Carved in Bone: A Henry Rios Novel by Michael Nava (review)

Abstract

© 2021 by the University of Texas Press This lack of genuine connection among familial relations is a topic Ralph E. Rodríguez addresses in Brown Gumshoes: Detective Fiction and the Search for Chicana/o Identity (2005). While discussing the concept of family, particularly in Chicana/o communities, Rodríguez draws on feminist scholar Norma Alarcón’s theory of familia. She writes, “The speaking subject today has to position herself at the margins of the ‘symbolic contract’ and refuse to accept definitions of ‘woman’ and ‘man’ in order to transform the contract. This transformation would help us to ‘make familia from scratch’ ” (157). In response, Rodríguez proposes that familia not be made from scratch, but rather that the entire normative concept of family be scratched, eliminated, and erased. Ryan and Rios are both profoundly affected by not being part of a family structure; Ryan’s death is just another reminder to Rios that collective acceptance often means more to oneself than is healthy or desired. Just out of rehab for alcoholism and working as an insurance claims investigator as he refocuses on his law career, Rios takes a meticulous interest in Ryan’s case because he identifies with the hardships Ryan has experienced in relation to his identity, sexual orientation, desires, and fear of AIDS. Rodríguez notes that Rios’s “racial identity, in conjunction with his sexual identity, creates a heightened sense of disease for him” (38). Rodríguez’s distinction of “disease” suggests that Rios doesn’t merely feel uneasy in certain situations pertaining to his social, romantic, personal, or professional life. He feels a sense of “disease,” a complete separation from comfort with little possibility of connection between himself and the world. Not only is Rios gay, but he is also Chicano, creating a tension that causes him to feel like a constant outsider. To be gay in the 1980s, like Rios, was to live in constant fear of death and rejection from heteronormative society. Although gay men had each other and created familial ties, the viciousness of AIDS ensured that those with the syndrome often suffered lonely and painful deaths. With this epidemic came a dark cloud Carved in Bone: A Henry Rios Novel