Scoundrel and the Optimist

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Overview


Fiction. Latino/Latina Studies. Nothing is easy when you are thirteen, and it's especially challenging when everyone thinks you're eight because you are tiny; your father is an abusive, tyrannical lout; your siblings are determined to strike out on their own to escape constant drunken rages; and your mother is deeply depressed. In THE SCOUNDREL AND THE OPTIMIST we meet Edmund, a hapless but irrepressible redheaded teen whose magnificent strength of spirit makes him a giant among men. Despite roadblocks and bad ...
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More About This Book

Overview


Fiction. Latino/Latina Studies. Nothing is easy when you are thirteen, and it's especially challenging when everyone thinks you're eight because you are tiny; your father is an abusive, tyrannical lout; your siblings are determined to strike out on their own to escape constant drunken rages; and your mother is deeply depressed. In THE SCOUNDREL AND THE OPTIMIST we meet Edmund, a hapless but irrepressible redheaded teen whose magnificent strength of spirit makes him a giant among men. Despite roadblocks and bad advice, Edmund is determined to win the heart of Ingrid Genera and to become a great guitar player. But his most notable accomplishment is teaching his father, Filastro, the value of integrity and optimism. After a prolonged episode of debauchery, Filastro discovers just how horrifying abuse is. Edmund nurses him back to health and in the process teaches him that love is mightier than fists and is worth great sacrifice. At once humorous and touching, THE SCOUNDREL AND THE OPTIMIST is a delightful read.
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Editorial Reviews

Library Journal
Filastro is a bully, used to beating up his wife, six of their seven children, and the riffraff of his village in Mexico. But he can't bring himself to harm his youngest son, Edmund, whose limbs resemble sticks and whose head seems too big for his puny body. The older children, who loathe their father, escape him by fleeing to the United States, and Edmund, who is fixated on an indifferent Ingrid Genera and yearns to learn the guitar in order to serenade her, is the only child left at home. In the wake of a drunken episode, Filastro is tortured and eventually crippled by a stranger. His wife moves out of the house, and the irrepressible Edmund, who lobbies in vain for his mother to come home, becomes his father's caregiver. In a desperate attempt to win back his wife, Filastro braves crossing the Rio Grande to beseech the forgiveness of each of his six children scattered across America. VERDICT In this striking debut novel, the character of Filastro is at first brutal and repulsive, but the story uncovers his humanity, and its redemptive beauty offsets the grimness of the outcome.—Jack Shreve, Allegany Coll. of Maryland, Cumberland
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9781931010658
  • Publisher: Bilingual Review/Press
  • Publication date: 2/15/2010
  • Pages: 266
  • Product dimensions: 5.90 (w) x 8.60 (h) x 1.10 (d)

Meet the Author


Maceo Montoya grew up in Elmira, California. He comes from a family of artists, including his father, Malaquías Montoya, a renowned artist, activist, and educator, and his late brother, Andrés Montoya, whose poetry collection The Iceworker Sings and Other Poems won the American Book Award in 2000. Maceo graduated from Yale University in 2002 and received his Master of Fine Arts in painting from Columbia University in 2006. He lives in Woodland, California, where he paints and writes. THE SCOUNDREL AND THE OPTIMIST is his first novel, and it features one of his own works of art on the cover.
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