trumpet lessons has been proffered, through the universal experience of an older brother saddled with an ignorant younger sibling who insensitively feeds his prized penny collection into the grocery store's gumball machine. Jiménez and Vargas both maintain a leisurely pace appropriate to storytelling that can reach a wide audience, giving the images constructed from words time to bloom in the audience's mind before wrapping each tale in a tight, often surprising, close. Highly recommended for both pleasure listening and for classroom use and discussion. - Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA
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