Book Review – The Devil's Highway, by Luis Alberto Urrea
An in-depth investigation of an illegal border crossing with grit, flair, and compassion.
Desert spirits of a dark and mysterious nature have always traveled these trails. From the beginning, the highway has always lacked grace. Those who worship desert gods know them to favor retribution over the tender dove of forgiveness.
There are many narratives tangled around the U.S.–Mexico line. Most of them are one-dimensional. Luis Alberto Urrea's chronicle of an ill-fated, illegal crossing is an incredible work of reporting that draws from multiple perspectives to illuminate the surprising folds of a complex borderland.
Urrea is a master literary ‘signcutter,’ doggedly sussing out the hidden details of a tragedy and painting the history and reality behind a landscape as brutal as it is beautiful. He retraces the personal histories of twenty-six migrants, dives into the mentality of a coyote, and opens a rare window into the lives of Border Patrol agents. His writing humanizes them all without taking sides. He also sketches the long shadows cast by narco-traffickers and bureaucracies over a tragic mess.
The Devil's Highway treads through a treacherous political landscape and tells a compelling tale of the men and women on both sides of the border who deal with its absurdities every day. Urrea writes fluently in the lively, streetwise tone of border town youth, reminiscent of Michael Herr's stream-of-conscious reportage on Vietnam in his book Dispatches. The book touches on history, mythology, music, and some surprising economic statistics. But the story is mostly about a group of migrants who walked and suffered in the desert—desperate for a better life and destined to be forgotten. Urrea uncovers their names and tells their stories with detail and context.