Unavailable
Unavailable
Unavailable
Ebook279 pages5 hours
American Visa
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
This is the best-selling literary novel in Bolivia over the past 15 years, and was made into a major motion picture in Mexico, which will have a DVD release in the U.S. this fall. Bolivia is in the news a lot these days, and this is only the 6th novel by a Bolivian author ever to be translated into English. Submit to B&N Discover Program. Major media push: print, radio, television.
Unavailable
Read more from Juan De Recacoechea
American Visa: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Andean Express Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Related to American Visa
Related ebooks
American Visa: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Valhalla Exchange Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Clutch of Constables Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rude Ethnographies: Rude Ethnographies, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Gay Mormon Missionary in Pompeii Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Modern Prometheus Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Big Twisted Set Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHis Great Adventure Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Life and Times of Chester L. Simmons Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Drums of Jeopardy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGemini Moon: a Lella York Novel of Suspense, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAll For A Dead Man's Leg: Tour Director Extraordinaire, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Ghost: A Modern Fantasy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTroubled Traveler: A Young Man's Odyssey Through Mexico Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Closing Net Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTime to Prey Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pixie Twisted 1: A Collection of Books 1-3 of the Pixie Twist Series: Pixie Twist Collections, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Bullet Trick Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Trilogy for Freedom Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNoughts and Crosses: Stories, Studies and Sketches Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBhatar Transfer: A John Shaddows Detective Mystery Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDead Revenge: The Mystery of Devil Station Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLine in the Sand Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsYou Again: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Galileo Project Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAbroad at Home: American Ramblings, Observations, and Adventures of Julian Street Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDeath in Tranquility Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Silent Barrier Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOpen Me Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Hispanic & Latino Fiction For You
Don Quixote Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The House of the Spirits: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Spy in the Struggle: A Riveting Must-Read Novel of Suspense Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5First Spanish Reader: A Beginner's Dual-Language Book Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Tender Is the Flesh Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Spanish Stories/Cuentos Espanoles: A Dual-Language Book Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What the Hex: A Paranormal Rom-Com Novella Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Spanish Daughter: A Gripping Historical Novel Perfect for Book Clubs Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mestiza Blood Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Olga Dies Dreaming: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Infinite Country: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bird Hotel: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Faraway World: Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Good Morning, Love: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Don Quixote of La Mancha Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Daughters of the Stone Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5We the Animals Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Story of My Teeth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The House on the Lagoon: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ghost Radio: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Planet for Rent Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Malinche: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Dominicana: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Madonnas of Echo Park: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bullet Swallower: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Snow Falling Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Artemio's Fire: The Volcano at San Miguel, #1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Across a Hundred Mountains: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for American Visa
Rating: 4.136367272727273 out of 5 stars
4/5
11 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I was an exchange student in Bolivia so part of the fun of this book for me was reading about Bolivian things. (Novels set in Bolivia are few and far between!) However, I think there's a lot to like about this story even for readers without a Bolivia connection.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We first meet Mario Alvarez when he exits a taxi downtown La Paz, Bolivia to search for somewhere cheap to stay while he applies for a US visa so he can visit his son, who is living and working in Florida. After several failed attempts to find anywhere with a vacancy, he discovers a cheap dive called the Hotel California. Hotel California itself provides a mix of characters all eager to advise the somewhat hopelessly naive Mario. He’s inevitably very short of money, as is everyone. His two new friends exist by selling off a personal archive of books one-by-one, and being an enthusiastic lap dancer and prostitute. Thus begins Mario's increasingly bizarre, Kafkaesque journey of self-discovery.
American Visa isn’t a conventional crime story. The crime itself doesn't occur until over halfway through the novel. This is an almost perfect example of existentialist noir and although there is much to admire in it, I like my mysteries to have more of a focused plot. Even so, it is fascinating to read a book from the Bolivian perspective. It's also not a book for the faint-hearted, as the details of life in this impoverished, land-locked country are dissected in detail, against a background of political commentary against the Spanish colonialists, the British landowners, the silver and tin mine-owners and the government who nationalized everything and consigned the people to poverty rather than their hoped-for freedom. The country is bankrupt, as are many of the people and institutions we encounter in the book.
This book is filled with a series of bizarre characters and situations, but be warned it's very sexist (written in 1994). My favorite part of the book, though, is witnessing the entire process of trying to obtain a visa, with the queues, bureaucracy and cheats that desperate people try in order to get a ticket out of Bolivia.