Gritos Book

Good collection of essays--my first foray into reading Gilb outside the New Yorker. One of my favorite parts was the Introduction's explanation of "gritos" in the beginning of the book. "Gritos. When I turned in this collection, my publisher wasn't sure about that title. That's because he thought the title translated as "shouts." ...If you don't know, yeah, right, it's a shout. But it's not. The most famous grito is the one from Father Hidalgo, el grito de Dolores, declaring Mexico's independence from Spain...A grito is what a coyote does--an animal wail of need, singular and for the group. A grito is the "¡Viva!" at a wedding or a political rally--joy and support. A grito is most known when mariachis sing, that loud, extemporaneous howl of triumph, or the sad--and loud, it has to be loud--lament of love lost, the orgasmic agony of love found. I wanted this collection to be all of those." I'm not sure if this collection lives up to all that, but it is certainly worth a read--fun and thought-provoking, joyful and a touch cynical--a rare find these days.