Valleyesque

Valleyesque is a fever dream of a book in the best way possible. Flores’ combination of the uncanny with the downright absurd is done to highlight the actual absurdity of many harmful institutions that we, as readers, have been desensitized to and have normalized. All of Valleyesque’s stories are set in the liminal spaces of the US-Mexico border and focus on the experiences of the people who negotiate and live in these spaces.

As one progresses through Valleyesque, Flores’ myriad critiques and commentaries become increasingly clear. For instance, by including the scenarios of Chopin's piano getting stuck in customs, an Emiliano Zapata T-shirt coming to life, and a character getting lost in a labyrinth of clothes in a maquiladora, Flores is making a pointed critique of NAFTA and the hyper-exploitation faced by the Mexican working class as a result of that deal.

Additionally, there is a fair amount of meta-commentary within Valleyesque. Take “The Science Fair Protest,” wherein Efe asks “Do you think that once you’ve created a literary landscape, that landscape will be forever leaking back into the world? Even if one has never read this author—these people who don’t read are probably the ones who suffer the most leaks into their lives, actually,” or the entirety of “Nostradamus Baby” which is essentially a conversation between Flores and the reader about the author's motivations for writing this book.

Overall, my reading experience with Valleyesque was somewhat of a rollercoaster. Although I can intellectually appreciate and understand Flores’ employ of absurdity to tell these stories, it didn’t really make for an easy read. A majority of the time, my efforts to parse out the events of a previous paragraph were interrupted by the story twisting and going on a different tangent in the next, which resulted in a cycle of confusion. I think I would have better comprehended and enjoyed Valleyesque if I had read this book at a slower pace with a group of people. I definitely want to return to this collection if/when I find a group of people who want to read this book together.

"Valleyesque" does a great job at both referencing various works of art and comment on 21st century issues, whilst not exploring them fully. A solid piece of fiction with Flores' prose being one of its best elements.

Engaging and non-flinching, this book does not shy from showing society at all angles. Hopping between different characters and backgrounds, Flores gives the reader a full picture of the Valleyesque people.

This book wasn't my cup of tea in subject matter, but it did have realized characters and writing that flowed well. The chapters are like little vignettes, giving glimpses. I was reminded of Sandra Cisneros's House on Mango Street, in a way, where the main character isn't so much a person but a place. There is certainly an audience out there, perhaps fans of The Twilight Zone, who would be interested in this kind of book.

Valleyesque is a collection of short stories that will take you to an unforgettable journey. These stories takes place in the Texas Mexican border and will give you lessons about the values of life.

My favorite stories including old Frederic Chopin who finds his old piano and is grieving at the death of his mother. Being a piano teacher and the fact that Chopin is one of my favorite composers, this story actually fascinated me. The other story that fascinated me was Lee Harvey Oswald--the person who assasinated John F Kennedy in 1963. and in the story, young Lee Harvey Oswald embarks on his musical career. There were some heartbreaking ones as well as some funny parts that will make you laugh out loud.

Overall, if you looking for a good set of short stories, I recommend this book for you all--truly the author has done an amazing job of drawing the reader into the story and making the reader feel like they are part of the story. Worth five stars!

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.

RATING: 4.5

Thank you to NetGalley, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, and author Fernando A. Flores for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This anthology is one of the greatest examples of organizing a living and breathing world can be. "Valleyesque" is a glimpse into the reality of the Texas-Mexican Border society, discovering its people and culture, way way way beyond the known Mexican and Latine stereotypes we're used to seeing in media. It goes even further to being so authentic and specific, it actually reached some sort of universality - it's Mexican, but it could be so many unique cultures.

"Valleyesque" is, in its own way, a great word to describe this collection's way of presenting the world to us. Fernando has managed to find a very absurd and weird language - in a good way -, therefore making simple very powerful in their way of communicating. Close to Kafka, but also Zafonesque. I chose to start talking about this topic of the anthology, because I do think it is one of its strongest points, one of its main attractive points too, due to the fact this just won't be another ethnic story you'll be reading. It will feel like a magical world, a truthful yet misterious dimension of reality, where sadly a lot of awful things happen but it still manages to find itself alive. This language borders magical realism and absurdity, which sometimes disconnected me from the plot and made me feel confused, but not enough to make me give up on the book. In fact, Fernando is VERY consistent with the book's themes and developments, making "Valleyesque" one of the best anthologies I've ever come across.

This anthology feels like a living being, too. It not only showcases vivacity in its situations, but it's also somewhat timeless. I started to read it before the Ukrainian conflict started, and somethings took a whole another meaning after this new situation came to be in my own wordly reality. And what is very important to note here is, Fernando is shouting at us what generations and generations of Mexican immigrants have been trying to tell us about their living situation and their culture and feelings, and about the hipocracy they experience, much like any other ethnic "minority" anywhere else - including my country. I was able to find multiple passages that relate to the current indigenous situation in my country (Brazil), and was also able to identify with many other aspects as a Latina woman (myself) facing white culture.

The metalinguistic aspects of it too are important, questioning the Literary Industry and the Industry's way of putting cultural and individual works out there, of how it values authors and their stories. Fernando never misses an opportunity to use it as a metaphor for other things too, but it almost diverges from fiction when it stops to reflect on the book itself as a book, reminding us that "Valleyesque" is a portrait, thus a real world, not a fantasy (perception we get closer to due to the language when in fact, the absurdity just makes the cruelty of the real world more palatable).

If you're a fan of Carmen Maria Machado's "In The Dreamhouse", Franz Kafka's "The Trial", Cho Nam-Joo's "Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982" and Fredrik Backman's "A Man Called Ove", you should give this one definitely a try.

I hope this one gets awards and hype, because it deserves it so much!

An unusual collection of short stories that will challenge the reader. Flores explores borders both real and imagined in these tales which veer from realistic to surreal. There's magical realism, there's a conversation between Flores and the reader, there's some odd stuff. These are best read one at a time over a period of days (my favored way of approaching most collections btw) because they demand more attention than you might expect. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. For fans of literary and experimental fiction,

I enjoyed this way more than I thought I actually would. I think the prose in each of these stories is phenomenal and I can feel the love for the stories the author has when reading them. This book took me a bit out of my comfort zone in terms of what I normally read but t was amazing. I really love particularly the 29th of April and You Got It, Take It Away. Those stories really stuck with me and I'm still really thinking about them. It was a surprising great read for me. I think it handled some heavier themes really well while also keeping you consistently in the moment.