Capirotada

the long version

"Capirotada, Mexican bread pudding, is a mysterious mixture of prunes, peanuts, white bread, raisins, milk, quesadilla cheese, butter, cinnamon and cloves, Old World sugar - "all this," writes Alberto Rios, "and things people will not tell you." Like its Mexican namesake, this memoir is a rich melange, stirring together Rios's memories of family, neighbors, friends, and secrets from his youth in the two Nogaleses - in Arizona and through the open gate into Mexico."--BOOK JACKET. "The vignettes in this memoir, exploring the borders of memory and narrative, are not loud or fast. Yet, like all of Rios's writings, they are singular. Here is the story about a rickety magician, his chicken, and a group of little boys, but who plays a trick on whom? The story about the flying dancers and mortality. About going to the dentist in Mexico because it is cheaper, and maybe dangerous. About Rios's British mother who sets out on a ship for America with the faith her Mexican GI will be waiting for her in Salt Lake City. And about the grown son who looks at his father and understands how he must provide for his own boy."--BOOK JACKET.