CARLOS CROSSES THE LINE

A migrant worker and a rancher's daughter form a lasting connection in this historical novel.

Webster, the author of Soul of Toledo (2016), presents a narrative that bounces between the late 1960s, the 1990s, and beyond, showing the lasting impact that people can have on each other’s lives. Mexican Carlos Montoya, who regularly travels between his home country and the United States as a migrant worker, goes to work in the fields of the Booker family’s ranch in California in 1967. He catches the eye of the owner’s wife, Amy Booker, who hires him to pose for her provocative drawings, which she uses to irritate her husband; however, Carlos ends up sleeping with Amy’s 20-ish daughter, Julie. Although he loves his wife, Isabel, back in Mexico, Carlos also begins an emotional and eventually sexual affair with a local woman, María. Carlos becomes the victim of police brutality—with details revealed over the course of the book—and returns to Mexico, where he wants to forget about his California years. In 1994, as debate rages over Proposition 187, which aims to deny state services to the undocumented, Lilia Gomez, who works for Julie, goes to visit Carlos in Michoacán. Carlos, now a widower, reluctantly tells her the story of his time with Julie; however, he and Lilia later fall for each other. Meanwhile, Benito Ortega, a young San Francisco activist, fights for immigrant rights while discovering his own connection to Carlos, and Julie resolves her own loose ends. Despite the sprawling and occasionally melodramatic plot, this novel is highly readable and easy to follow as the narrative and characters move between different eras and locales. Throughout, Carlos is a challenging protagonist, and his attempts to justify his infidelity are particularly infuriating, but Webster depicts his complexities with empathy. The author’s depictions of racism and brutality straddle the line between evocative and cartoonish (“Don’t you know that ranchers conspire against their workers?” Julie says. “María’s overseer would beat you for fun, then hand you to my father”). Overall, though, they generally help to present a vivid portrait of the challenges that Carlos faces throughout the story.

A solid historical novel that explores how love, hate, and prejudice can last for decades.