night at the fiestas by kirstin valdez quade

Her vision has thrived on its fierce, flesh-conscious desire for transcendence. Her prose has the subtle power to teach readers, students, writing teachers, and professional authors how to design compelling experiences. Kristen Valdez-Quades is an architect storyteller who built momentum in each story. “Remarkable…In almost every story, Quade goes for vivid spectacle and theatrical plot twists…But Quade focuses just as intensely on the subtler customs, cruelties, kindnesses, and skewed alliances of precarious family life…If Quade ever yearned to escape her archaic Catholic heritage and redefine herself, let’s be glad she didn’t. Night At the Fiestas is a brilliant short story collection. 'A story writer of searing vision.' (Anthony Marra, author of A Constellation of Vital Phenomena) 'A book of extraordinary virtuosity.' (Justin Torres, author of We the Animals) Always hopeful, these stories chart the passions and obligations of family life, exploring themes of race, class, and coming-of-age, as Quade's characters protect, betray, wound, undermine, bolster, define, and, ultimately, save one another. A young woman finds herself at an impasse when she is asked to hear her priest's confession. A young man discovers that his estranged father and a boa constrictor have been squatting in his grandmother's empty house. The deadbeat father of a pregnant teenager tries to transform his life by playing the role of Jesus in a bloody penitential Passion. Young women, as abandoned daughters or early mothers, serve as Valdez Quades principal narrators, and she keenly illustrates her protagonists alienation. With intensity, dark humor, and emotional precision, Kirstin Valdez Quade's unforgettable stories plunge us into the fierce, troubled hearts of characters torn between their desires to escape the past and to plumb its depths. ***National Book Foundation 2014 '5 Under 35' honoree*** Set in northern New Mexico, an astonishing, beautifully rendered debut about living in a landscape shaped by love, loss, and violence.

Night at the fiestas by kirstin valdez quade