What It Takes to Get to Vegas

by Yxta Maya Murray

Grove Press, $24 hard

Rita Zapata, an unashamedly sexy, young denizen of East L.A., carries on in “la vida loca,” hoping she’ll hitch her wagon to the rising star of a neighborhood boxer — and ride on out of there. After trying nearly every boy in the neighborhood, she meets Billy Novo, a stranger with a face-splitting left hook (and shaky details about his past) and finds love and respect at last. As Rita’s “town” is increasingly wracked by police raids on immigrants, poverty, and drug violence, she clings to him and her dream of the good life as a boxer’s wife in Las Vegas even more desperately. The novel suffers from too many characters with too many competing interests, but the story is told from Rita’s point of view in her lively, authentic voice. And it blazes toward a denouement we’re not totally expecting, which is always a good thing.

This article appears in October 22 • 1999.

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