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Pillars of Creation: A Quest for the Great Name in a Nietzschean World
296 pages, Paperback
Published July 22, 2025
2 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
November 9, 2025
Pillars of Creation will take you on a journey that you didn't know you needed to take.
I found this novel intriguing. It is told as if we are Yoltic, and that was a little jarring at first. However, it offers an interesting perspective for the reader. Yoltic struggles with duty and determining his future. He knows he needs to do something different, but is stuck in a vicious cycle of poverty and border issues. Life and choices are woven throughout this tale as he journeys forward with Marfil. He struggles with the desire to become a writer, but he does have a mentor's encouragement. But what to write? Will it satisfy him, or will he want more?
This novel is descriptive on every page. I felt like I was in these towns along the border, and I could sense the despair and joy of the various characters. There is a joint effort to find a better life. I also thought that the novel mirrors what is happening along the Texas-Mexico border. The politics, drugs, and poverty, which are all a part of everyday life for these citizens.
This is a novel to be savored. It is not a quick read, but take the book at a slower pace to enjoy the soliloquy as we uncover more of Yoltic's life.
We give this book 4 paws up.
I found this novel intriguing. It is told as if we are Yoltic, and that was a little jarring at first. However, it offers an interesting perspective for the reader. Yoltic struggles with duty and determining his future. He knows he needs to do something different, but is stuck in a vicious cycle of poverty and border issues. Life and choices are woven throughout this tale as he journeys forward with Marfil. He struggles with the desire to become a writer, but he does have a mentor's encouragement. But what to write? Will it satisfy him, or will he want more?
This novel is descriptive on every page. I felt like I was in these towns along the border, and I could sense the despair and joy of the various characters. There is a joint effort to find a better life. I also thought that the novel mirrors what is happening along the Texas-Mexico border. The politics, drugs, and poverty, which are all a part of everyday life for these citizens.
This is a novel to be savored. It is not a quick read, but take the book at a slower pace to enjoy the soliloquy as we uncover more of Yoltic's life.
We give this book 4 paws up.
December 2, 2025
“To survive, things needed roots that went deep into the ground.”
Pillars of Creation: A Quest for the Great Name in a Nietzschean World by Carlos Nicolás Flores is a thought-provoking glimpse into one young man’s attempt to find his truth in South Texas near the Mexico border. It is 2011 in the community of Cuatro Vientos, Texas. Twenty-five-year-old Yoltic Cortez is adrift, conflicted, and lost in a sea of decisions, traditions, obligations, and dreams.
Flores presents this profound story from a second-person point of view, emphasizing the duality of Yoltic not only speaking to himself but to another version of himself. This POV is not used often and can be unsettling or even disorienting at first, thus accentuating the uncertain and often volatile overall tone of this remarkable novel.
Even though he dropped out of college, Yoltic pursues intellectualism, aspiring to be a published writer amidst self-doubt and the consuming need to find meaning in a chaotic world. With his mother long gone and his father in a nursing home, Yoltic lives alone until he meets a beautiful young woman from Mexico named Marfil. Together, they form an interesting bond that brings the elements of love and new beginnings to this story, which are desperately needed to balance the hate and violence raging along the border.
Several symbols abound in this Chicano novel, such as books, boots, worldviews, mesquite trees, and self-discovery. Yoltic is a voracious reader and yearns to write his own book as well as learn everything about everything, including the universe, humanity, the future, philosophy, existentialism, nihilism, Christianity, Judaism, and more. In a sense, he is ensnared in a mosaic of knowledge without enough maturity or experience to understand how to unravel and handle such disparate ideologies. While some books can confuse and even misdirect a malleable mind, books also are powerful and necessary because they can teach, guide, enlighten, and even illuminate one’s path.
“Books were about finding your way through the wilderness.”
As an interesting observation, Yoltic’s father collected many cowboy boots, which eventually become Yoltic’s, possibly representing the thousands of steps taken throughout life, with the body and soul protected only by the quality of thoughts, beliefs, friendships, and shoe leather.
In Pillars of Creation, Flores achieves an enviable goal of highlighting the fear of even setting upward goals because of the perceived sense of the many hands of the world holding you back, down, and firmly in place. Two of those hands just might be your own. Yoltic’s journey throughout the pages of this novel is heartbreaking, frustrating, and inspiring. For Yoltic, where does refuge come from when the cartels and authoritative corruption are threatening to consume, manipulate, destroy, and reshape communities along the borderlands and beyond? Where do you turn when disappointment and poverty are your constant companions, where evil looms heavy and foreboding before striking? Because evil will always strike.
“As much as people tried to put a happy face on things—on sin or death or disease or crime or madness—evil was interwoven into the fabric of their daily lives.”
To find meaning in the turmoil, Yoltic learns to rely on his father, the Jew, the Failed Poet, various friends, Marfil, and a Protestant pastor to help him tease out what he has always known to be his truth.
Yoltic’s struggle to make sense of his own world, his own heart, and his own thoughts is everyone’s struggle to some degree, making this novel quite relatable, no matter your background or beliefs. The raging storm toward the end offers a sense of cleansing for Yoltic, providing him with some much-needed clarity in his relationships with his father, Marfil, and himself.
“The sodden earth was dark as coffee grains, it seemed as if the storm had polished reality.”
While this extremely timely and well-written novel is both didactic and entertaining, it also provides the reader with the opportunity to engage in empathetic or even sympathetic self-reflection and examination, which we all can benefit from now more than ever.
As you read and reflect on Carlos Nicolás Flores’s poetic prose in Pillars of Creation, remember the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson: “If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile.”
Pillars of Creation: A Quest for the Great Name in a Nietzschean World by Carlos Nicolás Flores is a thought-provoking glimpse into one young man’s attempt to find his truth in South Texas near the Mexico border. It is 2011 in the community of Cuatro Vientos, Texas. Twenty-five-year-old Yoltic Cortez is adrift, conflicted, and lost in a sea of decisions, traditions, obligations, and dreams.
Flores presents this profound story from a second-person point of view, emphasizing the duality of Yoltic not only speaking to himself but to another version of himself. This POV is not used often and can be unsettling or even disorienting at first, thus accentuating the uncertain and often volatile overall tone of this remarkable novel.
Even though he dropped out of college, Yoltic pursues intellectualism, aspiring to be a published writer amidst self-doubt and the consuming need to find meaning in a chaotic world. With his mother long gone and his father in a nursing home, Yoltic lives alone until he meets a beautiful young woman from Mexico named Marfil. Together, they form an interesting bond that brings the elements of love and new beginnings to this story, which are desperately needed to balance the hate and violence raging along the border.
Several symbols abound in this Chicano novel, such as books, boots, worldviews, mesquite trees, and self-discovery. Yoltic is a voracious reader and yearns to write his own book as well as learn everything about everything, including the universe, humanity, the future, philosophy, existentialism, nihilism, Christianity, Judaism, and more. In a sense, he is ensnared in a mosaic of knowledge without enough maturity or experience to understand how to unravel and handle such disparate ideologies. While some books can confuse and even misdirect a malleable mind, books also are powerful and necessary because they can teach, guide, enlighten, and even illuminate one’s path.
“Books were about finding your way through the wilderness.”
As an interesting observation, Yoltic’s father collected many cowboy boots, which eventually become Yoltic’s, possibly representing the thousands of steps taken throughout life, with the body and soul protected only by the quality of thoughts, beliefs, friendships, and shoe leather.
In Pillars of Creation, Flores achieves an enviable goal of highlighting the fear of even setting upward goals because of the perceived sense of the many hands of the world holding you back, down, and firmly in place. Two of those hands just might be your own. Yoltic’s journey throughout the pages of this novel is heartbreaking, frustrating, and inspiring. For Yoltic, where does refuge come from when the cartels and authoritative corruption are threatening to consume, manipulate, destroy, and reshape communities along the borderlands and beyond? Where do you turn when disappointment and poverty are your constant companions, where evil looms heavy and foreboding before striking? Because evil will always strike.
“As much as people tried to put a happy face on things—on sin or death or disease or crime or madness—evil was interwoven into the fabric of their daily lives.”
To find meaning in the turmoil, Yoltic learns to rely on his father, the Jew, the Failed Poet, various friends, Marfil, and a Protestant pastor to help him tease out what he has always known to be his truth.
Yoltic’s struggle to make sense of his own world, his own heart, and his own thoughts is everyone’s struggle to some degree, making this novel quite relatable, no matter your background or beliefs. The raging storm toward the end offers a sense of cleansing for Yoltic, providing him with some much-needed clarity in his relationships with his father, Marfil, and himself.
“The sodden earth was dark as coffee grains, it seemed as if the storm had polished reality.”
While this extremely timely and well-written novel is both didactic and entertaining, it also provides the reader with the opportunity to engage in empathetic or even sympathetic self-reflection and examination, which we all can benefit from now more than ever.
As you read and reflect on Carlos Nicolás Flores’s poetic prose in Pillars of Creation, remember the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson: “If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile.”
October 11, 2025
In “Pillars of Creation, a Chicano Novel,” Carlos Nicolas Flores drops the reader into the middle of a Nietzschean world, vividly describing the vast landscape along the Texas-Mexico border, and what lies beneath.
Flores, author of two other novels, has lived most of his life along the border. With each book, he delves deeper into the mysteries and contradictions of the borderlands.
In Pillars, he writes about the secret life of coyotes, snakes, wild pigs, and javelinas that hole up until nightfall arrives in the monte. But also hidden in this vast landscape is the question of where God is in this world of drugs, poverty and mass graves. As Nietzsche himself once wrote, “When you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.” Ultimately, Flores aptly ties Nietzsche into the crisis along the Texas-Mexican border with the subtitle, “A Quest for the Great Name in a Nietzschean World.”
Flores, author of two other novels, has lived most of his life along the border. With each book, he delves deeper into the mysteries and contradictions of the borderlands.
In Pillars, he writes about the secret life of coyotes, snakes, wild pigs, and javelinas that hole up until nightfall arrives in the monte. But also hidden in this vast landscape is the question of where God is in this world of drugs, poverty and mass graves. As Nietzsche himself once wrote, “When you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.” Ultimately, Flores aptly ties Nietzsche into the crisis along the Texas-Mexican border with the subtitle, “A Quest for the Great Name in a Nietzschean World.”
November 11, 2025
It’s an understatement to say I enjoyed Pillars of Creation, but enjoy it I did.
Immensely.
There are times that a break from light, genre fiction is in order, and this literary novel is one to read slowly and savor every element that went into crafting an engaging story.
First there’s the central character, Yoltic, who lives on the Texas side of the border with Mexico. The area is filled with drug dealing and violence and Yoltic is searching to find God in that desolate place. Does God even care about the people there? About him?
Nietzschean philosophy is a complex system of thought that renounces traditional morality, religion, and truth in favor of individual self-creation and the affirmation of life. To paraphrase one of the tenets: True art isn’t an illusion but the truthful representation of the difficulty found in the search for greatness.
A rather esoteric explanation, but one that applies to a specific aspect of Yoltic’s quest as he struggles to find a truth, any truth, and write a novel that in the end will mean something. Likewise, the philosophy is in play throughout as we read about Yoltic’s efforts to find God in such Godless circumstances. His search for meaning brings him in contact with the Failed Poet, who is a wise mentor throughout, but also someone who often confuses Yoltic.
At one point he tells the young man a harsh truth about writers, “So many books,” the failed poet once said, “are being published today that soon there will be more writers than readers. So while these megabook stores are sanctuaries of learning, they are also vast pits where the important writers get lost. No one reads them. You may spend years writing a masterpiece only to discover that no one gives a shit. . . . A real writer must concentrate on the craft, the discipline, not fame and fortune.” That makes Yotic wonder if he should even bother continuing with his novel.
The threads of that philosophical plot line are neatly intertwined with that of facing the dangers of living in such a volatile neighborhood. Yoltic yearns to be away from the poverty, the danger, but struggles to pull his roots from the place; roots that go back generations.
That struggle intensifies as the relationship between him and Marfil strengthens. She’s a Mexican immigrant woman who’s trying to escape the drug cartels and save her grandfather’s ranch in Mexico. Their love story is at times as volatile as the place in which they live. They have much to overcome if this is going to be a forever love, a major difference being religion. She’s Catholic and he’s Protestant, and they have many conversations about the differences in how they were raised and what they believe.
During one of those discussions when the topic is how to address God, Yoltic says, “I’d prefer the Jewish custom of not using God’s real name. That way we will not have to use The Great Name. We won’t risk profaning it. Maybe that way people won’t kill each other over it.”
How true that is!
The characters. The mystery. The intrigue. The suspense. The complicated relationships. They all work superbly in this terrific novel. The second-person POV did take a bit of time to adjust to, but then I realized that writing as if we are Yoltic, lets us have a deeper relationship with him. The technique, while unusual, works, and as the story progressed, I was more anxious to see where it was taking us.
An added benefit for me when picking up a novel like this is reading a story that broadens my world view, and I appreciated the chance to learn more about the people and the culture of those border towns. Pillars of Creation is reminiscent of Rudy Ruiz’s wonderful book, The Border Between Us, which was my first deep dive into Hispanic literature.
It won’t be my last, and I highly encourage readers to come on in. The water’s fine and the reading is easy.
Immensely.
There are times that a break from light, genre fiction is in order, and this literary novel is one to read slowly and savor every element that went into crafting an engaging story.
First there’s the central character, Yoltic, who lives on the Texas side of the border with Mexico. The area is filled with drug dealing and violence and Yoltic is searching to find God in that desolate place. Does God even care about the people there? About him?
Nietzschean philosophy is a complex system of thought that renounces traditional morality, religion, and truth in favor of individual self-creation and the affirmation of life. To paraphrase one of the tenets: True art isn’t an illusion but the truthful representation of the difficulty found in the search for greatness.
A rather esoteric explanation, but one that applies to a specific aspect of Yoltic’s quest as he struggles to find a truth, any truth, and write a novel that in the end will mean something. Likewise, the philosophy is in play throughout as we read about Yoltic’s efforts to find God in such Godless circumstances. His search for meaning brings him in contact with the Failed Poet, who is a wise mentor throughout, but also someone who often confuses Yoltic.
At one point he tells the young man a harsh truth about writers, “So many books,” the failed poet once said, “are being published today that soon there will be more writers than readers. So while these megabook stores are sanctuaries of learning, they are also vast pits where the important writers get lost. No one reads them. You may spend years writing a masterpiece only to discover that no one gives a shit. . . . A real writer must concentrate on the craft, the discipline, not fame and fortune.” That makes Yotic wonder if he should even bother continuing with his novel.
The threads of that philosophical plot line are neatly intertwined with that of facing the dangers of living in such a volatile neighborhood. Yoltic yearns to be away from the poverty, the danger, but struggles to pull his roots from the place; roots that go back generations.
That struggle intensifies as the relationship between him and Marfil strengthens. She’s a Mexican immigrant woman who’s trying to escape the drug cartels and save her grandfather’s ranch in Mexico. Their love story is at times as volatile as the place in which they live. They have much to overcome if this is going to be a forever love, a major difference being religion. She’s Catholic and he’s Protestant, and they have many conversations about the differences in how they were raised and what they believe.
During one of those discussions when the topic is how to address God, Yoltic says, “I’d prefer the Jewish custom of not using God’s real name. That way we will not have to use The Great Name. We won’t risk profaning it. Maybe that way people won’t kill each other over it.”
How true that is!
The characters. The mystery. The intrigue. The suspense. The complicated relationships. They all work superbly in this terrific novel. The second-person POV did take a bit of time to adjust to, but then I realized that writing as if we are Yoltic, lets us have a deeper relationship with him. The technique, while unusual, works, and as the story progressed, I was more anxious to see where it was taking us.
An added benefit for me when picking up a novel like this is reading a story that broadens my world view, and I appreciated the chance to learn more about the people and the culture of those border towns. Pillars of Creation is reminiscent of Rudy Ruiz’s wonderful book, The Border Between Us, which was my first deep dive into Hispanic literature.
It won’t be my last, and I highly encourage readers to come on in. The water’s fine and the reading is easy.
November 22, 2025
Pillars of Creation doesn’t just tell a story—it pulls you inside it, unsettles you, and asks you to look straight at things you might rather sidestep.
I’ll be honest: the book threw me in the beginning. Being dropped into a hallucinogenic trip—told in second person—left me feeling off-balance and unsure where to place my feet. But I realized quickly that the point wasn’t confusion; it was immersion. The second-person POV is a risk, but Flores uses it with precision. At the end of the book, when the narrator admits that “you and I would become one and speak with one voice,” I understood why I’d felt so entangled: I wasn’t just reading the story. I was in it.
Flores’s prose is cinematic, vivid enough that the book’s painted cover feels like a preview. His imagery—mesquite trees “squat and ugly and twisted as if in sheer agony,” birds with wings “black and sleek as a gun barrel,” the Eagle Nebula rising five light-years tall—creates a world that feels immediate and urgent. There’s a constant hum of tension, a sense that something could go wrong at any second, because in Yoltic’s world, “Sh*! happened, and any minute it might happen to anyone.”
One of the most striking symbols in the book is the presence of crows—urracas—moving through Yoltic’s world like messengers from hell. They aren’t literally supernatural, but they unsettle him. Their tiny bead-like eyes and dagger-long tails remind him that evil is real and woven into daily life. Flores uses them sparingly, but every time they appear, they sharpen the tension and deepen the sense that danger is always just a few steps away.
That tension matches the novel’s central question: Who is God in a world full of violence, corruption, and grief? Yoltic questions everything he was taught, wondering if God is dead, or renamed, or simply beyond comprehension. Yet in rejecting the familiar names of God, he becomes oddly reverent. He refuses to speak “the Great Name,” sensing that even doubt carries a kind of awe.
There’s a constant push and pull between belief and disbelief. Between identity and confusion. Between cultural roots and the chaos around him. His father’s words—“As long as we have our dignity in the eyes of the Lord, we are not poor”—echo across the book as both a warning and a lifeline.
Flores also weaves in the struggle of being a writer. For Yoltic, writing is not a hobby—it is survival. It is “a way of creating meaning in a meaningless world.” It’s how he faces despair, how he digs for truth, and how he tries to make sense of life on the Texas-Mexico border. At one point, he wonders when someone will finally write honestly about his community—its “color and complexity, its ugliness and beauty.” That longing becomes part of the book’s purpose.
I loved how the book’s existential unease builds toward something quieter and more compassionate. By the final pages, Yoltic gains a clarity he didn’t have before—hard-won, imperfect, and deeply human. And through it all, the second-person voice becomes something intimate: not a gimmick, but a merging, a recognition of the fractured self he’s been wrestling with all along.
Pillars of Creation isn’t a tidy book. It’s gritty, philosophical, sometimes disorienting, and always reaching for something bigger—identity, God, meaning, the possibility of redemption. But that’s exactly what makes it powerful. Flores brings the borderlands to life in all their “ugliness and beauty,” and in doing so, he gives voice to a story that feels both personal and universal.
If you’re drawn to books that explore existential dread, cultural identity, spiritual questioning, or the chaos of a world in “a state of fear and trembling,” this one will stay under your skin. It stayed under mine.
I’ll be honest: the book threw me in the beginning. Being dropped into a hallucinogenic trip—told in second person—left me feeling off-balance and unsure where to place my feet. But I realized quickly that the point wasn’t confusion; it was immersion. The second-person POV is a risk, but Flores uses it with precision. At the end of the book, when the narrator admits that “you and I would become one and speak with one voice,” I understood why I’d felt so entangled: I wasn’t just reading the story. I was in it.
Flores’s prose is cinematic, vivid enough that the book’s painted cover feels like a preview. His imagery—mesquite trees “squat and ugly and twisted as if in sheer agony,” birds with wings “black and sleek as a gun barrel,” the Eagle Nebula rising five light-years tall—creates a world that feels immediate and urgent. There’s a constant hum of tension, a sense that something could go wrong at any second, because in Yoltic’s world, “Sh*! happened, and any minute it might happen to anyone.”
One of the most striking symbols in the book is the presence of crows—urracas—moving through Yoltic’s world like messengers from hell. They aren’t literally supernatural, but they unsettle him. Their tiny bead-like eyes and dagger-long tails remind him that evil is real and woven into daily life. Flores uses them sparingly, but every time they appear, they sharpen the tension and deepen the sense that danger is always just a few steps away.
That tension matches the novel’s central question: Who is God in a world full of violence, corruption, and grief? Yoltic questions everything he was taught, wondering if God is dead, or renamed, or simply beyond comprehension. Yet in rejecting the familiar names of God, he becomes oddly reverent. He refuses to speak “the Great Name,” sensing that even doubt carries a kind of awe.
There’s a constant push and pull between belief and disbelief. Between identity and confusion. Between cultural roots and the chaos around him. His father’s words—“As long as we have our dignity in the eyes of the Lord, we are not poor”—echo across the book as both a warning and a lifeline.
Flores also weaves in the struggle of being a writer. For Yoltic, writing is not a hobby—it is survival. It is “a way of creating meaning in a meaningless world.” It’s how he faces despair, how he digs for truth, and how he tries to make sense of life on the Texas-Mexico border. At one point, he wonders when someone will finally write honestly about his community—its “color and complexity, its ugliness and beauty.” That longing becomes part of the book’s purpose.
I loved how the book’s existential unease builds toward something quieter and more compassionate. By the final pages, Yoltic gains a clarity he didn’t have before—hard-won, imperfect, and deeply human. And through it all, the second-person voice becomes something intimate: not a gimmick, but a merging, a recognition of the fractured self he’s been wrestling with all along.
Pillars of Creation isn’t a tidy book. It’s gritty, philosophical, sometimes disorienting, and always reaching for something bigger—identity, God, meaning, the possibility of redemption. But that’s exactly what makes it powerful. Flores brings the borderlands to life in all their “ugliness and beauty,” and in doing so, he gives voice to a story that feels both personal and universal.
If you’re drawn to books that explore existential dread, cultural identity, spiritual questioning, or the chaos of a world in “a state of fear and trembling,” this one will stay under your skin. It stayed under mine.
November 2, 2025
Simultaneously haunting and almost spiritual, Pillars of Creation occupies a niche all its own. From the unusual perspective to the inventive descriptive language, Flores pulls you in to this compelling tale of a young man fighting through personal demons and philosophical conundrums as he struggles to find his voice as a writer.
At 25, Yoltic Cortez finds himself standing upon layered crossroads. His father is ill, he finds it increasingly difficult to write, his job is in jeopardy, he might be in love, the drug lords in Mexico are ramping up their aggression, and he searches endlessly for answers about deeper truths in the world. The author pulls the reader more deeply into these musings by writing from a rare perspective. You, the reader, are Yoltic. “Seldom at a loss for words with women, you fumbled as you fished around for something plausible to say.” This perspective is a bit jarring, since I rarely encounter it when reading, but it perfectly fits the tale. Flores does everything in his power as a writer to put you inside Yoltic’s mind so that you can feel every struggle as your own.
Pillars of Creation is deftly crafted from start to finish. In addition to the unique perspective, the artistically detailed language further set my feet onto the border lands. “In the shade of a huge mesquite quavering with grackles, you enjoyed eating the tacos at a wooden picnic table with white plastic chairs and washing them down with gulps of Mexican Coke from an ice-cold glass bottle.” That is a scene I could feel on my skin. It jumps off the page. Life on the Texas-Mexico border comes vividly to life through the gorgeous language and the colorful cast of characters. Yoltic’s friends, his love Marfil, the young pastor, and the Failed Poet were a group of people I really wished I could meet in person.
I fully admit that this is not a novel for everyone. Flores requires you to invest yourself as a reader. This is not a half-paying-attention beach read. If you enjoy writing that pulls you into another world and engages all of your mind, then jump straight to your local indie bookstore and request a copy. Pillars of Creation is a journey of the mind, an exploration of the spirit, and a path toward better understanding the lives of people living on this tempestuous border.
At 25, Yoltic Cortez finds himself standing upon layered crossroads. His father is ill, he finds it increasingly difficult to write, his job is in jeopardy, he might be in love, the drug lords in Mexico are ramping up their aggression, and he searches endlessly for answers about deeper truths in the world. The author pulls the reader more deeply into these musings by writing from a rare perspective. You, the reader, are Yoltic. “Seldom at a loss for words with women, you fumbled as you fished around for something plausible to say.” This perspective is a bit jarring, since I rarely encounter it when reading, but it perfectly fits the tale. Flores does everything in his power as a writer to put you inside Yoltic’s mind so that you can feel every struggle as your own.
Pillars of Creation is deftly crafted from start to finish. In addition to the unique perspective, the artistically detailed language further set my feet onto the border lands. “In the shade of a huge mesquite quavering with grackles, you enjoyed eating the tacos at a wooden picnic table with white plastic chairs and washing them down with gulps of Mexican Coke from an ice-cold glass bottle.” That is a scene I could feel on my skin. It jumps off the page. Life on the Texas-Mexico border comes vividly to life through the gorgeous language and the colorful cast of characters. Yoltic’s friends, his love Marfil, the young pastor, and the Failed Poet were a group of people I really wished I could meet in person.
I fully admit that this is not a novel for everyone. Flores requires you to invest yourself as a reader. This is not a half-paying-attention beach read. If you enjoy writing that pulls you into another world and engages all of your mind, then jump straight to your local indie bookstore and request a copy. Pillars of Creation is a journey of the mind, an exploration of the spirit, and a path toward better understanding the lives of people living on this tempestuous border.
November 17, 2025
Right off the bat, this book has an intersting way of storytelling, with the main character being from your perspective. This gives the reader a whole different way to immerse themselves in this world that so many people live and so many people see from just the outside.
Vose’s storytelling gives the book a rewarding read for those familiar with existential philosophy, though it may be a little challenging for some. The philosophical reflections are intricately tied to the narrative, creating a thought-provoking experience that encourages readers to question the nature of meaning and personal greatness. While the pacing may be low, for fans of philosophical fiction, Pillars of Creation offers a stimulating journey as Yoltic asks questions such as where God is amongst the poverty, death, and corruption on the border.
The characters in this story stood out the most to me when reading. Our protagonist’s internal struggle to find their “great name" is mirrored in the external conflicts they face with others who represent different worldviews. These characters symbolize different broader philosophical themes and are also deeply human. Their flaws, desires, and conflicts are presented with empathy, making them relatable.
The quest itself is a metaphor for the broader human experience of seeking meaning in a world that may seem indifferent or even hostile to such efforts. Vose’s narrative can suggest that the pursuit of greatness is not only about achieving something monumental, but it is also about enduring the internal battles that shape one’s sense of self.
Overall, Pillars of Creation: A Quest for the Great Name in a Nietzschean World is a bold and ambitious exploration of existential themes. Our author successfully combines philosophy with narrative, creating a story that challenges readers to really think and reconsider their place in the world and what personal greatness means to them. It is an intellectually stimulating work that will resonate deeply with those seeking to engage with Nietzschean ideas on a profound level.
Vose’s storytelling gives the book a rewarding read for those familiar with existential philosophy, though it may be a little challenging for some. The philosophical reflections are intricately tied to the narrative, creating a thought-provoking experience that encourages readers to question the nature of meaning and personal greatness. While the pacing may be low, for fans of philosophical fiction, Pillars of Creation offers a stimulating journey as Yoltic asks questions such as where God is amongst the poverty, death, and corruption on the border.
The characters in this story stood out the most to me when reading. Our protagonist’s internal struggle to find their “great name" is mirrored in the external conflicts they face with others who represent different worldviews. These characters symbolize different broader philosophical themes and are also deeply human. Their flaws, desires, and conflicts are presented with empathy, making them relatable.
The quest itself is a metaphor for the broader human experience of seeking meaning in a world that may seem indifferent or even hostile to such efforts. Vose’s narrative can suggest that the pursuit of greatness is not only about achieving something monumental, but it is also about enduring the internal battles that shape one’s sense of self.
Overall, Pillars of Creation: A Quest for the Great Name in a Nietzschean World is a bold and ambitious exploration of existential themes. Our author successfully combines philosophy with narrative, creating a story that challenges readers to really think and reconsider their place in the world and what personal greatness means to them. It is an intellectually stimulating work that will resonate deeply with those seeking to engage with Nietzschean ideas on a profound level.
November 9, 2025
Pillars of Creation
Okay, I’m going to have to say it: the title of this book really put me off and the cover didn’t help much. But I was determined to give it a go and boy am I glad I did. Pillars of Creation: A Quest for the Great Name in a Nietzschean World by author Carlos Nicolás Flores is a gem of a book.
Set on the Texas-Mexico border, Pillars of Creation is the story of a young Tejano man, Yoltic Cortez, trying to find purpose in his life as he struggles to write his first book. He also has to come to terms with his dying father who has tried to impart his Christian principles into his only surviving son, yet Yoltic has his own sometimes conflicting belief system and the two grapple over their differences.
A mysterious young woman, Marfil, adds to the chaos of his life as she appears then disappears back into Mexico to tackle her own problems.
Adding to his disillusionment are the abject poverty of the borderland, the drugs, which he uses, and the drug cartels, who run the Mexican side of the border with impunity and can reach into Texas seeming at will to wreak destruction.
Beautifully written the book reveals both the beauty and ugliness of the area. Vibrant descriptions of everyday life, rich relationships, and ties to the land. It also portrays a sense of stagnant hopelessness that clings to everything in the border region.
The book is written in 2nd POV which is pretty rare these days, but I enjoyed it, probably for that very reason, but it really worked in this story and reads as if we, the reader, are the one being spoken to. I loved all the characters, Yoltic, Marfil, the Failed Poet, and the Jew. The book leaves you with a glimmer of hope that there will be a happy ending.
Okay, I’m going to have to say it: the title of this book really put me off and the cover didn’t help much. But I was determined to give it a go and boy am I glad I did. Pillars of Creation: A Quest for the Great Name in a Nietzschean World by author Carlos Nicolás Flores is a gem of a book.
Set on the Texas-Mexico border, Pillars of Creation is the story of a young Tejano man, Yoltic Cortez, trying to find purpose in his life as he struggles to write his first book. He also has to come to terms with his dying father who has tried to impart his Christian principles into his only surviving son, yet Yoltic has his own sometimes conflicting belief system and the two grapple over their differences.
A mysterious young woman, Marfil, adds to the chaos of his life as she appears then disappears back into Mexico to tackle her own problems.
Adding to his disillusionment are the abject poverty of the borderland, the drugs, which he uses, and the drug cartels, who run the Mexican side of the border with impunity and can reach into Texas seeming at will to wreak destruction.
Beautifully written the book reveals both the beauty and ugliness of the area. Vibrant descriptions of everyday life, rich relationships, and ties to the land. It also portrays a sense of stagnant hopelessness that clings to everything in the border region.
The book is written in 2nd POV which is pretty rare these days, but I enjoyed it, probably for that very reason, but it really worked in this story and reads as if we, the reader, are the one being spoken to. I loved all the characters, Yoltic, Marfil, the Failed Poet, and the Jew. The book leaves you with a glimmer of hope that there will be a happy ending.
November 17, 2025
There are several books entitled Pillars of Creation, so I was intrigued by how Carlos Nicolás Flores would differentiate his novel from the others. He doesn’t disappoint.
Yoltic Cortez struggles to find his place in a suppressed world of his dying father’s demands, a new relationship with a young woman, and friends who work within the shadows of drug trafficking. He struggles to accept faith one minute, then rejects it the next. He wants to be a writer but lacks the discipline to even stay in school.
As a Texan, I applaud Flores’s use of Hispanic terminology, which adds credibility to the novel. Most Hispanic terms are footnoted at the bottom of the page for translation when needed. Kudos for that.
Pillars of Creation is not an easy read. It is raw, violent, and graphic at times – yet, full of imagery. The realities of the Chicano community's struggles on both sides of the Texas-Mexico border will open many readers' eyes to this unknown world. One will read of conflict between the US Border Patrol and cartels; those trying to make their world better versus those who only want to survive; faith versus ancient beliefs. Flores painted a landscape picture of that reality, not an abstract one, which allows the reader to envision themselves as an observer in the story.
WM Gunn, author of The Two Terrors of Tulelake and The Calendar.
Yoltic Cortez struggles to find his place in a suppressed world of his dying father’s demands, a new relationship with a young woman, and friends who work within the shadows of drug trafficking. He struggles to accept faith one minute, then rejects it the next. He wants to be a writer but lacks the discipline to even stay in school.
As a Texan, I applaud Flores’s use of Hispanic terminology, which adds credibility to the novel. Most Hispanic terms are footnoted at the bottom of the page for translation when needed. Kudos for that.
Pillars of Creation is not an easy read. It is raw, violent, and graphic at times – yet, full of imagery. The realities of the Chicano community's struggles on both sides of the Texas-Mexico border will open many readers' eyes to this unknown world. One will read of conflict between the US Border Patrol and cartels; those trying to make their world better versus those who only want to survive; faith versus ancient beliefs. Flores painted a landscape picture of that reality, not an abstract one, which allows the reader to envision themselves as an observer in the story.
WM Gunn, author of The Two Terrors of Tulelake and The Calendar.
December 8, 2025
Carlos Nicolas Flores’s Pillars of Creation: A Quest for the Great Name in a Nietzschean World was definitely a change of pace for my reading. Yes, it is a literary fiction that is considered a coming-of-age story, but it is still in a leage of its own. This tale takes place on the Texas-Mexico border and focuses on Yoltic Cortez. Yoltic is a 25 year old Chicano college dropout who is also an aspirint writer who is living in poverty.
The depth of this novel tells me that a lot of what happens within its pages comes from a very personal space from the author. It is definitely rich in authenticity. Yoltic deals with questions rooted in existentialism, especially when he questions where God is amongst the poverty, death, and corruption on the border. What you see on the cover is what you get with this novel, a deep influence in Nietzschean philosophy. Beliefs and religion are questioned - most definitely. Much of this is found within the relationships that Yoltic has with his mentor, his father, and Marfil, a young Mexican woman whom he attempts to help.
I found this novel to be refreshing, as it has been awhile since I’ve read a book that has made me think this much. Much of those thoughts center around the two sides of the “cultural coin” so to speak - which is just my way of saying, the difficulty of being Chicano and feeling stuck between tradition and life in the U.S. Pillars of Creation is definitely a unique work that offers the reader a chance for reflection.
I recommend this book to those readers who enjoy reading about philsophy, existentialism, the duality of the self, and of course, literary fiction. You can’t go wrong with this work.
The depth of this novel tells me that a lot of what happens within its pages comes from a very personal space from the author. It is definitely rich in authenticity. Yoltic deals with questions rooted in existentialism, especially when he questions where God is amongst the poverty, death, and corruption on the border. What you see on the cover is what you get with this novel, a deep influence in Nietzschean philosophy. Beliefs and religion are questioned - most definitely. Much of this is found within the relationships that Yoltic has with his mentor, his father, and Marfil, a young Mexican woman whom he attempts to help.
I found this novel to be refreshing, as it has been awhile since I’ve read a book that has made me think this much. Much of those thoughts center around the two sides of the “cultural coin” so to speak - which is just my way of saying, the difficulty of being Chicano and feeling stuck between tradition and life in the U.S. Pillars of Creation is definitely a unique work that offers the reader a chance for reflection.
I recommend this book to those readers who enjoy reading about philsophy, existentialism, the duality of the self, and of course, literary fiction. You can’t go wrong with this work.
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