Still Water Saints by Alex Espinoza

★★ ½

Synopsis on Amazon: Still Water Saints chronicles a momentous year in the life of Agua Mansa, a largely Latino town beyond the fringes of Los Angeles and home to the Botánica Oshún, where people come seeking charms, herbs, and candles. Above all, they seek the guidance of Perla Portillo, the shop’s owner. Perla has served the community for years, arming her clients with the tools to overcome all manner of crises, large and small. There is Juan, a man coming to terms with the death of his father; Nancy, a recently married schoolteacher; Shawn, an addict looking for peace in his chaotic life; and Rosa, a teenager trying to lose weight and find herself. But when a customer with a troubled and mysterious past arrives, Perla struggles to help and must confront both her unfulfilled hopes and doubts about her place in a rapidly changing world.

Let me just start by saying that this book had quite a bit of potential but that’s about it. The characters are rarely engaging (except for Perla) and are fairly flat. You do see the subtle connections between everyone in these little snippets of their lives…but it’s pretty subtle, you really have to search for the connections through it all. In a world where I find that many books would be better if they just shortened them a bit, this one would have been better if it was longer, allowing the character to grow much more than we see at all. I may have even rated this book a bit higher if it weren’t for several obvious grammar and spelling issues. I’m sorry, but if you are going to write a book (and is also an editor himself) and have it professionally published (in this case through Random House), there should NEVER be a mistake as obvious as “their” where a “there” should appear (In this case “Has their been any change…”). Made me shudder and was enough for me to actually give a lower rating for the book, especially since it wasn’t the only major mistake. A good attempt at a first time author but it could have been so much more.

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Espinoza’s debut is an imaginative look at one year in the lives of the residents of Agua Mansa, California. Perla Portillo, the proprietress of the Botanica Oshun, is at the center of the story, because it is to her that the other characters come for advice, assistance, charms, herbs, cures and candles. The remedies she dispenses are given with love, understanding and hope. Perla, however, is just human and her efforts will not cure every ailment or trouble.

There is something about this book which reminds me of The Mistress of Spices by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. The common problems of the residents who seek help are rather universal. They might have been confiding in a priest or a hairdresser, but in both these books they arrive at a storefront where unconventional “cures for what ails you” are dispensed by a somewhat mysterious owner. The chief difference is that MoS has a much more fantastical back story, and clear magical elements, while Perla is a very human woman who has taken on this work as a way to fulfill her need to be useful and a way to find a family.

Because the focus of the novel is Perla, all the other characters play supporting roles, and some are quite minor. As may be expected in this kind of ensemble piece, the reader is left without any clear answers as to what happens to these various characters. If you are a reader who needs a clear-cut ending to the story, this will not be the book for you. I enjoyed it, and would read another book by Espinoza.
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www.dailycamera.com/news/2007/apr/13/journey-to-agua-mansa/

"Journey to Agua Mansa"
Espinoza creates rich, vivid world in debut novel

By Jenny Shank
For the Camera
Friday, April 13, 2007

In his debut novel, "Still Water Saints," Alex Espinoza conjures up an entire town of people, the residents of the fictional Agua Mansa, and brings each of them to vivid life. Although the town is located in Southern California, its tales of hardscrabble existence in a predominantly Mexican-American community could originate in any gritty urban fringe of the Southwest.

The book cycles around Perla, the elderly proprietor of the Botnica Oshn, a store selling all manner of aids for psychic and spiritual ailments, such as "Quit Gossiping" candles, "Adam and Eve" love oil and "Repel Evil" bath salts. The goods offered for sale in botnicas, stores that are common in Latino areas in the U.S., blend elements of Catholicism, new age beliefs and Santeria. Perla serves as a counselor, doctor, and surrogate grandmother to her customers. In other words, Espinoza has chosen a wonderfully rich subject for his novel, and he proves a capable Scheherezade.

"Still Water Saints" alternates third-person chapters from Perla's perspective with first-person chapters from the perspectives of different customers. The book coheres as a novel, but Espinoza brings the skills of a short-story writer to bear through precise language that conveys unique voices for the many narrators yet still remains consistent enough that the many shifts don't feel disorienting.

Espinoza has a knack for making each character come to life within the space of a few sentences. A young boy describes how he spends a lonesome summer: "There was an empty field that wasn't too far from my house. I would go there almost every afternoon to ride my bike, smashing beetles with my tires, pretending I was racing in a tournament."

The tales in "Still Water Saints" start out innocently enough with Rosa, an overweight teenager looking to drop a few pounds with the help of some of Perla's tea. Rosa starts to fall for an ex-con she meets at the grocery store where she works, and the twists her story takes are mirrored in the dark turn of the novel as a whole.

Perla, a lonely widow who was never able to have children, becomes obsessed with a troubled young man named Rodrigo who makes his way into the store one day. A transsexual trying to save money for a sex-change operation comes to Perla for advice about how to get her recently deceased friend into heaven. A Latina named Nancy whose father's health is worsening must decide if she's ready to forgive him for his racist treatment of her black husband. To fund their drug habit, a couple of hoodlums steal from an electronics store where one of them works.

While the lives of Perla's customers change, the neighborhood changes too — the dollar store next door to the botnica in the strip mall closes and a body piercing and tattoo shop called "Stigmata" moves in. A rock thrown through the botnica's window seems to mark an ominous turn for the neighborhood, but then Espinoza includes a chapter from the perspective of the rock thrower, and the situation doesn't seem so grim after all.

Espinoza blends the dark with the light in careful balance: people die, others are born, some relationships founder, while others form. Some of the parents he portrays are attentive, others are neglectful, but most of Espinoza's characters are believably complex, showing one side to their families and another to the world.

Espinoza's details effectively bring the world of his characters to life, such as the rosary Perla sells with "beads that shine like wet pomegranate seeds"; one character's childhood memory of sitting in the family Chrysler during a car wash; or this description of sweethearts spending a day together: "We walked around the flea market imitating the sound Steve Austin's bionic legs made whenever he ran fast or jumped high."

The painstaking care Espinoza has taken in crafting his debut novel is evident. Economical with its words, yet teeming with life, "Still Water Saints" should mark the beginning of a distinguished career. ( )