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Like SonA Novel

Felicia Luna Lemus

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Summary

Like Son

By: Felicia Luna Lemus

Narrarated by: Kristin Hughes

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.

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Total File Size: 211 MB (7 files) Total Length: 7 Hours, 42 Minutes

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Scott Esposito

eMusic Contributor

Scott Esposito has written about books for almost ten years. His work has appeared widely, including in the Los Angeles Times, Tin House, The Paris Review, and ...more »

12.10.10
Felicia Luna Lemus, Like Son
2010 | Label: Iambik Audio Inc.

Part Vertigo, part post-9/11 novel, part inquiry into gender, Felicia Luna Lemus’ second novel manages to fit an awful lot into a spry, short package. A transgendered, Southern Californian daughter-to-son of Mexican immigrants, Frank Cruz finds his life changed when his father dies: among his things he finds a haunting photograph of a beautiful, proto-feminist Mexican artist named Nahui Olin. Frank heads for a new life in New York, and there he sates his obsession for Olin by falling in love with the sexy, bohemian Nathalie, who bears an eerie resemblance to the artist. All seems tied up — and then 9/11 happens, throwing everything into chaos and forcing Frank and Nathalie into a deep and satisfying inquiry into their true identities. Lemus’ strength here is her sharp, witty prose, as well as her ability to take on frequently discussed questions surrounding gender and ethnic identity in fresh new ways. With an eye always on her galloping plot, Lemus integrates Frank’s identity into the action — rather than letting it dominate it — ensuring that the book remains free of the heavy-handed preaching that has weighed down so many before it. Like Son heralds both a strong new voice in American fiction and a strong new approach to realities that inform our world today.

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