Crux

It is very rare for me to say that a book is nothing like I've ever read before.  There is a book that was released this past week that has me shaking my head with disbelief.  It is an incredibly unique memoir entitled Crux.

Crux is a child's cry for understanding of her emotionally distant and eccentric father and the parallels of his life compared to her own.  Jean Guerrero wants to understand where she came from so that she can not only understand her father, Marco Antonio, but also understand herself.

Digging deep into her ancestral past, Jean finds truths and a family history that she could never possibly have imagined.  It does make one wonder if these circumstances of the past made her father the way that he was which has in turn made her who she is.

From the first page I was transfixed, the cry for understanding apparent from the beginning, instantly pulling the reader in and gripping them in such a way that you have to fight to tear your eyes away from the page.  Reading about her and her sister's childhood and the things that she had to endure was heartbreaking.  Jean's mother longed for a better life, and in turn practically abandoned her children so that she could go to school and one day become a doctor.  This meant leaving her girls with their father full time.  There was a time where Marco was an attentive and loving father but slowly things began to change.  Marco began having delusions and and her once doting father slowly started to disappear, at first emotionally, but then physically, being gone for years at a time only to return even more haunted and broken than he was before, swearing that the government and CIA were after him.  Jean and her family didn't know what to believe.

There are several stories of crossing the border into Mexico and the troubled visits that have scarred Jean for life.  As you read each ordeal it sends shutters up your spine, making you want to turn your eyes away from the page but also craving to know every detail so that you too can know the truth.

I will admit that the story is on the erratic side and can be a little all over the place but to me this adds to the truth of the narrative as a whole.  The end of the book did take a bizarre turn and I wasn't too crazy about the tone that it ended with but that's just me.

Having a husband of Hispanic descent, my mind can't help but gravitate to his ancestors and what they must've went through to have a better life.  I wonder if they struggled with the same things that Jean's family has had to struggle with.  It makes me want to do some research of my own.  I wonder if I did what I would find.  

Crux is a difficult story to hear but this book in and of itself was a wonderful read.  Jean Guerrero is an incredible writer and I hope that her writing does not stop here.  I also hope that she has finally found what she's so desperately wanted to find.

If you would like to see more from the author herself please check out this interview on KPBS News and definitely pick up this incredible book.

*I received a complimentary copy of this book from Random House Publishing in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.  All opinions contained in this review are my own.