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Domingo Martinez

Author of The Boy Kings of Texas: A Memoir

2 Works 272 Members 13 Reviews 1 Favorited

About the Author

Domingo Martinez has worked as a journalist and designer in Texas and in Seattle. His work has appeared in Epiphany, he has contributed to The New Republic, and he read an adaptation of "The Mimis" on This American Life in 2011. An excerpt from The Boy Kings of Texas was nominated for a Pushcart show more Prize. Martinez lives in Seattle. show less

Works by Domingo Martinez

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Reviews

I only started reading this book because a friend was assigned it for a college course. I wanted to read it so we could talk through whatever assignments she would have for it, but I didn't expect to like it at all: you know the kind of contemporary trash on college reading lists. . . I wasn't prepared for how interesting this book would be, how much I would relate to Martinez's childhood, or how I would want to devour every word.
 
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judeprufrock | 11 other reviews | Jul 4, 2023 |
 
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revliz | Jul 10, 2017 |
This is a memoir of growing up in Brownsville Texas, near the border with Mexico, in a poor barrio, with few opportunities and even less hope.

There are parts of this memoir that are engaging and funny. I loved the story of slaughtering the pig to make the Christmas tamales, or his sisters dying their hair blonde, and trying to transform themselves into “white” teenagers. But I could not connect with the acting out that the boys engaged in – the fighting, drinking, and drugs.

By way of background, I grew up in a Mexican-American household, with a father who was born in Mexico, and a mother who was born in a border-town on the Texas side of the Rio Grande – the same town where I was born and where my grandparents and most of my aunts and uncles stayed to raise their families. I recognized some of the setting, traditions, and cultural mores Martinez relates. But on the whole I felt as disenfranchised from the experiences he relates, as he states he felt. The families I knew were cohesive; the parents working menial jobs, perhaps, but staying together in love and faith to raise children who would succeed.

I kept waiting for some insight, and never got it. I wanted to understand this all-consuming need to express machismo, but could only shake my head and think “not again!” So I’m left disappointed and dissatisfied. I felt I was reading the rambling notes of a journal his therapist suggested he keep, rather than a cohesive memoir.
… (more)
 
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BookConcierge | 11 other reviews | Sep 23, 2016 |
Heard two excepts from this book on This American Life which left me wanting to know the rest of Martinezs story... Looking forward to starting this when my non-fic wheel comes back around.
 
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GoldenDarter | 11 other reviews | Sep 15, 2016 |

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Statistics

Works
2
Members
272
Popularity
#85,118
Rating
3.8
Reviews
13
ISBNs
6
Favorited
1

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