THE FITFUL SLEEP OF IMMIGRANTS, messy the way life is, real the way fiction needs to be

THE FITFUL SLEEP OF IMMIGRANTS
ORLANDO ORTEGA-MEDINA
Amble Press (non-affiliate Amazon link)
$9.99 Kindle edition, available now

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Award-winning author and immigration attorney Orlando Ortega-Medina returns to 1990s San Francisco in The Fitful Sleep of Immigrants, a powerful family drama that plays out within a captivating legal thriller.

Attorney Marc Mendes, the estranged son of a prominent rabbi and a burned-out lawyer with addiction issues, plots his exit from the big city to a more peaceful life in idyllic Napa Valley. But before he can realize his dream, the US government summons his Salvadoran life-partner Isaac Perez to immigration court, threatening him with deportation.

As Marc battles to save Isaac, his world is further upended by a dark and alluring client, who aims to tempt him away from his messy life. Torn between his commitment to Isaac and the pain-numbing escapism offered by his client, Marc is forced to choose between the lesser of two evils while confronting his twin demons of past addiction and guilt over the death of his first lover.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Very interesting take on the insanely vicious US immigration system pre-marriage equality. Add in a battle against the monster of addiction and you have quite a ride of a read.

People driven to action by ever more foreclosed options to achieve their goals are the raw meat whose roast-and-veggies we call fiction. Marc's dark past includes substance abuse and a very troubling death. He's haunted by the way his ability to be there for and give help to Isaac is limited by his past.

So far, so good. The story's got lots of material anyone over, say, 25 or 30 will relate to. What keeps a fifth star off my rating is the sheer idiocy of a lawyer not knowing for sure and certain his own intimate partner's immigration status! He wasn't born in the US, and you never asked? "Honeybunch, let's get you a bank account, so whip out the green card." This is lax in the extreme and no lawyer I've ever known would just not think to check on this even if not formally.

While I had fun reading the book I was never swept into the story. It is all down to me being picky about the thinking-through of characters' reasonable actions and responses.