Into The Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea

           This story is in the motif of a quest story, in a way. Not actually in the sense of trying to change the world. But in the sense of self quest for growth and understanding.
            It starts out in a small village in Mexico where the men have all gone norrth to the United States to seek a better life. The women are left behind. The village is not a thriving community.
           Drug dealing bandits are a problem. Someone needs to handle the problem. The new mayor elect is a woman but she is not able to handle the situation.
          But as mayor she is able to bring movies in to the village. The favorite star is Yul  Brynner. But Steve McQueen is a close second. It is the movie The Magnificant Seven that gives out protaginist, Nayeli, the idea to go to the   United States and get seven men to fight the drug dealers. Also while she is up there she wants to find and bring back her father.
         The story concerns itself in the first half with the border problem and the second half is in the United States where she and her followers dodge the border police.
         Nayeli discovers the US is not the friendly place for an illegal to be she had pictured. But since she wants to find seven people to fight the dealers and at the same time find her father, she is unstoppable.
          The tone of the writing is light and in places funny. It is well written and a good read.
           It is summer reading.

          Into the Beautiful North: A Novel