A Glass of Water

By Jimmy Santiago Baca
(Grove Press, Hardcover, 9780802119223, 240pp.)

Publication Date: October 2009

Other Editions of This Title: Google eBook, Paperback

Categories: Literary

Poet Jimmy Santiago Baca has produced his first novel, A Glass of Water. The book goes over the well-worn path of Mexican immigrants to the United States. More at NPR.org

“Jimmy Santiago Baca’s poems read like novels, and his novels read like poems. . . . Baca fills his prose with evocative, naturalistic details, [and] his poetry’s beating heart . . . weaves stories of Chicano loss and redemption, often through a reconnection to Earth’s natural elements. . . . Baca’s tangible earthiness seeps through [A Glass of Water] . . . but his bucolic prose is anything but lulling; as the story builds to a violent resolution, so do the political undercurrents. But ultimately, it’s transcendent performance—Carmen’s song and Vito’s populist pugilism, not to mention Baca’s own transformation through literature—that offers salvation.”—Wells Dunbar, The Austin Chronicle

“[With A Glass of Water] Baca manages to put a face on desperation. He decries the exploitation of migrant farm workers in the United States . . . [and] derogates not only an exploitive American economic system, but also Mexican drug lords driving the poor off their land, who become homeless or victims of violence. . . . [But] a field worker’s life isn’t all toil and gloom as reflected in the lives of the characters. There’s also passion, joy, love of family, adventure, love, longing, and accomplishment. The imagery is striking, the prose lyrical.”—Aurelio Sanchez, The Albuquerque Journal

“[A] blistering novel . . . The sheer passion that drives Baca’s [work] is undeniable.”—Publishers Weekly

“[With] image-rich writing . . . A Glass of Water adds another strong voice to the growing body of literature on immigrants and migrant farm workers. . . . Baca should be commended for tackling injustice in his fiction.”—Don Waters, High Country News

“A well-written and at times lyrical saga told with understanding and compassion.”—Library Journal

“Impressive . . . Fierce and uncompromising, but also beautiful and wise, A Glass of Water might be [Baca’s] most accessible work yet. . . . Baca’s concerns are universal: family, loyalty, the dignity of hard work, and, above all, love.”—Kevin Canfield, Pasatiempo

"Buy an extra copy of this book and send it to your senator. I’ll pay for it! It’s the best antidote around to the sorrowful, dehumanizing discourse on undocumented immigrants going on in Washington. Hard economic times always translate into extra misery for the more vulnerable. Ay, and we used to be known as the land where people were given a fair chance!"--Ilan Stavans