Latinx poet, educator, writer Andrés N. Ordorica makes his fiction debut with How We Named the Stars, a searing coming-of-age, first-love story between two young men--one living, the other six weeks dead. Daniel de la Luna and Sam Morris began as strangers at their elite upstate New York college, where they were randomly assigned as roommates. While they share California roots, their backgrounds are markedly different: awkward "overthinker" Daniel, the son of Mexican immigrants, is the first of his family to pursue higher education, made possible by a full-ride academic scholarship; golden-boy Sam is privileged, white, a talented legacy on the soccer team, with easygoing, kind parents who ensure the boys' every comfort when they deliver Sam to campus. Over the school year, their relationship evolves from roommates to best friends to something more; their summer apart will separate them forever.
Ordorica bestows upon Daniel authorial agency, writing in first person with aching vulnerability. Daniel addresses Sam directly and inclusively--you, your, our--confessing everything he could have, should have, said to Sam when they were still together, when he was still alive. While the book's first half centers on the growing intimacy between the two young men, the second half turns to Daniel on his own, as he adapts, learns, expands into his maturing selfhood. Being discarded by Sam ironically provides Daniel the opportunity to spend the summer in Chihuahua, Mexico, with his beloved grandfather and extended family. This time, he grows familiar--through others finally willing to talk--with his late uncle and namesake, Daniel, who died two years before his birth. Readers, too, will come to understand the provenance of the cleverly placed epigraphs that open each chapter. The persistent similarities between uncle and nephew will provide the latter with the determination to "To live. To be happy. To be free."
Fifteen years in the creating, the novel owes a debt to Waiting for Godot, according to Ordorica in his concluding author's note. He emphasizes that "this is not a memoir, and I am not Daniel," yet adds, "But the experiences that Daniel goes through, of being named after a family member he never met, and then losing a dear friend at the tender age of nineteen, are both truths that have shaped my own story." That empathy resonates on every page, although Ordorica can veer occasionally toward overwrought repetition and pedantic awkwardness. Minor stumbles aside, Ordorica affectingly ciphers stripped-bare emotions into a haunting tribute to love and survival. --Terry Hong, BookDragon
Shelf Talker: Andrés N. Ordorica's fiercely impassioned debut novel parses the intensely evolving relationship between two young men in their first year as roommates at an elite upstate New York college.