Book Review: “Valley of Shadows” by Rudy Ruiz
Mexican Magic (Realism)
I am suffering from a form of writer’s block as I sit down to pen this review. What can I say about the magical Valley of Shadows? The publisher is trying to sell it as a novel of magic realism — a genre unto its own where the mundane and ordinary meets the wild and outlandish (and unrealistic, if not surrealistic). However, the book deserves to be more than pigeonholed into a niche genre. It straddles several different genres. It is, on the surface, a western. It is also a mystery novel. It is a horror novel. And it is a romance. It could be true that many novels splice different genres together — after all, a Chick Lit book may be a family saga and a romance. Still, Valley of Shadows puts together many genres into one, which is not an easy feat to pull off. Reading this book is a little like watching someone turn a light on and off somewhere in your house. The light switch goes on and the room is bathed in complete sunshine. The light goes off and the room is suddenly plunged into darkness. Such is the tone of this novel, which changes on a whim from chapter to chapter. That’ll either be to your liking or it won’t. And perhaps that should be my way of edging into this book — of how to introduce it to readers. Writer’s block, be gone!
Valley of Shadows follows a bit of a tired plot device before shaking things up. This is the story of a retired sheriff in the new frontier of the 1800s American west who is pulled into investigating one last crime. You’ve read this sort of story before, but Harvard-educated author Rudy Ruiz invests a certain amount of pathos into the scenario. The retired sheriff is a Mexican American named Solitario, who — as his name would imply — lives alone in the desert of the Rio Grande Valley on the American side of the river. At the novel’s outset, a vicious murder of a family has occurred: the husband and wife are killed and one of the sons, a child, is kidnapped. Over time, similar murders will take place where the female children are the only ones to be left alive, but they too will have disappeared. But that’s getting ahead of things. Solitario reluctantly agrees to investigate the initial killing and disappearance, and, of course, soon finds himself over his head. The magic realism aspect of the book comes into play during his investigation because he can communicate with the dead. And, as can be expected, there’s a love interest that comes into play — but Solitario is reluctant to do anything in terms of consummating the relationship because his initial girlfriend as a teenager drowned in a flood and his wife died, both as a result of a family curse that was placed on him. (There’s the magic realism again.)
There’s a lot of substance going on with this novel. One of the themes that the book plays with is the notion of what it means to be American when you’re a person of color. The area that Solitario is doing his sleuthing around in was originally Mexican but became American when the Rio Grande flooded. (This is based on real-life events, as the river did somewhat change course after a massive flood in 1864 that wound up altering some of the borders between the two countries.) This notion of nationality plays a role in the protagonist’s investigation as he’s in a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation: if he arrests an American, he’ll be branded something of a racist among his fellow US countrymen, but if he arrests a Mexican, there would be rioting in the streets for capitulating to outside and White interests. Thus, there is a great deal of subtext in the novel — which betrays the fact that Valley of Shadows is effortlessly written, and is, as it could be said, easy on the eyes of the reader. This is the type of book that you can ascribe as much meaning to it as you want, or you can alternatively just shut out the intellectual fireworks and enjoy the grippingly good yarn.
There is much to admire here: the love interest is of mixed race, there’s a plot twist at the end that I didn’t see coming, and the hopscotching between genres is fascinating to behold. However, is Valley of Shadows the best novel of this sort that I’ve ever read? No. It’s hard to say why exactly — though I suspect a culprit might be that we don’t get to learn much about the secondary characters and they all seem to be cardboard cut-outs, no offense to anyone involved in the production of this work intended. Still, it was a pleasure to read, even if it lacks the panache and verve of a book of this sort that would have been written by more well-known authors who have mined the depths of genre grafting. (I’ll leave the rest of that statement up to your imagination, because, after all, this is a book that depends on using yours.) Valley of Shadows is interesting in that it was released a few months after the similarly themed Valleyesque by Fernando A. Flores — another magic realist book, albeit one containing short stories and one that is more contemporary in setting. Anyhow, Valley of Shadows is intriguing to a point. It is not always successful as noted, but this is still a sterling example of magic realism done well from a different perspective and a refreshingly non-White one. Those readers seeking a divergent view of how genres can combine and fold in on themselves will find much to enjoy here. Valley of Shadows is well executed, even despite its character development flaws. I enjoyed it, and maybe that’s all that needs to be said. Undam any blockages, I say to myself, and go along with the flow wherever it may take you.
Rudy Ruiz’s Valley of Shadows was published by Blackstone Publishing on September 20, 2022.
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Get in touch: zacharyhoule@rogers.com
