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pearloz's review against another edition
4.0
Exhilarating whirlwind of a book about a preternaturally gifted fighter/boxer and his rise from bookseller to boxer. We don't get too much of Liborio's background, his parents dead his godmother(?) hostile and embittered by the responsibility of raising him is at best unkind. He somehow lands a job at a bookstore run by a similarly ruthless jefe. Liborio is in love with a girl across the way, is involved in an altercation in her defense--surreptitiously recorded and uploaded to youtube where his legend grows.
The path to Liborio becoming a paid amateur boxer is a little convoluted but the writing is propulsive and engaging enough to forgive it. The path of his friendship with Aireen had all the tropes and hallmarks of a romance but it didn't pan out (was it just me or was the book sort of setting up an eventual romance between he and Naomi, the wheel-chari bound girl who was approximately 12 while he was 17?)
That this novel was written by a 19 year old is quite shocking. (although Liborio is one of the characters I love but still find a cliche, one that turns to literature).
The path to Liborio becoming a paid amateur boxer is a little convoluted but the writing is propulsive and engaging enough to forgive it. The path of his friendship with Aireen had all the tropes and hallmarks of a romance but it didn't pan out (was it just me or was the book sort of setting up an eventual romance between he and Naomi, the wheel-chari bound girl who was approximately 12 while he was 17?)
That this novel was written by a 19 year old is quite shocking. (although Liborio is one of the characters I love but still find a cliche, one that turns to literature).
if_you_give_a_mouse_a_prozac's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
sean67's review
3.0
Authors with the last name beginning with X are rare so it is always nice to find one.
This was also an award winning book, so it must be a good one.
Reality was I just didn't really get into it, the pages slipped by quickly, but the plot never grabbed me.
An average read for me.
This was also an award winning book, so it must be a good one.
Reality was I just didn't really get into it, the pages slipped by quickly, but the plot never grabbed me.
An average read for me.
mollyculhane's review
4.0
This book totally astonished me. The writing is so confident as to be downright sexy--it basically had me in a permanent trance the whole week I was reading the book. My dad likes to say that [b:The Cremation of Sam McGee|267764|The Cremation of Sam McGee|Robert W. Service|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1396842645l/267764._SX50_.jpg|259587] proves that English is good for something beyond furniture assembly instructions, and this book does the same thing, which is perhaps even more amazing since it's a translation. Xilonen's (and the translator, Andrea Rosenberg's) use of language--the obscure academic words combined with the swear words combined with the totally made-up words--knocked my socks off from page one. I mean, who writes like this?:
- "All of them with their alphabeticated song and dance, all hat and no catacombs."
- "The sun is ergastulated under the rocks, kicking up burning dust, shards of insolar high tide."
- "I hear myself for the first time, as if I were somebody else, maybe a hog, unfurled, laughing uproariously as if the mechanism of laughter were autonomous and I its unbrakeable conduit."
- "Immediately, the guy's legs twist and he delapiflates, unable to even catch a breath."
It's like this on every single page. Spellbinding.
Between the language and the plot, reading The Gringo Champion felt a little bit like having a dream--I'd be reading along and then realize I had no idea what the hell was going on, but the confusion was pleasant and just sort of part of the experience. It occurred to me about three quarters of the way through that this book has a lot in common with [b:The Outsiders|231804|The Outsiders|S.E. Hinton|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1442129426l/231804._SY75_.jpg|1426690], which is probably part of why I liked it so much. Like S.E. Hinton, Xilonen rooted her story in a group of teenagers who do not entirely trust the few adults in their lives; like Ponyboy's, Liborio's world is steeped in both violence and literature, which come together in interesting ways; like in The Outsiders, it is revealed (clunkily) near the end of The Gringo Champion that the whole book was written by the protagonist in order to tell his story for some specific purpose.
And in both books, it is very clear that the author is a teenager (both women began writing the novels at 16), mostly for better and occasionally for worse. For better: who captures a teenager's bizarre logic and intense emotions better than an actual teenager? For worse, somewhat: the book's logistics make no sense. For example, at one point, Liborio gets offered a job getting beat up at a boxing gym; goes to the boxing gym; punches a guy in the hand so hard that the guy's hand breaks; leaves the gym; sits on the stoop of the girl he has a crush on; gets picked up by some lady he quasi-met the week before, who drives him to her house in the suburbs; takes a bath and is given new clothes; and then gets mad at the lady and jogs back to the city while running away from some cops. (???) And while there's some dramatic tension around Liborio's love life and around his immigration status, the last 140 pages or so have essentially no tension at all--it's like half the book is denouement. I mostly found the teenagery elements charming, but I can also see them being annoying.
Overall, this was a super weird and fun book, and an absolutely masterful translation (with again the caveat that I haven't read the original). A good novel with which to kick off 2022.
- "All of them with their alphabeticated song and dance, all hat and no catacombs."
- "The sun is ergastulated under the rocks, kicking up burning dust, shards of insolar high tide."
- "I hear myself for the first time, as if I were somebody else, maybe a hog, unfurled, laughing uproariously as if the mechanism of laughter were autonomous and I its unbrakeable conduit."
- "Immediately, the guy's legs twist and he delapiflates, unable to even catch a breath."
It's like this on every single page. Spellbinding.
Between the language and the plot, reading The Gringo Champion felt a little bit like having a dream--I'd be reading along and then realize I had no idea what the hell was going on, but the confusion was pleasant and just sort of part of the experience. It occurred to me about three quarters of the way through that this book has a lot in common with [b:The Outsiders|231804|The Outsiders|S.E. Hinton|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1442129426l/231804._SY75_.jpg|1426690], which is probably part of why I liked it so much. Like S.E. Hinton, Xilonen rooted her story in a group of teenagers who do not entirely trust the few adults in their lives; like Ponyboy's, Liborio's world is steeped in both violence and literature, which come together in interesting ways; like in The Outsiders, it is revealed (clunkily) near the end of The Gringo Champion that the whole book was written by the protagonist in order to tell his story for some specific purpose.
And in both books, it is very clear that the author is a teenager (both women began writing the novels at 16), mostly for better and occasionally for worse. For better: who captures a teenager's bizarre logic and intense emotions better than an actual teenager? For worse, somewhat: the book's logistics make no sense. For example, at one point, Liborio gets offered a job getting beat up at a boxing gym; goes to the boxing gym; punches a guy in the hand so hard that the guy's hand breaks; leaves the gym; sits on the stoop of the girl he has a crush on; gets picked up by some lady he quasi-met the week before, who drives him to her house in the suburbs; takes a bath and is given new clothes; and then gets mad at the lady and jogs back to the city while running away from some cops. (???) And while there's some dramatic tension around Liborio's love life and around his immigration status, the last 140 pages or so have essentially no tension at all--it's like half the book is denouement. I mostly found the teenagery elements charming, but I can also see them being annoying.
Overall, this was a super weird and fun book, and an absolutely masterful translation (with again the caveat that I haven't read the original). A good novel with which to kick off 2022.
eawillis's review against another edition
4.0
Compelling, frenetic play with language, and balance of nihilism and giddy young love, at times in the same sentence.
blao's review against another edition
4.0
Le personnage principal, dont le nom ne nous est pas immédiatement dévoilé, est un clandestin vivant sur le sol américain. Un libraire au langage plus que fleurit le prend sous son aile.
Tout le long de l'histoire la narration alterne entre le présent de Liborio et des passages de ses débuts aux États-Unis, sa rencontre avec le libraire, avec cette fille qui le fait rêver...
L'autrice nous plonge au cœur de la vie de ce jeune homme narrant avec une franche poésie et des mots issus de son imagination des émotions d'une réelle intensité.
Je ne m'étendrais pas plus long sur cet ouvrage que j'ai trouvé très beau et bien écrit et que je vous conseille si les injures et autres vulgarités ne vous rebutent pas.
« La vie, bordel de merde, c’est pas comme dans les livres »
Tout le long de l'histoire la narration alterne entre le présent de Liborio et des passages de ses débuts aux États-Unis, sa rencontre avec le libraire, avec cette fille qui le fait rêver...
L'autrice nous plonge au cœur de la vie de ce jeune homme narrant avec une franche poésie et des mots issus de son imagination des émotions d'une réelle intensité.
Je ne m'étendrais pas plus long sur cet ouvrage que j'ai trouvé très beau et bien écrit et que je vous conseille si les injures et autres vulgarités ne vous rebutent pas.
« La vie, bordel de merde, c’est pas comme dans les livres »
aegireads's review
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
bartvanovermeire's review against another edition
3.0
Impressive that she wrote this at 19, but it shows as well. She's a bit too eager to prove she knows fancy words (and swear words) and exactly illustrates what her main character blames the books he's reading: books aren't about real life. So an ok book but nothing more.
amb's review
2.0
The Gringo Champion is a coming of age story about immigration and life in a border town, told in a language style I would describe as “that letter Joey writes with a thesaurus on friends” meets My Immortal. That is to say, I really wish I could have liked it, but…
Here, have a real passage from this book:
"...she closes the door of her boat and yells, sounding like an influenzal firefly, 'I saw how you took that beating without flinching.' A few cars start honking wildly behind her. 'Blow me, hijos de puta, if you can!' she yells at the drivers. Then she turns back to me: 'You're a real fucker of a motherfucker, huh? How old are you kidlet?'
'What the fucking shit do you care?'"
(+ bonus: "Scattered about are benches occupied by couples sizzled by fatigue or, more eruptically, by love, kissing and hugging each other.")
I understand what Xilonen was going for with this language. She does a really fantastic job grounding a narrative in a very distinct and unique voice—I just couldn’t get past how absolutely painful it was to read to be able to appreciate it. The language does evolve and mellow out as Liborio sort of grows into himself, but then you get a passage that's just so *like that* it takes you out of it.
There are moments of really interesting social commentary, just as you would hope for in a book like this. Unfortunately, most of it does end up being spelled out to the point where it seems like Xilonen thinks you might not get it if she doesn’t say it outright. There were a few instances where I was like, “oh, that’s some really nice metaphor,” and then it's followed up with explication of the point that was just made. It’s like someone is watching you read and interrupting every few pages to say, “get it?”
In conclusion, if I never read/hear the word “chickadee” again, it will be too soon.
Here, have a real passage from this book:
"...she closes the door of her boat and yells, sounding like an influenzal firefly, 'I saw how you took that beating without flinching.' A few cars start honking wildly behind her. 'Blow me, hijos de puta, if you can!' she yells at the drivers. Then she turns back to me: 'You're a real fucker of a motherfucker, huh? How old are you kidlet?'
'What the fucking shit do you care?'"
(+ bonus: "Scattered about are benches occupied by couples sizzled by fatigue or, more eruptically, by love, kissing and hugging each other.")
I understand what Xilonen was going for with this language. She does a really fantastic job grounding a narrative in a very distinct and unique voice—I just couldn’t get past how absolutely painful it was to read to be able to appreciate it. The language does evolve and mellow out as Liborio sort of grows into himself, but then you get a passage that's just so *like that* it takes you out of it.
There are moments of really interesting social commentary, just as you would hope for in a book like this. Unfortunately, most of it does end up being spelled out to the point where it seems like Xilonen thinks you might not get it if she doesn’t say it outright. There were a few instances where I was like, “oh, that’s some really nice metaphor,” and then it's followed up with explication of the point that was just made. It’s like someone is watching you read and interrupting every few pages to say, “get it?”
In conclusion, if I never read/hear the word “chickadee” again, it will be too soon.
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