The Aztec Love God, Tony Diaz, Fiction Collective 2, 1998
This is the first-person story of Tiofilo Duarte, a high school student who has mastered the art of assumed identities and getting fake IDs. He is also something of a local comedy club veteran (despite the fact that he is underage) as The Aztec Love God.
One day, he meets an older white comedian named Jester who wants Tio to join his act. The only problem is that Tio would have to perform Latino stereotypes. He gets involved with Jester's girlfriend, a stripper named Farah. At her place of employment, Tio runs into his high school principal, engaging her services. The relationship between the two men could be considered one of mutual loathing.
Did I mention that Tio's father spent what would have been Tio's college tuition money to buy and live in the actual house used in the show Leave It To Beaver?
Tio also has a girlfriend named Rosie who pushes him very hard toward marriage, even before he graduates from high school (if he graduates), to the point of putting a ring on lay-away and telling both sets of parents they are getting married very soon.
This is an excellent, even wonderful, book by a name to remember. I was very impressed.
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