Illusion and the possibility of magic coexist with the pain and joy of daily life in these compelling pieces mostly set in the Texas-Mexico border region. In one, a girl desperately wants to know more about her mother, who died when she was four years old. Did she like being a mom? Would she have preferred partying with her friends? When her eccentric aunt says she can teach her how to travel back in time, the girl is skeptical. Is it really possible to visit the past and communicate with the dead?
Each story is a celebration of the narrative’s power to transport, enlighten and connect the reader to the myriad facets of the human experience. In “Borges and the Chicanx,” a Chicano professor’s imposter syndrome worsens when he is asked to teach a course on a famed Latin American writer he has never read and whose work he doesn’t understand. And in “Sara’s Chest of Drawers,” a young man’s parents insist he go through his dead twin sister’s things even though he doesn’t think she would want him to—until she sends him a sign from the beyond.
Dreams, memories, visions and superstitions permeate this collection of short fiction that blends the ordinary with the extraordinary, making the fantastical feel surprisingly tangible. Considering themes of outsider status and displacement, cultural representation and authenticity, identity and collective memory, award-winning author Daniel Chacón once again crafts troubled characters searching for salvation from sorrows they often cannot even articulate.
Click here to watch Daniel Chacón in the APP Authors Speak series talking about his creative process.
“A clever collection of stories exploring fantasy, superstition, and Chicano identity. Chacón’s stories deal with small magic: the mysticism of conversations with relatives or finding a familiar face in an unfamiliar setting. Witty, humorous stories about the magic of everyday life.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Equal parts surreal and sharp, devastating and delightful, The Last Philosopher in Texas has something for everyone.”—Southern Review of Books
“The Last Philosopher in Texas is the author at the full-blown height of his abilities.”—El Paso Matters
Praise for the work of Daniel Chacón:
“In seemingly effortless fashion, Chacón’s talent goes into play, his collection unfolding with sketches of life…sketches that [he] draws for us in unpretentious prose—all on the border between the U.S. and Mexico, all on the border between life and art.”—Alan Cheuse, NPR’s All Things Considered on Hotel Juárez
“A master of narrative brevity, Chacón collects several short fictions, from stand-alone koans to connected vignettes…[his] prose moves swiftly, doubles back, and echoes itself with tessellated, Alhambra-like layering.”—Booklist on Hotel Juárez
“Linked but never repetitive, these beautiful stories are fresh, with just enough Borges-ian magic to make them feel extraordinary.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review) on Hotel Juárez
“Chacón’s insightful novel portrays the trials of Victor Reyes, a death metal-loving, artistic teen who’s seemingly ill-fated in life.”—Kirkus Reviews on The Cholo Tree
“Chacón has written a classic and powerful underdog story about a brown teen building the self-efficacy to see his worth and achieve his dream.”—School Library Journal on The Cholo Tree
DANIEL CHACÓN is the author of The Cholo Tree (Piñata Books, 2017); Hotel Juárez: Stories, Rooms and Loops (Arte Público Press, 2013); Unending Rooms (Black Lawrence Press, 2008), winner of the Hudson Prize; and the shadows took him (Washington Square Press, 2005) and Chicano Chicanery (Arte Público Press, 2000). A professor at the University of Texas at El Paso, he is co-editor of The Last Supper of Chicano Heroes: The Selected Works of José Antonio Burciaga (University of Arizona Press, 2008).
