Dr. Marc García-Martínez provides a detailed look at how Chicano writer Alejandro Morales incorporates intense imagery into his works. The Flesh-And-Blood Aesthetics of Alejandro Morales: Sex, Disease, and Figuration examines how the treatment of character’s bodies through the use of powerful literary tools functions to comment on the core of human nature and the society shaped by it. Vivid descriptions of sexual behavior and acts, of disease and bodily decomposition, and of death are characteristic of Morales’ striking style.
A seemingly contradictory dynamic of a discomfort that does not repudiate but rather encourages an interest in reading further into Morales' shocking imagery exists, and it defines a reading experience that parallels the very themes that are presented in works like The Rag Doll Plagues and The Brick People. Uncomfortable meanings begin to emerge through uncomfortable mediums and makes the realities that Morales sees more decipherable.
García-Martínez leads readers through the implications embedded within the the imagery that he chooses to refer to as “biomass” due to its connection to bodily functions, organic matter, and violence, “Of central concern is the way such organic instances function characteristically, the manner that they are organized by the author into systems of subtle and obvious representation, and the method by which they are produced and disseminated throughout the novels” (16). The Flesh-And-Blood Aesthetics of Alejandro Morales is well worth checking out because it approaches a scholarly investigation on the literature of Alejandro Morales holistically. While recognizing the importance of a voice speaking outside the white American pool and the influence of that standpoint on the meanings and ideological positions of Morales’works, García-Martínez’ text is an exceptional one due to the fact that it also acknowledges the universal nature of Morales’ literature. It does not limit Alejandro Morales by only identifying him as an ethnic writer but instead takes that identity and uses it to look into the universal significance of the images found within the flesh and blood elements of his writing.
The Flesh-and-Blood Aesthetics of Alejandro Morales, a detailed and groundbreaking interpretation of the literature of Alejandro Morales, can be found here. Get your copy today!
A seemingly contradictory dynamic of a discomfort that does not repudiate but rather encourages an interest in reading further into Morales' shocking imagery exists, and it defines a reading experience that parallels the very themes that are presented in works like The Rag Doll Plagues and The Brick People. Uncomfortable meanings begin to emerge through uncomfortable mediums and makes the realities that Morales sees more decipherable. 
