‘A stunning debut novel; heartbreaking, richly layered and unputdownable’ – Roisín O’Donnell, author of Nesting
Omar has known Martha since childhood, but when she returns to their east Dallas neighbourhood to finish high school after two years away, he barely recognises her. She’s still the defiant, overachieving girl he knew − though now in a body that every guy, including Omar, notices.
But Martha has set her heart on college, and she won’t allow the leering eyes, or a growing friendship with Omar, to derail her. As she faces down obstacle after obstacle, we encounter the women who preceded her: her mother, Mariana, a light-skinned beauty who’s been searching for a Prince Charming all her life; her silenced grandmother, Imelda, whom she never had the chance to know; and her great-grandmother, Ana, a revolutionary who rode with Pancho Villa, only to meet a violent end. The more Martha learns about the history that shaped them, and the closer she and Omar become, the more clearly she sees that someone like her was never going to be allowed to simply make a life on her own terms.
Omar has known Martha since childhood, but when she returns to their east Dallas neighbourhood to finish high school after two years away, he barely recognises her. She’s still the defiant, overachieving girl he knew − though now in a body that every guy, including Omar, notices.
But Martha has set her heart on college, and she won’t allow the leering eyes, or a growing friendship with Omar, to derail her. As she faces down obstacle after obstacle, we encounter the women who preceded her: her mother, Mariana, a light-skinned beauty who’s been searching for a Prince Charming all her life; her silenced grandmother, Imelda, whom she never had the chance to know; and her great-grandmother, Ana, a revolutionary who rode with Pancho Villa, only to meet a violent end. The more Martha learns about the history that shaped them, and the closer she and Omar become, the more clearly she sees that someone like her was never going to be allowed to simply make a life on her own terms.
Reviews
Set in an East Dallas neighborhood that goes from being one generation's dream to the next generation's complicated inheritance, Decent People is a panoramic portrait of a gifted girl determined to forge her own way. Guel's striking debut broke my heart, charmed me, and utterly transfixed me. Wise, gritty, and tender, Decent People announces the arrival of a whipsmart and devastating new literary voice
With a tenderness and vulnerability that I found reminiscent of Kiese Laymon's Heavy, Guel weaves a stunning, sweeping, layered, historical, coming-of-age narrative that employs the complexities of family, friendship, and politics to confront what it means to be decent people in the context of contemporary Mexican American life. In its heart wrenching, resonant aftermath, this novel teaches us that sometimes there are no winners, only survivors, but with survival comes the sweetness of hope.
Decent People is a stunning debut novel; heartbreaking, richly layered and unputdownable. In a narrative voice that is instantly engaging and companionable, Guel sweeps readers along in a story of migration and exile, friendship and family, ambition and betrayal. Here is a brave writer who stares into the face of discrimination based on race, class and gender, and never flinches. The fact that all this is wrapped in a narrative so full of warmth, humour and tenderness makes it all the more remarkable. I cannot wait for whatever Guel writes next.
Decent People is a stunning debut novel; heartbreaking, richly layered and unputdownable. In a narrative voice that is instantly engaging and companionable, Guel sweeps readers along in a story of migration and exile, friendship and family, ambition and betrayal. Here is a brave writer who stares into the face of discrimination based on race, class and gender, and never flinches. The fact that all this is wrapped in a narrative so full of warmth, humour and tenderness makes it all the more remarkable. I cannot wait for whatever Guel writes next.