Pedro & Daniel by Frederico Erebia

 Monday, Aug. 14, 2023--San Antonio

I actually read Pedro & Daniel by Frederico Erebia about two weeks ago and forgot to post my reivew of it.  It is a young adult novel about two Mexican American boys growing up.  It's an awkward life in many ways.  One of the brothers is darker than the other which often makes a difference in the cultures of people of color.  In fact, Pedro, the darker brother looks just like his absent father which is a frustration to his mother, since she went against the family's wishes to marry a man from a darker-skinned, less financially successful family than hers.  Both boys are gay, but are so different in almost all other ways.  Pedro plays football and is more like the macho concept expected of boys in the culture.  Daniel plays with dolls and refuses bend to the wishes of his family to be more like a man.  But the boys depend on each other to mentally deal with the various types of abuse they face within the family (both immediate and extended) and elsewhere.  Both want to get away from home as quickly as possible.  It is a wonderfully written story that continues through the 80s and the AIDS epidemic with both brothers as adults still supporting each other and struggling in terms of their relationships within the family.  Although fiction, much of it is based on the real life the author had with his brother Daniel.  Readers should be ready to be greatly affected emotionally.  I gave the book 5 stars out of 5 and kept thinking about the boys' story for days after finishing reading it.