The Devils Highway - Luis Alberto Urrea [0]
Reading group guide copyright © 2005 by Luis Alberto Urrea and Little, Brown and Company (Inc.)
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.
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First eook Edition: November 2008
ISBN: 978-0-316-04928-3
Contents
AUTHOR’S NOTE
PART ONE: CUTTING THE DRAG
Chapter 1: The Rules of the Game
PART TWO: DEADMAN’SSIGN
Chapter 2: In Veracruz
Chapter 3: The Coyote and the Chicken
Chapter 4: El Guía
Chapter 5: Jesús Walks Among Us
Chapter 6: In Sonoita
Chapter 7: A Pepsi for the Apocalypse
Chapter 8: Bad Step at Bluebird
Chapter 9: Killed by the Light
PART THREE: IN DESOLATION
Chapter 10: The Long Walk
Chapter 11: Their Names
Chapter 12: Broken Promise
Chapter 13: The Trees and the Sun
Chapter 14: Helicopters
PART FOUR: AFTERMATH
Chapter 15: Aftermath
Chapter 16: Home
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
EXTRAORDINARY ACCLAIM FOR LUIS ALBERTO URREA’S
THE DEVIL’S HIGHWAY
“A reading of The Devil’s Highway will undoubtedly brace your soul and remind you that all of us, rich or poor, brown, white, black, or yellow, are traveling through these parts for only a little while. … This intense and somehow, despite all the torture and death and betrayal it stands as a witness to, congenial book gives some of [those who’ve died crossing the border] the chance, however briefly, to cross back over the final border and return to the light.”
— Alan Cheuse, San Francisco Chronicle
“Luis Alberto Urrea ventured into the world of pollos and polleros, and his book rings with the authenticity and authority of an eyewitness. At the same time, he writes with empathy and insight about the migrants and the agents he accompanied into the wilderness. Above all, the tale he tells in The Devil’s Highway comes vividly alive with a richness of language and a mastery of narrative detail that only the most gifted of writers are able to achieve.”
— Jonathan Kirsch, Los Angeles Times Book Review
“Urrea’s prose takes you right down to the desert floor as the men struggle to survive, in the same way Jon Krakauer put you atop Mount Everest in his book Into Thin Air.”
— Michael Kapellas, Naperville Sun
“A powerful, almost diabolical impression of the disaster and the exploitative conditions at the border. Urrea shows immigration policy on the human level.”
— Gilbert Taylor, Booklist
“Luis Alberto Urrea’s approach is a smart one: instead of writing a dry, fact-based piece of journalism littered with excerpts from official documents, he paces the book like a novel, full of detail and emotion. He spends time with the border patrol, showing the good and the bad. He doesn’t make martyrs out of the walkers. Instead of railing passionately against the Mexican and American governments—his sympathy clearly leans toward those who try to cross—he saves all the facts and figures for the last chapter, presenting them calmly. By then, no matter what your opinion on border policy, you’ve been sucked in by the story and characters. The writing is exceptional. The descriptions of the desert’s beauty are poetic. … It’s a beautiful book about a horrible trip.”
— Emiliana Sandoval, Detroit Free Press
“The best thing I’ve read in years. Like his brilliant Across the Wire, Luis Urrea’s The Devil’s Highway is rich, intimate, powerful, terrifying, and absolutely necessary. Everyone should read this book.”
— Stewart O’Nan
“A painstaking, unsentimental, and oddly lyrical chronology of the traveling party’s horrific trek through the Sonora. … Patient, well-crafted, and heartbreaking.”
— Chris Lehmann, Washington Post Book World
“Urrea has been preparing to tell this story his whole career, and he