Review: The Border Between Us
THE BORDER BETWEEN US
By Rudy Ruiz
Literary Fiction
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Pages: 256
Publication Date: August 27, 2024
SYNOPSIS
The
Border Between Us is a poignant coming-of-age novel from one of
the most exciting voices in fiction.
Ramón
López was born along the US–Mexico border but is determined to get out and
embrace the American dream—and he’s not sure whether his complicated family is
a help or a hindrance. As the son of immigrants, as Ramón grows, his admiration
for his entrepreneurial father sours as he watches his dad’s dreams of success
wither on the vine. Ramón’s mother is constantly preoccupied with his younger
brother, who struggles with intellectual disabilities. And the outside world is
rife with danger and temptations threatening to distract Ramón from his dreams
of making it to New York and succeeding as an artist.
As
dreams clash with reality and values conflict with desires, Ramón finds the
American dream within his reach—but will it demand too big a sacrifice?
Award-winning
author Rudy Ruiz brilliantly captures the beauty and danger of border life as
Ramón struggles to understand his home and his place in the world. The Border
Between Us is a stunning, compassionate story about a son’s fraught
relationship with his father, the challenges of pursuing a creative life when
one comes from humble beginnings, and the power of embracing one's whole self.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rudy Ruiz is the author of The Resurrection
of Fulgencio Ramirez and Valley of
Shadows. He is a winner of the Jesse H. Jones Award for Best Book of
Fiction, the Gulf Coast Prize in Fiction, and multiple International Latino
Book Awards. A bilingual native of the US–Mexico border, he earned his
bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Harvard University. Rudy lives and writes in
Texas and New England with his wife and children. Visit his website at
RudyRuiz.com.
REVIEW
The Border Between Us by Rudy Ruiz is a poignant story about what it means to be coming of age while living along the border between the US and Mexico. Coming of age stories have something in common, of course, and that is the adventure of being thrown head first into growing up. What The Border Between Us does, however, is maginfy that adventure by adding the cultural aspect of being brought up in a household in Brownsville, Texas. What is so beautiful about a story like this from our region, is the genuine care that goes into it. You know someone from the area wrote it because of how very real it is. Border gives us a look into the true struggles of what it means to find and know your identity and what it means to belong.
Even though I have lived my whole life up to now in Texas, I could relate to the feelings across the page when we learn about Ramon’s life in NYC. Ramon’s experiences in meshing together what he has known his whole life and what he learns about himself during his new experiences is something that I think most first generation students are witness to when they venture out of the coccoon of homelife.
Ruiz does a beautiful job in delivering us Ramon’s experiences in this lovely story. I definitely recommend reading the author’s acknowledgements as it does provide you with further insight into The Border Between Us. I recommend this book to everyone, but especially to those who have grown up along the border and have often felt the difficulties of straddling two cultures, two worlds.
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