Mile Zero

Thomas Sanchez reminds me of a Key West James Joyce with his sometimes too thick, poetic prose and his very realistically drawn characters. He can make you feel the heat and humidity and the Florida atmosphere so directly you will start to sweat just reading about it. He has an amazing sense of time and place as well as character. This is a dense and rich book that puts overrated crap like "92 In The Shade" to shame. This is a tour de force of comedy, tragedy, passion and America.

Thomas Sanchez's MILE ZERO was proclaimed a "masterpiece" by the NY Times; the Washingon Post declared it a "A holy terror of a book." One can see why. Not only is it masterful, but it is also, as Vanity Fair proclaimed, "mythmaking and magisterial." Since its publication, MILE ZERO has achived mythic stature, and deservedly so, its "cultural and literary intertextuality," as the Los Angeles Times observed, certainly ranks with Lowry's UNDER THE VOLCANO and Steinbeck's EAST OF EDEN, which is why I have been using it in my college core curriculum for more than a decade. The novel mines the African-Anglo-Cuban history of the island of Key West and its people over the course of an American century, creating a timeless metaphor; at its heart is a Cuban-American protagonist whose moral complexity is at once shockingly modern and heartbreakingly human. There are many reasons why this controversial, risk taking and daring novel has touched so many and will continue to do so.

This might just be the greatest undiscovered novel in recent American literature. It has it all: transcendant prose, a believable and credible story, wonderful characters, and a grand epic American theme involving immigration, corruption of the soul, and the American Dream. Reads like it was written in a fever by a true artist. Amen, Brother Sanchez, amen!

Brilliant! Rare is the author that can create such flawed characters so attractive to the reader. From tragically human St. Cloud to mythic-hero-figure Justo, the complex faceting of personalities will draw you in. Add to this the richly drawn background of Key West, and you have a captivating and intelligent story.Simply one of the best fiction works set in Florida and possibly the top of any based in the American fairy tale that is Key West.

This is one of my all time favorite novels, and Mr. Sanchez one of my all time favorite novelists. The vision of the author can be seen from the very beginning of the book. I was, and am, completely engrossed in this work of fiction, and have read it numerous times. The author's other novels, Zoot Suit Murders and Rabbit Boss are also masterpieces. My only regret is that there aren't more Sanchez works available. BUY THIS!