Odyssey to the North

I found Odisea del Norte to be an exceptionally well written and interesting novel. Starting in the present and using a series of flashbacks, Bencastro tells the story of Calixto, a man from El Salvador, who is trapped by circumstances into crossing illegally into the United States.The book is filled with humor and pathos along with exciting action sequences that will hopefully help everyone to take another look at the problems of "illegal" immigration.One nice thing about the book is that Bencastro simply tells the story with a minimum of editorializing, thus allowing the reader to come to his or her own conclusions. Although written in Spanish, the vocabulary and style was quite readable for a non-native Spanish reader such as myself.The book was a pleasure to read. I was sorry when I got to the end.

As a Salvadorean who resides in MT. Pleasant Street in Northwest DC this book brought back memories from my childhood in El Salvador and of growing up in the Latin neighborhood of DC. Bencastro does a great job describing the ambition and determination of the Salvadorean imigrants in the United States. The book helped me understand all that my parants went through to get my family in this country and to provide us with a better chance at life.

Mario Bencastro's books, Odyssey to the North, its the first of its kinds to deal with the psychological impact of migration for many Salvadoran immigrants who migrated to the US during the eighties. Many have written about the war, but none about the impact of the migration on our psychic and our experiencies in this country. As a Salvadoran immigrant, I found his easy to read monologue/dialogue very revealing. I could connect to the situations because I witnessed them daily in the lives of my parents, cousins, brothers, and friends. Indeed, Bencastro, has demonstrated not only to Salvadorans, but to all immigrants, that all our stories are worth telling because they are full of heroism, pride, love, disappointments, and at the end, the greatness of the human spirit. Read this book if you are interested in understanding how the American dream is earned by many new comers. Thanks to Bencastro for opening the doors for the Salvadoran-American experience to become part of the best ot the American literature tradition!