City News
Burro Genius by Victor Villasenor
Reviewed by Ryan
The novel Burro Genius, by Victor Villasenor, is a non-fiction biography, telling his life story up until his career as an author. The book opens to a nationwide English teacher conference, where Victor is suddenly forced onto the stage. He opens up about his previous experiences with his teachers, and shares stories that bring many of the attendants to tears. After calling out some teachers similar to the ones that he endured as a child, he is received with a standing ovation, and instantly made headlines due to his moving speech. Later that night he is confronted in a bar by another teacher from the conference. The teacher asks him if he had any teachers that inspired him to become a writer, since his experiences with most teachers had been so horrible. Victor couldn't find himself able to answer the question. When he was in the car on the way back to his home however, he remembered a single substitute he had had in high school who had taught him the joys of writing. With this, Victor then launches back to begin the story when he was five years old.
At the age of five, Victor was already riding horses like a professional, herding cows, hunting, and farming, all on his family’s ranch. He soon begins kindergarten, where his living hell begins. On the first week of school he is already a target for the bullies at his school, mainly his own teachers. The kids couldn't really do much other than call him names, but the teachers were full on abusive. He wasn’t allowed to speak Spanish. English was the only language allowed even though he had no idea how to speak it. If they caught him speaking Spanish, the teachers would literally beat him up. I’m talking fully grown adults slapping and hitting a five year old until his whole face is red with blood. This continued through many of his elementary years as well, up until third grade. By this time, Victor’s brother began to influence him even more than usual. Victor learned just as many life lessons from his brother as he did his dad. This really helped him get through his three years of third grade. He was held back twice, the reason being that he couldn’t learn how to read.
He finally made it through and was eventually enrolled into the same military school that his brother had gone to. However school got even worse for him there. His English teacher would pull his favorite students aside every day and tell them to beat Victor up after class. He would grade Victors papers without even looking at them, giving him Ds and Fs no matter what. Eventually, Victor finally got through school and achieved his dream of becoming an author. At the age of 40 Victor learned that he had dyslexia so severe that it was entirely off the register, yet he managed to learn how to read and write extremely well. This book struck a very sensitive note inside me. I had a very similar experience with my ADD through my elementary and middle school years, so I was able to resonate with many of his own feelings.
When I first picked this book up, I didn’t know what to expect, but boy was I glad I stuck with it. The entire book does a really good job of linking you to Victor and his family. Each character feels real, and the book lets you really connect to the emotions of each person. Victor also uses a very simple and casual yet very witty sense of humor, which gives the book a lot of life as well. Some parts of the book did get weird when it came supernatural and religious events, and quite a few parts of the book were hard to believe at all, but it was still extremely enjoyable.
I highly recommend this book if you are looking for anything similar in terms of an autobiography or memoir.
Rating: 8.9/10