Tortuga

By: Rudolfo Anaya

Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon

This American Book Award winner by the author of Bless Me, Ultima is a novel of a New Mexico teenager's journey of physical and spiritual recovery.

When the story opens, the eponymous hero of Rudolfo Anaya's novel is in an ambulance en route to a hospital for crippled children in the New Mexican desert. A poor boy from Albuquerque, 16-year-old Tortuga takes his name from the odd, turtle-shaped mountain that is rumored to possess miraculous curative powers.

Tortuga is paralyzed, and not even his mother's fervent prayers can heal him. But under the mountain's watchful gaze, with the support of fellow patients, he begins the Herculean task of breaking out of his shell and becoming whole again.

Drawn from personal experience and imbued with the magic realism and phantasmagorical vision quests that distinguish Anaya's work, Tortuga is a joyful, life-sustaining book about hope, faith, friendship, and love that celebrates the triumph of the human spirit in the physical world.

©1979 Rudolfo Anaya (P)2020 Tantor

The resilience of the main character

This book was tedious in some parts. I like the story but certain parts of it were dragged for too long and it was boring at times.

Distracting narrator for great novel

Narrator botched a lot of pronunciations, and occasionally performed lines as the wrong character. Rough stuff.

Not quite what I expected

I have read most of Anaya’s work and enjoyed this one the least. It lacked the magic of Bless Me, Última and, at times, seemed to ramble and repeat itself. I would recommend Anaya’s other works for a better example of his storytelling.