Darkness, grief, and generational trauma are carefully probed in Pablo Cartaya's audacious and fascinating Rubik's Cube of a novel, A Hero's Guide to Summer Vacation. Cartaya's format contains layers of stories within stories and clever parallels that combine to create a daring and sophisticated middle-grade read.
Thirteen-year-old Gonzalo Alberto Sánchez García "never considered himself to be the hero of his own story." After his father died at the beginning of seventh grade, the year passed "in a kind of daze." For the summer, Gonzalo's mother has sent him to stay with his taciturn grandfather, Alberto, an antisocial hermit who also happens to be beloved by millions for his series of children's fantasy books. Gonzalo, though, has never had any interest in reading books written by a grandfather who seems averse to human connection. When Gonzalo's mom, who's also Alberto's manager, sends the duo on a cross-country road trip to promote the final book in Alberto's series, Gonzalo begrudgingly begins to read the books. At the same time, while they make pit stops both planned and random, Alberto tells Gonzalo about his early life in Cuba as a dissident and prisoner. As the stories coil together, they reveal to Gonzalo that where his family has been may be equally as important as where they're going.
While the premise of a road trip may seem quaint, Cartaya (Each Tiny Spark) builds a complex, labyrinthian work reminiscent of Argentine legend Jorge Luis Borges. A Hero's Guide to Summer Vacation, influenced by Cartaya's own loss, feels both intimate and expansive. It is a wondrous looking glass of catharsis and reconciliation. --Luis G. Rendon, freelance reviewer