The Five Acts of Diego Leon

November 19, 2012
This lackluster historical from Espinoza (Still Water Saints) has neither inspired writing nor sophisticated characterizations in its unoriginal smalltown-boy-goes-to-Hollywood plot. The prologue suggests something more involved; as young Mexican Diego Leon witnesses his father leave town in 1911, he “could not imagine the many faces he would be called to wear—a soldier, a thief, a lover, a villain, a king, a husband, a father.” But the titular five acts do not reflect a renaissance career; instead, inspired by a neighbor to practice orating, when Leon comes of age, he ditches his fiancée for the movie business. His struggle to become an actor couldn’t be more clichéd—he takes menial jobs, betrays a friend to get an audition—and most readers will struggle to care how things end up. Four chapters in, Espinoza gives a glimpse of what might have been, with an exciting description of the turmoil in 1926 Mexico, when President Elias Calles enforced a constitutional provision “stripping the church of much of its power,” triggering a wave of savage violence. A novel describing how the Mexicans who didn’t abandon their country to pursue selfish goals weathered the turbulence would have been much more interesting than this one. Agent: Elyse Cheney.

February 1, 2013
A poor Mexican man crosses the border and becomes a star in 1930s Hollywood in this superficial second novel that follows Still Water Saints (2007). The boy is dancing at a religious festival. The priest has taught him the steps, but the kid improvises; the crowd loves it, clapping and cheering. In his tiny Mexican village, 11-year-old Diego Leon experiences the joy of the performer before his life changes drastically. It's 1917. Six years earlier, his peasant father rode off to fight in Mexico's revolution. He returned a broken man. Unable to raise his son, his wife dead, he sends him to live with his in-laws in Morelia. Diego's grandparents, prosperous bourgeois, erase the boy's indigenous ancestry and invent a European father for him. Diego goes along with the program, works in his grandfather's office and consents to an arranged marriage, though attracted to men. But on the eve of the wedding, he bolts. His train north is set on fire by religious fanatics. Here and elsewhere, Espinoza fails to feed the scanty historical details smoothly into his narrative. Impulsively, Diego heads to Los Angeles (he's seen silent movies already). He finds a cheap boardinghouse and works as a busboy. Charlie, a genial fellow lodger also trying to break into movies, takes him to Central Casting. Diego betrays him. Now, anything can happen. A book weakened by a lack of plausible character development.

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May 1, 2013

Covering the period 1917-36, this latest from the author of Still Water Saints is divided into five "acts" that each mirrors a decisive act taken by its hero, Diego Leon. In Act I, the orphaned Diego secures a better life when he moves in with his well-to-do grandparents in Morelia, Mexico. In Act II, he escapes an arranged marriage and aims to make it in Hollywood. Act III sees Diego getting his first break, but only by betraying a friend. In Act IV, he becomes a famous star by relying on the influence of a gay studio mogul. And in Act V, he's fired from the studio, a has-been. The narrative is evidently based on a true story, as Espinoza researched the contribution of Hispanic actors to Hollywood in the 1930s. VERDICT Though the rags-to-riches-to-rags plot is somewhat cliched, the dialog is crisp, the characters are well delineated, the story moves quickly, and the re-creation of Hollywood's golden era is vivid. Most readers will enjoy.--Lawrence Olszewski, OCLC Lib., Dublin, OH

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2013
Growing up in rural Mexico in crushing poverty, Diego Leon dreams of performing. When circumstances become dire, his revolutionary father sends him to live with his dead mother's aristocratic parents. They raise Diego to take his grandfather's place in the family bank, but his dream of performing and his budding homosexuality force him to run away the night before his arranged marriage. Arriving in Hollywood in the early 1920s, he discovers that Mexicans don't get served in restaurants or hotelsor get work. So hiding his nationality and his beauty and physique get him bit parts in silent films. It doesn't take long for director Bill Cage, who is known for promoting pretty young men, to take notice and groom Diego for stardom. Unfortunately, Diego mistakes this for love. Basing his novel on a true story, Espinoza has created an alternative vision of Hollywood's golden age and a young man determined to achieve his dreams at any cost. There are flashes of real drama and action in the novel describing the Mexican revolution and the backstage workings of the silent-film era. Although the characters remain a bit flat, film enthusiasts should find it fascinating.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)