Robert Arellano

Curse the Names by Robert Arellano is a spooky, unsettling, and ultimately disturbing story set in Los Alamos. It takes place in one short month, and revolves around James Oberhelm, who is rich, successful, and employed in a mindless job of writing glamor pieces about retired Los Alamos National Laboratory employees. James is bored, in his fancy suburban house with his equally-successful, but cold wife, and decides to take up a casual offer made by a stranger to attend a party at an show more abandoned house. This decision is the first step in the unraveling of his life.

The house fascinates and repels him, and he ultimately comes to believe that somehow it has cursed him, because after he visits the house he begins losing everything, including, (perhaps?), his mind. He is plagued by visions of death by a radioactive incident at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, and embarks on a journalistic quest to discover the truth behind the house, the Lab, and his own sanity.

Curse the Names by Robert Arellano is a unique story. It is not tidily wrapped up at the end, which leaves the reader unsettled (hence, my "disturbing" comment earlier). I felt that the ending was appropriately unclear, a bit like Jame's own mind. A thought-provoking, interesting, and nightmarish story, which I greatly enjoyed. show less

I don't know if 'pre-Apocalyptic' is a genre yet, but that's where this book seems to sit. I thought it was brilliant: a disturbing and dark tale of a man's disintegration in the hot summer glare of Los Alamos.

If I had to make up a genre for this book, it would be Atomic Noir. The beautifully brutal terrain of New Mexico is perhaps the most endearing character in Robert Arellano’s tale of the sort of paranoia that drug abuse and apocalyptic dreams engender. That said, I really dug it. I would search out other books by Arellano to see if they are all like this.

What's most engaging about this book is its authenticity in contrasting life in Cuba and the United States just before the turn of the millennium. Arellano tells it primarily from the perspective of a doctor loyal to Castro's government, even while he struggles with the effects on himself and his fellow citizens. The book is political and cultural commentary, and yet it's a worthy spy thriller. My main critique is that it seemed to end quickly and without full resolution. I found myself show more thinking about the open questions and ultimately liked how they were left to the reader. I like this genre, and I like books that present something new to experience. This book did both for me. show less