Welcome to Litsy!

This review is for Urrea‘s short story “Christmas Eve, 1944”. The narrator‘s mother is a “clubmobile lady” taking coffee and donuts to the troops traveling from Paris to Belgium. On Christmas Eve 1944 she finds herself bombarded and hiding out in the basement of a ruined church with GI‘s. She is their mother- comforting them with fire, food and “O Holy Night”. A lovely story of Christmas in wartime and perseverance.

Urrea‘s family dynamics with an American mother & a Mexican father lend substantive credibility to the theme of identity being of primary concern. But, it is Urrea‘s exploration of time and place, the ghosts and imprints that leave a mark but eventually disappear, and the (often hilarious) retellings of memories that provide the depth of content to make this a compelling read. Masterfully written, laugh-out-loud funny, and rich in substance.

Reading in blips and patches is not the most efficient way to finish a book, but it does make the pick-up lane at my daughter‘s school more interesting. Nobody‘s Son by Luis Alberto Urrea is disarmingly funny, but deftly incisive.