Cathedral City

by Gregory Hinton

Book Overview

Rising on a lonely stretch of highway between Palm Springs and Rancho Mirage, Cathedral City is targeted by deep-pocketed developers with plans to build the city from the ground up. Against this... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1575668491
• ISBN13: 9781575668499
• Release Date: June 2001
• Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corporation
• Length: 340 Pages
• Weight: 0.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Interesting read

This book has been the best read of 2007 so far. Anyone familiar with the desert community of Cathedral City will be well aware that the author is tuned in to it's history and culture . I was especially impressed with his knowledge of the Latino community. Hinton must have lived among latinos in order to describe the culture as well as he has, this type of knowledge can't be obtained through books. I find myself glancing right and left while driving down 111 through Cathedral City imagining the characters coming and going. All in all, an outstanding story, well written, and difficult to put down.----To others who find the story too far fetched, they need to keep in mind that this is a work of fiction, written to entertain, and , for me, was successful. Life has it's own plan, and the different degrees of seperation that this book's characters have are similair to what we all see in life, only they are more obvious when reading about rather than living through. Outstanding job on your part Gregory.

A Fascinating Look at Desert Life

I just finished this book and thoroughly enjoyed it. As a life-time east cost resident, I found the description of the desert and the people who inhabit it fascinating. All the characters are recognizable as human beings, warts and all, which is the test of a good novel. As another reviewer mentioned, everyone will have their own favorites -- mine is Ruthie the depressed singer. The issue of a gay man falling in love with a woman is not "in-ing" as someone mentioned. He didn't suddenly become heterosexual, he fell in love with a kindred spirit, her gender wasn't a factor.

A moving, engrossing pageturner!

After the totally unjustified slam from Publisher's Weekly and the 1* rating of the previous reviewer, I had to write my own 5* review to boost this beautiful, involving, constantly surprising novel's rating. I read Cathedral City several months ago, and it still stays with me. Rarely has a novel combined so many different, believable, completely fascinating caracters, straight and gay. Each reader will have his favorite (mine was the young Mexican hustler with the generous heart). The characters may be flawed, but I didn't find a single instance of the self-hatred mentioned by the Publisher's Weekly reviewer. When time contraints forced me to put down this book (against my will!), I couldn't wait to get back to it. Some of the characters made me so angry I was talking back to the printed page, other scenes made me cry (luckily I wasn't in a public place). The novel ends in a completely satisfying but not at all predictable way. The only problem I had was not wanting to see Cathedral City end. (An added plus to me were the descriptions of the real Cathedral City, which I had driven through and stopped in countless times but never really known.) Thank you Gregory Hinton for a wonderful wonderful book!

Hinton Hits home

Gregory Hinton touches the very core of life in the desert, at once revealing the rifts between his diverse characters while illuminating that which draws them together. Mr. Hinton builds a rich tapestry with his soulful characters played out against the starkly beautiful backdrop of the California desert.A page turner to the end. I certainly look forward to the next installment from Hinton.

Latinos and Homosexuality Collide and Conquer

Gregory HInton's powerful new novel focuses on the struggles of Mexican "immigrants" in a small California town and it's homosexual community, and how they interact with each other. The story reveals misconceptions about the stereotypes that plague Latinos and the homosexual community. Many of the situations are true to life. I can't speak for all Latinos, but I know there are many in the Latino community that lash out at homosexuality, through fear and ignorance, sometimes stemming from our upbringing. This story tells of how Cathedral City comes together, albeit it's differences, to stop developers from destroying thier little desert town. Aside from some forgivable Spanish misspellings, this story is an important and unique tale that should be read! It's fun and entertaining too!! It's rumored that Gregory will be reading @ Espresso Mi Cultura bookstore & cafe in Hollywood sometime soon, so check it out!