Happy Birthday Jesus

Happy Birthday Jesús is an insightful and spell-binding novel of and about our times, when the relationship between race and violence dominates the news and threatens not only our personal security but our confidence in our social processes. This novel recreates the making of a sociopath. It is written by a criminal defense lawyer whose extensive experience has been representing individuals such as the protagonist Jesús Olivas. Whether Jesús is a victim or the bane of society is left to the reader's judgment in this novel which details the painful recollections of Jesús himself. What is clear, however, is that the boiling pot of Jesús' emotions that finally erupts in senseless violence has ben cooking for years on the flames of religious fanaticism, poverty and race hatred. All of the social institutions that should have nurtured and protected Jesús - family, school, church, the court - ultimately failed him, leading him to strike back uncontrollably, irrationally.

Author: Ronald L. Ruiz
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Published: 07/30/2012
Pages: 320
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.90lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.51w x 0.72d
ISBN: 9781477692707

About the Author
After reading Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment at the age of 17, Ronald L. Ruiz says he knew he wanted to be a writer, but knew nothing about the craft. His first novel, Happy Birthday Jesús, was published 36 years later to good reviews. Ruiz practiced criminal law for over 36 years in California, and at the end of his legal career was the District Attorney of his county. One of only six Mexican-American lawyers in Northern California during his early years, he saw a transformation in the criminal justice system that would make anyone wonder whether there had been "progress." Appointed by California's Governor to the Agriculture Labor Relations Board from 1976-1980, Ruiz saw first-hand the labor strife in California's agricultural industry between César Chavez's UFW and the growers. What he saw and experienced throughout his career serves as a basis for his writing. He always managed to find time to write while working and now retired, Ruiz continues to write every day, saying he feels fortunate to have found something in writing that sustains him.

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