I found Odisea del Norte to be an exceptionally well written and interesting novel. Starting in the present and using a series of flashbacks, Bencastro tells the story of Calixto, a man from El Salvador, who is trapped by circumstances into crossing illegally into the United States.

The book is filled with humor and pathos along with exciting action sequences that will hopefully help everyone to take another look at the problems of "illegal" immigration.

One nice thing about the book is that Bencastro simply tells the story with a minimum of editorializing, thus allowing the reader to come to his or her own conclusions.

Although written in Spanish, the vocabulary and style was quite readable for a non-native Spanish reader such as myself.

The book was a pleasure to read. I was sorry when I got to the end.

BENCASTRO OFRECE EN ESTE LIBRO UNA MIRADA A LA RECIEN PASADA GUERRA CIVIL OCURRIDA EN EL PUEBLO SALVADORENO, ACOSADO POR 12 ANOS EN EL TORMENTO DE A VIOLENCIA, MUERTE Y OPRESION . EL SUFRIMIENTO DE INOCENTES Y LA FORMA EN LA QUE AL IGUAL A UN MAJESTUOSO ARBOL ESTE PUEBLO LUCHA POR REGRESAR A LA VIDA, A LA PAZ TAN ABNEGADA DESPUES DE UN PERIODO CONFLICTIVO. ES UN LIBRO EXCELENTE QUE OFRECE UNA REGRESION AL TERROR DEL CONFLICTO ARMADO OCURRIDO EN EL SALVADOR, LAS MEMORIAS DE LOS QUE LA VIVIERON EN CARNE PROPIA Y LOS QUE RECORDAMOS ESE PERIODO TODAVIA CON ANGUSTIA EN EL CORAZON, Y LA LUCHA POR MANTENER UNA PAZ AUN EN PROCESO DE REALIZACION...

As a Salvadorean who resides in MT. Pleasant Street in Northwest DC this book brought back memories from my childhood in El Salvador and of growing up in the Latin neighborhood of DC. Bencastro does a great job describing the ambition and determination of the Salvadorean imigrants in the United States. The book helped me understand all that my parants went through to get my family in this country and to provide us with a better chance at life.

I found Odisea del Norte to be an exceptionally well written and interesting novel. Starting in the present and using a series of flashbacks, Bencastro tells the story of Calixto, a man from El Salvador, who is trapped by circumstances into crossing illegally into the United States.

The book is filled with humor and pathos along with exciting action sequences that will hopefully help everyone to take another look at the problems of "illegal" immigration.

One nice thing about the book is that Bencastro simply tells the story with a minimum of editorializing, thus allowing the reader to come to his or her own conclusions.

Although written in Spanish, the vocabulary and style was quite readable for a non-native Spanish reader such as myself.

The book was a pleasure to read. I was sorry when I got to the end.

Mario Bencastro's books, Odyssey to the North, its the first of its kinds to deal with the psychological impact of migration for many Salvadoran immigrants who migrated to the US during the eighties. Many have written about the war, but none about the impact of the migration on our psychic and our experiencies in this country. As a Salvadoran immigrant, I found his easy to read monologue/dialogue very revealing. I could connect to the situations because I witnessed them daily in the lives of my parents, cousins, brothers, and friends. Indeed, Bencastro, has demonstrated not only to Salvadorans, but to all immigrants, that all our stories are worth telling because they are full of heroism, pride, love, disappointments, and at the end, the greatness of the human spirit. Read this book if you are interested in understanding how the American dream is earned by many new comers. Thanks to Bencastro for opening the doors for the Salvadoran-American experience to become part of the best ot the American literature tradition!

Please "get into this book!" The rights of journalists, ordinary
people in a struggle not of their making fill this small sample
of what happened to them compels your attention. It often reads like a play script, then socks you into its purpose as a political novel. I took a few brief "rests" to contemplate the force of Bencastro's ardent script! It is a sensitive version of Latin American guerrilla warfare and the "inhumanitarian" rules of their martial law inflicted upon the citizens of El Salvador.

I bought this book because we have to read the spanish version in school. I think the stories are dull but it is helping me in class.

Through short, entertaining vignettes, the author provides an eloquent synthesis of a country in crisis. With delicate brushtrokes of crisp prose, Mr. Bencastro paints memorable pictures against the backdrop of turmoil in his country. I found the Spanish version eminently readable and in the best tradition of the Latin American short story. Excellent reading.

Mario Bencastro makes a portion of Salvadoran history more easily accessible to readers of all ages and, along with a translation intimately sensitive to the original Spanish, of Spanish- and English-speaking audiences alike. He captures the core of the human spirit through a collection of literary "pictures at an exhibition" where a civil war envelops a country's people in harsh realities that never seem possible until they happen and where what survives in the end, amidst all the rubble and bloodshed, is hope.