Breaking Even

Breaking Even is Alejandro Grattan-Dominguez's coming-of-age novel set in West Texas in the 1950s. Eighteen-year-old Val leaves a tiny town in West Texas to search for his father, whom Val thought had died a hero's death just after he was born. This quest gives Val a convenient excuse for getting out, as he is being forced into a loveless marriage and meaningless existence in a town where his life has been made more difficult because his mother is Mexican.

The boy's search draws him into a world he has never seen before: violent and unpredictable, yet also glamourous and seductive, his Anglo father's world of high-stakes professional gambling. With their ultimate confrontation taking place in Reno, Nevada, Val finally realizes that all that glitters in his father's freewheeling lifestyle is more grit than gold and that true style comes only with the acceptance of personal responsibility.

Yet Val's father, Cooper, will leave him with a priceless gift. But the end of the novel, Val will have developed a newfound pride in his Mexican heritage, as well as the courage to follow his dream.