The Barbarian Nurseries

By: Héctor Tobar

Narrated by: Frankie J. Alvarez

The great panoramic social novel that Los Angeles deserves—a 21st-century, West Coast Bonfire of the Vanities by the only writer qualified to capture the city in all its glory and complexity.

With The Barbarian Nurseries, Héctor Tobar gives our most misunderstood metropolis its great contemporary novel, taking us beyond the glimmer of Hollywood and deeper than camera-ready crime stories to reveal Southern California life as it really is, across its vast, sunshiny sprawl of classes, languages, dreams, and ambitions.

Araceli is the live-in maid in the Torres-Thompson household—one of three Mexican employees in a Spanish-style house with lovely views of the Pacific. She has been responsible strictly for the cooking and cleaning, but the recession has hit, and suddenly Araceli is the last Mexican standing—unless you count Scott Torres, though you’d never suspect he was half Mexican but for his last name and an old family photo with central LA in the background. The financial pressure is causing the kind of fights that even Araceli knows the children shouldn’t hear, and then one morning, after a particularly dramatic fight, Araceli wakes to an empty house—except for the two Torres-Thompson boys, little aliens she’s never had to interact with before. Their parents are unreachable, and the only family member she knows of is Señor Torres, the subject of that old family photo. So she does the only thing she can think of and heads to the bus stop to seek out their grandfather. It will be an adventure, she tells the boys. If she only knew.

With a precise eye for the telling detail and an unerring way with character, soaring brilliantly and seamlessly among a panorama of viewpoints, Tobar calls on all of his experience—as a novelist, a father, a journalist, a son of Guatemalan immigrants, and a native Angeleno—to deliver a novel as broad, as essential, as alive as the city itself.

©2011 Héctor Tobar (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“ Los Angeles Times journalist Tobar’s second novel is brimming with interwoven stories that form a vibrant portrait of his hometown of Los Angeles…The result is a marvelous pastiche of social commentary ensconced in a family domestic drama.” ( Booklist, starred review)

Great Reader, Captivating Story

The story took a while to show what direction it was headed, but definitely worth reading. As a California native, the story felt more personal. I also loved the allusions that almost felt like inside jokes to a second generation Mexican American. Would recommend listening.

Very good

What made the experience of listening to The Barbarian Nurseries the most enjoyable?

Once I realized what was going on I really enjoyed this book. It was somewhat confusing in the beginning because it is from the point of view of a Mexican maid who herself is not sure what is going on. I really loved the narrator of this book.

Family drama with new twists.

I try not to retell a story or give any big spoilers. There is more than enough information in the publisher’s summary to get you into this one.

As the characters develop, it is easy to fall into their basic household routine. Of course there are some tensions, but they seem to be under control. Then one decision by one individual destroys the equilibrium. Like dominoes, things seem to fall one at a time and set off the next disruption. As the story proceeds the characters must adapt and, of course, life will never return to its previous status.

This is very well written and narrated. It is believable, cohesive, and well developed. I would not hesitate to purchase another book by this author and/or narrator.

Great story, great narrator

Here is a literary novel that tells a fresh story with wit, honesty and a not-so-subtle social commentary. The story of a Mexican immigrant, the Californian family she's employed by, and one event that changes all their lives, it opened my eyes, made me laugh and left me wanting more -- more stories of Latino immigrants, more Hector Tobar, more Frankie J. Alvarez. It even left me thinking about refreshing my 1-semester's worth of college Spanish.

The narration absolutely requires a Spanish speaker, and hearing the words trill off the tongue of Alvarez was wonderful. Hector Tobar is skilled at straddling the cultures of both North and Latin America, showing us their similarities and differences, and the uneasy and inspiring ways they come together.

Above all, it's just a good story that moved well -- never overly expository, never preachy, and never predictable. Buy it and you'll be entertained, and you might even learn something, too.

Loved the book in both print and audio

The production was really well done. The preformer perfectly read the mixture of both English and Spanish in the novel that really elevates the authors great writing style