Response to La Linea (Helen)

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I find it impressive that Jaramillo was able to convey the feelings of the characters and invoke responses in the readers with so much showing and very little telling, using such simple yet eloquent sentence- structure all the while.

The anger I felt at the racism, corruption, unfairness, and injustice of the whole situation...it made me want to break something. I mean honestly, Miguel was dead-on when he was talking about how the desert was enough to make it hard for them to cross; it boggles my mind that people can be so racist, heartless and oblivious that they make it so hard to do something illegal that should be legal, that they kill people for trying to flee from a country where they don't have what they need, along with terrorizing them. Where does this stupid law even come from? If people want to come here for a better life, why not let them? Why not offer resources so there's not poverty to begin with? Why not work together?

Jaramillo's imagery was vivid in describing the obstacles Miguel and Elena had to overcome, and much of it was horrifying. Yet she was able to squeeze in doses of hope, character development and the progression of Miguel's and Elena's relationship, again by showing, not telling. I do wish we got to see more of that; I wish the book maybe had been a bit longer. It went by so fast, partially because I tried to get it done in time. Those things considered, I was only able to decipher enough to know that Miguel and his sister became close, that he forgave her mistakes and put everything into being there for her, and she was very grateful, and brave the whole time, no longer crying like the beginning of the book (though she had more than enough reason to), and that they were still in touch in the end.

I understand that the end was meant to show the unpredictability of life, how our dreams don't always work out how we thought they would, but that they can work out nonetheless...but it felt like a brief, hastily-put-together glimpse into the too-clean aftermath of such a harrowing journey--and many years into the future, and only in terms of relationships and locations; hardly anything about the emotions and family relationships. I would've loved to find out more about exactly why Elena went back; she wanted to get back to her roots, which is understandable, but her grandmother was dead, and the biggest reason Elena wanted to cross, it seemed, was to see her Mom--which we get to see none of. Nor do we even get to meet Miguel's dad, and we aren't truly enlightened on the real reason behind his decision not to bring Miguel and Elena to them. The ending was dissatisfying and disappointing. If Jaramillo was going to let the two main characters live till the end, with any kind of familial resolution, then it would've been nice for her to continue her style of showing not telling.


 



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