a really well-done novel--simple but complex, with beautiful prose and a strikingly lifelike world. in many ways mandane but also deeply philosphical; poses interesting questions about the purpose of life, immagrint life in the united states, and the impacts of gentrification. also three very grounded distinct realtionships: the main character and his friends, the main character and the wealthy white woman who has moved in, and the woman's daughter. there is a tenderness to the main character, espeically regarding the daughter, which is almost heartbreaking. see quotes below.

"Mixed in with the pride that inevitably came with living in such close proximity to a house as grand as Judith's was the unshakable faith that there was something not quite right to the whole affair. We expect the things that are dead or dying to remain so. But what happens when they refuse to stay that way?" (209).

"I picture my store burned to the ground, its contents looted. I imagine a crowed gathered around the charred remains of the building, shaking their heads silently in sympathy, in pity. Can of Campbell's soup are rolling down the sidewalk and street. The air smells of melted plastic, and no one can do anything because the trucks sent to save my store are here in front of me moving at roughly the same pace I am."

"Of course, my father looks back one last time at my mother, brother, and me before he's escorted at gunpoint out the door. I'm not even sure how much he was able to see at that point--whether our faces were distinguishable from one another, or if through the haze of tears and blood the three of us merged into one indeterminate figure. I like to think that's the way he saw us, his family, not as individual people, but as a world, one that he could faithfully claim to have created."