Marcus Vega Doesn't Speak Spanish
Written and Narrated By: Pablo Cartaya
Length: 4 hrs and 35 mins
Compelling Concept and Successful Execution… There, I’ve managed to take the oh sooo large heart outta a truly beautiful story that’s wonderful for all ages…!!!
I get really crotchety when audiobooks that are blatantly NOT for m’ own age-group don’t please me. I mean, whoooooo do those authors think they are, writing something that I don’t like? You know, me over here at 56-years of age and rolling on the downslope of my existence…?!
Add to that with Marcus Vega Doesn’t Speak Spanish? Why, author Pablo Cartaya comes along and has the audacity to narrate his own work about a 14-year old troubled kid. I mean, whooooo does he think he is, inhabiting our hero’s life?
Well, p’raps he thinks he’s just the right person to craft a story with such a compelling main character, a kid way too big for his age, one who towers over everybody else, one who once had hopes and expectations of having friends, of doing fun things, of being accepted as is.
Uhm, nope. The story opens with Marcus pondering his status as being a Monster, a Threat, a Man of Business as he enforces the school principal’s rules… for a price. A Man of Business who will walk smaller kids to and from school… for a price. These kids would otherwise be grist for the bullying mill. Whether it’s not narcing on kids leaving litter in the school library, or it’s taking up cell phones, you name it, and Marcus the Towering Monster has found a way to earn some cash for it. After all, if he can’t be one of them, if his size is going to make him a pariah, where once he’d hoped to fit in? Might as well profit from it.
And those kids that’d be bullied? Ahhhh, there’s one bully who stands out amongst them all; a kid who, during a confrontation, has the Uber-audacity and callous cruelty to call the little brother of Marcus, the “r” word. As little brother Charlie has Down Syndrome? Well, Marcus just snaps and decks the creep.
All this is a set up for Marcus and Charlie to be taken away to Puerto Rico, cuz something just has to change. Mom just doesn’t know what to do, and maybe seeing family (The absent dad’s family who Charlie and Marcus have never met), maybe a change of scenery? Maybe SOMEthing? Mom, who works long and grueling hours, leaving Marcus in charge of everything is grasping at straws.
Marcus, however, has big plans for this trip. He’ll find his absent father, and all will be well.
The story goes from there, and things just get more and more beautiful because we see what True Family means. They’re the ones who’ll stand by ya, thick, thin, no matter what. They’re the ones who’ll let you learn necessary lessons without getting in the way.
And they’re the ones who are there when Life and Reality can bring the harshest of lessons.
Cartaya has crafted a seamless story that, no matter what, just doesn’t go where ya think it’s going to go. And how awesome is that? I truly thought that there would be an easy little Bringing Of All Strings Together for a neat little packaged story, the ending a sweet little bow. But nope: There’s pain here, and frustration, and grim realities.
And acceptance.
And friendship.
And the love of family.
And best of all? There’s Hope.
Tie in Cartaya as the PERFECT voice for Marcus, a fearless performance? Wonderfully done, sir! There’s a scene where Marcus just canNOT take A Single. Solitary. Minute more of fraught emotions, and he loses it. Cartaya doesn’t simply have Marcus kinda sorta vaguely raise his voice. No, Marcus is frustrated, he’s broken, he’s in pain. And Cartaya bellows his rage to the sky. If that doesn’t move you, why then nothing will.
Just an awesome, wonderfully crafted story. The ending was just as it should be, and tho’ no strings were left dangling, I just coulda done with more hours of story, of Marcus developing, of listening to a sense of family and acceptance.
Marvelous…
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