Bless Me, Ultima - Rudolfo Anaya (November)

Highly recommended!! I'd consider on par as the Chicano version of Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe.

Told from the perspective of a boy in rural New Mexico during the 1940's, it's the tale of when a curandera (traditional healer) comes to live with his family. He struggles with his religious faith, with family values, with loyalty, with myth and reality, with good and evil, with modern times vs. traditional ways. It flows very well - an easy read with characters that are sympathetically human.

Too many books I read of late focus on characters' flaws, and I find that tedious. We're all flawed, so we move on - which is the philosophy of this book, too. It's probably too dichotomously simple to be great, but it's a very enjoyable read. And yeah, I'll 'fess - I can be a fan of mysticism and magical realism.