All That Rises: A Novel

by Alma Garcia

In the border city of El Paso, Texas, two guardedly neighboring families have plunged headlong into a harrowing week. Rose Marie DuPre, wife and mother, has abandoned her family. On the doorstep of the Gonzales home, long-lost rebel Inez appears. As Rose Marie’s husband, Huck (manager of a maquiladora), and Inez’s brother, Jerry (a college professor), struggle separately with the new shape of their worlds, Lourdes, the Mexican maid who works in both homes, finds herself entangled in the lives of her employers, even as she grapples with a teenage daughter who only has eyes for el otro lado —life, American style.

What follows is a story in which mysteries are unraveled, odd alliances are forged, and the boundaries between lives blur in destiny-changing ways—all in a place where the physical border between two countries is as palpable as it is porous, and the legacies of history are never far away. There are no easy solutions to the issues the characters face in this story, and their various realities—as undocumented workers, Border Patrol agents, the American supervisor of a Mexican factory employing an impoverished workforce—never play out against a black-and-white moral canvas. Instead, they are complex human beings with sometimes messy lives who struggle to create a place for themselves in a part of the world like no other, even as they are forced to confront the lives they have made.

All That Rises is about secrets, lies, border politics, and discovering where you belong—within a family, as well as in the world beyond. It is a novel for the times we live in, set in a place many people know only from the news.

Genres: Fiction

455 pages, Paperback

Published October 17, 2023

Reviews

[Allison Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel was completely engrossing. I couldn't put it down. It takes place in one neighborhood in El Paso with a huge cast of characters who are intertwined in unexpected ways. It has layers and layers of nuanced explorations of relationships, families, and the ever present border. Impressive.

[Winson Law · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alma García’s All That Rises is an intimate debut novel about two intersecting families in the Texas borderland. El Paso, the setting of the novel, rests at the confluence of varying cultures, countries, and languages. It is a great feat that Garciá wrote a novel that spanned the perspectives of multiple generations and identities with a sense of care, a deft hand in reference to social issues of the time, and humor.

What I appreciate about the book—beyond its characters—is García’s use of diction. Lights “wink” on and people “ooze” onto chairs in this world. It is language that is unexpected and makes reading this book a delight.

I am also struck by the question of how much families and societies rely on the labor of women. In one confrontation between the protagonist and a maquila worker, she denounces the inequity of class, gender, and nationality: “‘The maquila makes millions of dollars. We get paid sixteen dollars a week. I’ve got five kids and no husband and two jobs. My twelve-year-old doesn’t go to school so she can take care of the little ones.’ The surrounding women cheer with rage.” In this scene, the realities of working-class and marginalized women are made clear in a vivid but not heavy-handed way.

I finished the book with a reminder that the people I see across borders, streets, and dinner tables have many untold layers underneath.

[Tyler Pullen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book, more than most, really calls for a 4.5 star category. All in all, it's a fantastic debut, and the story makes it evident that this was a labor of love from a solid network of supporters (in a good way!). There is a variety of fully-realized characters and organic dialogue that makes everything feel real and lived in. At times, I got the impression that the author would willfully obscure some essential plot point for the sake of excessive subtlety, which forced me to re-read some sections two or three times to make sure I was picking up the implications correctly. While raw and overly obvious exposition isn't fun to read either, I think there were just slightly too many times that reading between the lines was made artificially difficult. Nonetheless, it only slightly reduced the joy I had reading the book (hence, I'm thinking of this as a 4.5), and I will still be recommending this book to others.

[Sean Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A compelling and thoroughly-realized debut.

[Vincent Antonio Rendoni · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book that sticks with you, that you revisit in your head long after it's finished. Inez lives in my head rent-free.