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the pain in his legs ... to make him ... to make him sleep." He turns the name of the place into an irony: He feels so isolated, he cannot bother to even learn the names of those around him, opting instead for shorthand – "The Gringo With the Ugly Finger," "The One Who Likes to Kiss Your
Forehead." He takes pleasure only from his cigarettes.
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Don
Fidencio is a 91-year-old widower, a resident of Amigoland, a Brownsville nursing home, where he's been sent by his daughter and son-in-law. His body is failing him, and he's stuffed with pills – "pills for his heart ... his blood pressure ... his cholesterol ... his kidneys ... his heartburn ...
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As
Fidencio and Celestino catch up, Socorro learns that their falling out concerned a story the old men cannot agree on: Was it true that their "Papa Grande" saw his family killed by Indians and was then kidnapped and brought north? They decide to set out on a four-day bus trip to Linares to search
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Socorro is Don
Celestino's housekeeper. She is a childless widow three decades younger than Celestino who lives across the border in Matamoros. It's Socorro, seeking a deeper relationship with Celestino, who encourages him to visit his brother after years of estrangement.
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Fidencio’s somewhat younger brother
Celestino, also a widower, is now suffering from diabetes. In contrast to his brother, Celestino is still vital enough to start a Viagra-assisted affair with his housekeeper, Socorro.
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131:. The plot centers on two estranged elderly brothers who reunite after many years to break the elder brother, Don Fidencio, out of his nursing home in
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Casares said in an interview that growing up with two elderly parents influenced his work.
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The themes of aging, brotherhood, identity and memory figure prominently in
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was written as his own father was dying in a nursing home in
Brownsville.
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on a quest to solve the mystery of how their family came to
America.
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for the truth about their grandfather and about each other.
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and was later selected by the 2010 Mayor's Book Club in
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41:Relevant discussion may be found on the
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119:is the first novel by American author
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127:. It was published in 2009 by
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16:Novel by Oscar Casares
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204:Themes
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