ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses publication history and influences of Arturo Islas's The Rain God, and close readings of the text that focus on the way its devices and structures give shape to its content. It provides the students with information that enriches their understanding of the making of The Rain God in the time and place. After giving a biographical overview and publication history, the chapter establishes the setting of the novel. The novel follows the ins and outs of the Angel family, who live in an unnamed US town on the Texas/Mexico border. The chapter shows the students how the reader's spiraling in and out movement seen in the novel's structure parallels the internal, psychological movement of the protagonist, Miguel Chico. It also demonstrates how the formal structures of the novel mirror Miguel Chico's psychological journey inward. In this journey the reader discovers a paradox: to become absolutely present in the absenting of life.
