And the Earth Did Not Devour Him Review

And the Earth Did Not Devour Him by Thomas Rivera (160 pages)

My Rating: 4 Stars
Date Read: 27 September 2015

Synopsis:
The stories in this book are are about the experiences of the poor, migrant farm worker. They depict the cruelty of the life, but also the ability of a community to come together to help one another survive.

My Review:
This book is split in half. The first half is written entirely in Spanish while the second half is in English. As a person who speaks no Spanish, it was cool to go back and forth from the two halves to get an understanding to what the words meant.
This book gave a very interesting view into the migrant workers of the United States. Not only are there the testimonials from the people themselves, there are also little vignettes into each person's life.
There are small aspects of dark humor throughout the novel. Some instances, like when the child is trying to evoke the devil by cursing at him, made me laugh while I was reading it.
I really enjoyed how true the characters were to themselves in their stories. Even though we weren't following a single character the entire way through, all of the stories were connected in some way. Even still, we got great glimpses into their lives and the lives of a lot of immigrants in the United States.
Overall, I really enjoyed reading this book. It was quick and didn't seem very drawn out.