Book Reviews
Bodega Dreams: A Novel
The word is out in Spanish Harlem: Willy Bodega is king. Need college tuition for your daughter? Start-up funds for your fruit stand? Bodega can help. He gives everyone a leg up, in exchange only for loyalty--and a steady income from the drugs he pushes.
Bodega Dreams
A Novel
213 pp. Vintage Books USA
PURCHASE THIS BOOK AT
In a stunning narrative combining the gritty rhythms of Junot Diaz with the noir genius of Walter Mosley, Bodega Dreams announces the arrival of a writer who The Village Voice has already hailed as “a Writer on the Verge.”
Bodega Dreams is a white-hot debut novel by Ernesto Quiñonez set in his home turf, Spanish Harlem. Quiñonez animates the story of this politically charged urban landscape with razor-sharp character sketches.
Lyric, inspired, and darkly funny, this powerful debut novel brilliantly evokes the trial of Chino, a smart, promising young man to whom Bodega turns for a favor. Chino is drawn to Bodega’s street-smart idealism, but soon finds himself over his head, navigating an underworld of switchblade tempers, turncoat morality, and murder.
