The Death of My Father the Pope: A Memoir

A man mourning his alcoholic father faces a paradox: to pay tribute, lay scorn upon, or pour a drink. A wrenching, dazzling, revelatory debut

Weaving between the preparations for his father's funeral and memories of life on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, Obed Silva chronicles his father's lifelong battle with alcoholism and the havoc it wreaked on his family. Silva and his mother had come north across the border to escape his father's violent, drunken rages. His father had followed and danced dangerously in and out of the family's life until he was arrested and deported back to Mexico, where he drank himself to death, one Carta Blanca at a time, at the age of forty-eight.

Told with a wry cynicism, a profane, profound anger, an antic, brutally honest voice, and a hard-won classical frame of reference, Silva channels the heartbreak of mourning while wrestling with the resentment and frustration caused by addiction. The Death of My Father the Pope is a fluid and dynamic combination of memoir and an examination of the power of language--and the introduction of a unique and powerful literary voice.

Author: Obed Silva
Publisher: MCD
Published: 12/07/2021
Pages: 304
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.95lbs
Size: 8.10h x 5.30w x 1.30d
ISBN: 9780374539160

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal Prepub Alert 03/01/2021 pg. 68
Library Journal Prepub Alert 07/01/2021 pg. 12
Publishers Weekly 09/27/2021
Kirkus Reviews 10/15/2021
Library Journal 12/01/2021 pg. 90
Booklist 12/01/2021 pg. 11

About the Author
Born in Chihuahua, Mexico, Obed Silva immigrated to the United States as a toddler. After years in the gang lifestyle--which left him paralyzed from the waist down, the result of a gunshot wound--he discovered the power of book learning, earned a master's degree in medieval literature, and became a respected English professor in East L.A. The Death of My Father the Pope is his first book.