Like Son

By Felicia Luna Lemus and Kristin Hughes

Book Overview

Set amidst the outsider worlds of present-day downtown New York, 1990s Los Angeles, and 1940s Mexico City, Like Son is the not-so-simple story of a father, a son, and the love-blindness shared between them.

Meet Frank Cruz: a post-punk, sardonic, thirty-year-old who unwittingly inherits his dead father's legacy. Born a bouncing baby girl named Francisca to parents tangled in a doomed love affair, Frank grows up in both the poorest barrios and poshest hills of Southern California. A defiant loner, Frank leaves home at the age of eighteen for the big city, but instead is sucked back into helping his estranged and blind father navigate an untimely death. On his deathbed, Frank's father gives him a mysterious crumbling photograph of a woman with a stunning gaze: Nahui Olin, a fierce member of the early 20th-century Mexican avant-garde who once brought tragedy upon the Cruz family.

Punctured to his core by Nahui, Frank takes her portrait and flees to New York City to start anew-this time for real. There he meets eccentric, gorgeous, and sharp-tongued Nathalie. The two fall in love, but after seven years of happy-go-lucky life together, in September 2001 the New York skyline tumbles, and Frank finds himself smack in the middle of his predestined fate.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1933354216
• ISBN13: 9781933354217
• Release Date: April 2007
• Publisher: Akashic Books
• Length: 238 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.0" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Frighteningly Good Book!

I picked this book up on a recommendation and was taken aback by just how excellent it is. I would liken the writing to that of Michelle Tea's fictional work in the sense that it's very engaging - partially because you can't believe what's happening and partially because you want to know what will happen next. They tread on similar ground - queer/trans/ issues along with family stuff and relationships. A quick read because F.L.L. is such a compelling storyteller that you will find it difficult to put the book down. (Her first book is also quite good. It bodes well for her writing career that there was notable growth between the first and second book. It makes me incredibly excited for her third book!) Also, Akashic Books has not let me down yet.