Reviews for An Eye for an Eye

The average rating for An Eye for an Eye based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2007-11-25 00:00:00 Julio Cisneros When you read this wonderful book--and I hope that you will--you will discover that (Gawd, I hate to sound so cliche) . . . that transgendered people are people too. There, I said it. The author's trick in this book is to take for granted that being transgendered is no real big deal in America anymore--so in a way then this is a kind of postmodern presumptive novel (did I coin a new genre?). It presumes that if you are a female-to-male transgendered person that the most improtant thing in your life is NOT what particular plumbing you have below the waist these days, but in how you will pay the bills, connect with your blind and dying father, reconnect with your Mexican and family heritage through a photo found in your grandmother's Bible, make amends (if any) with your psycho mother, and convince your divinely beautiful but flakey girlfriend not to run out on you again. One test of the author's great skill is that when the narrator talks of his life as Frank, the reader becomes quickly convinced of his non-effeminate maleness, and vice a versa when he/she is/was Francesca. Perhaps the most beautiful and touching passages in the book are in the scenes with Frank taking care of his dying father. What the author, Felicia Luna Lemus, is doing is defining her book by the strength of its plot and its writing and not by exploiting the sexuality of her male protagonist who (oh, by the way) used to be girl. In the hands of a lesser artist, this would have been a great opportunity for sleaziness the likes of which would make Rikki Lake blush.

Review # 2 was written on 2011-03-28 00:00:00 Timmy Hughes When I picked up this book I was pretty excited, and although I could feel engrossed most of the time, overall I wouldn't say this book does much other than tell a story I've already heard and in more interesting ways. The writing is mediocre (no, it's not a good idea to use a cliche and just have your narrator acknowledge the cliche, that's bad editing), sometimes entirely too obvious, and although simplicity can sometimes benefit a writer, it just doesn't work here. For the most part. There were moments I enjoyed (which is why I finished the book). Was the narrator supposed to be a misogynist? I think we were supposed to love him as some sort of anti-hero, but I hardly found that to be the case. Should I be worried about what bordered on an abusive relationship? I thought so. Where did their community go after they met? It seemed to be entirely lost, much like the point of this book was lost on me. But maybe that's the point -- there is none -- but with a novel that wraps itself the way Like Son did, I highly doubt that is what the author intended.