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A review by salimah
Arroyo by Chip Jacobs
4.0
I received a copy of this book from the author after being connected by Booktasters.net in exchange for an honest review.
The history of Pasadena and the Colorado Street Bridge is carefully, lovingly rendered with precise, captivating language that conveys the sense of place, the feeling and weight of its significance, and the often outlandish-seeming events with understated prose. The emotion of the events and scenes captured benefit from apt similies, deft metaphors, and sometimes elegant sentences.
The characters are allowed ample room to breathe on the page and in the story. Every choice the author made, it seems, is in service to the story. Nothing is done merely for the sake of being clever, though it's a very smart narrative. The story is never choked by cleverness.
The meeting of history, magical realism, reincarnation/alternative reality, and the special, transcendent bond of a man and his dog make for a winsome combination in this special story.
As someone who was born on the East Coast and has always lived here, my near romantic fascination with California (southern California specifically) is something of a mystery to me in itself, but reading Arroyo felt simultaneously familiar and brand new. Chip Jacobs has convincingly portrayed a part of a place he obviously loves and that made me as a reader curious and delighted.
The history of Pasadena and the Colorado Street Bridge is carefully, lovingly rendered with precise, captivating language that conveys the sense of place, the feeling and weight of its significance, and the often outlandish-seeming events with understated prose. The emotion of the events and scenes captured benefit from apt similies, deft metaphors, and sometimes elegant sentences.
The characters are allowed ample room to breathe on the page and in the story. Every choice the author made, it seems, is in service to the story. Nothing is done merely for the sake of being clever, though it's a very smart narrative. The story is never choked by cleverness.
The meeting of history, magical realism, reincarnation/alternative reality, and the special, transcendent bond of a man and his dog make for a winsome combination in this special story.
As someone who was born on the East Coast and has always lived here, my near romantic fascination with California (southern California specifically) is something of a mystery to me in itself, but reading Arroyo felt simultaneously familiar and brand new. Chip Jacobs has convincingly portrayed a part of a place he obviously loves and that made me as a reader curious and delighted.