Manuel Muñoz’s masterful short story collection The Consequences focuses primarily on working-class Mexicans and Mexican Americans aching to enjoy the fruits of their labor. Many toil under the sun yet are frequently raided and deported by Border Patrol. Some stories center on queer characters from middle-of-nowhere towns in Texas or California, humble people trying to forge an authentic life. Almost every one of the 10 stories is marked with mention of Sunday, and in each tale, that liminal sliver of time serves as a catalyst for fulfillment.
Certainly, people from all walks of life welcome the Sabbath for the respite it offers after a week of exertion. But for the working class—immigrants, in particular—who often work six days a week, it is even more sacred. It serves as a psychological and physical oasis in a long progression of labor.
In the opening story, “Anyone Can Do It,” Delfina’s missing husband has likely been deported, prompting her and her neighbor Lis to pick peaches on a Sunday in an attempt to afford rent. After laboring, Delfina sits alone in the field and basks in the wonders of the afternoon. Muñoz writes, “Sundays were always so peaceful, Delfina thought, no matter where you were, so serene…El día de Dios.” The reverence Delfina feels for this religious day envelops her, and she falls into almost a dreamlike trance. The fate that awaits her outside her enchantment serves as a sharp contrast.
The next story, “The Happiest Girl in the Whole USA,” features Griselda and Natalia, who attempt to track down their beloveds, both of whom have likely been deported. The second day of their search, Griselda says, is a “Sunday morning…quiet. The Mexican bakery a block from the park is busy, people coming out with white bags, and I remember the days when Timoteo has shown up early enough to get some sweet bread and coffee, already waiting for me.” Despite Griselda’s hardship in locating her partner, on Sunday, she is overcome with nostalgia for better times. Not long after, Griselda’s search concludes, and the pieces of her life begin to fall back in order.
“Susto” follows a foreman who learns that an elderly Mexican man’s body has been found in a field. He is haunted by the man’s anonymity, the questions that his body begs to ask regarding belonging. After a sleepless Saturday night, the foreman visits a bakery, where he encounters other white men with much to say. One shares, “You’re telling me you wouldn’t worry just a little bit if I hadn’t shown up on Sunday morning to drink coffee?” This question points to a unifying element of the Sabbath, one that isn’t tied directly to God or church services but to local affiliation, to a familiarity and concern for others. To spend Sunday with others is to be known and regarded as part of a greater community.
In the titular story, Muñoz’s protagonist, Mark, has an epiphany on a Sunday night after watching an uncharacteristically somber episode of The Jeffersons with his mother. As Louise Jefferson faces unpleasant truths about her past, Mark is compelled to set off on a road trip, noting, “Los Angeles lay just four hours away, maybe even closer because it was a Sunday night and the drizzle kept the traffic even thinner.” The twilight provides cover for Mark to slip away. This is where Mark’s journey begins, one that frightens yet expands him in new ways.
In The Consequences, Sundays are a day like no other in their singularity and holiness. Readers glimpse that sacred space in “Fieldwork” when the narrator’s father asks him if he knows “the story of the man who had knocked on my mother’s back door one Sunday morning.… He was hungry and he had nowhere to go and my mother...gave him two tacos wrapped in tinfoil and a drink from the garden hose.” There is almost a biblical mythos to this memory of charity relayed through the generations. Muñoz shows us that one need not be a churchgoer, religious, or even wealthy to spread hope to others. Divinity, as the author frames it, is not relegated to the heavens but rather involves simple actions or interactions between people. In these powerful stories, anyone can be the hand that gives to one’s neighbor or even to a stranger. Anyone can improve a life, even in quiet, anonymous ways.
Muñoz offers Sunday as a fleeting window into his characters, an opportunity for clarity that the busy workweek robs or obscures. In a world in which minutes are money, Muñoz’s characters are often short on both. What greater currency is there for a grueling life than unhurried time?•
Please join us tonight, January 28, at 5 p.m. Pacific time, when author Viet Thanh Nguyen will sit down with CBC host John Freeman and special guests Don McKellar and Rumaan Alam to discuss The Sympathizer. Register for the Zoom conversation here.
REGISTER FOR TONIGHT’S ZOOM EVENT
And be sure to register for the conversation among Muñoz, Freeman, and a special guest about The Consequences here.
TONIGHT‘S SPECIAL GUESTS
Read about tonight’s two special guests to discuss The Sympathizer. —Alta
DEFYING THE EMPIRE
CBC host John Freeman writes an eloquent long-form essay about The Sympathizer and author Viet Thanh Nguyen’s other books. —Alta
INTERPRETING LIFE STORIES
CBC editor Anita Felicelli reviews Lidia Yuknavitch’s Reading the Waves, a companion to her earlier memoir, The Chronology of Water. —Alta
WILL ROGERS IS ON FIRE
Read journalist Andrew Dubbins on his family’s escape from their beloved Palisades house during the fires. —Alta
RESISTING TRANSPHOBIA
San Francisco’s trans writers discuss staving off despair, building community, and making art in the face of a new, dangerous political era. —San Francisco Chronicle
WEAVING L.A. INTO DREAMS
Actress Laura Dern writes a letter of love to director David Lynch (Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity), who recently passed away. —Los Angeles Times
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