The Devil’s Highway: A True Story / Luis Alberto Urrea / 2004
The Devil’s Highway is a Latino classic that launched an already well established poet and novelist into literary stardom. Written in vivid language that mixes the scientifically specific, journalistic, and vulgarly hyperrealistic, The Devil’s Highway’s tone is reminiscent of Charles Bowden. I mean this in a good way in that it is attention-grabbing, as well as the bad way in that it indulges in a very masculine vulgarity and includes racist hangovers, such as the use of the word “illegal” throughout the text. Urrea of all people should know better than to use such dehumanizing language. At one point, Urrea snickers with migrants who hear the word “Chicago” and hear “I piss shit” in Spanish. Urrea mostly manages to balance the range of perspectives he includes in The Devil’s Highway in a way that probably leaves people across the political spectrum feeling discomfited at different moments. This feels like Urrea’s attempt to look at the border issue with a depoliticized objectivity. It succeeds in what it set out to do just fine, but is disappointing coming from a Latino literary star, as a greater political clarity and savvy is urgent. (2.5/5)