Francisco Cantú studied the US-Mexican border at college and he felt the next step was to work there. He applied to be a US Border Patrol agent despite his half-Mexican mother's misgivings. He would see both sides he argued, and how better to learn about a thing than to experience it first hand.

The Line Becomes a River opens with Francisco on a visit to Mexico with his mother, perhaps to stress that he has a connection to both sides of the border. The initial chapters on training and life as an agent don't paint them in a good light. They are not taught to be compassionate, the migrants becoming dehumanised in their eyes, and the culture is laddish.

The work doesn't sit right with Francisco, although he understands the need for the border. Eventually he gets a desk job, exposing him to even more horrors, and ultimately he leaves for a quiet life as a barista. He talks about the history of the border, the troubles in Mexico which explains why so many people are desperate to cross, and the realities of the deportation process. These intersperse the memoir portions of the book.

Very few Mexicans are granted asylum in the US, despite so many feraing for their lives if they were to return. Family members who have spent decades in America risk being split up if immigration officials discover their illegal status. A trip to visit a dying relative in Mexico can mean the end of a settled life, as one of Francisco's friends learns in the later parts of the book.

Francisco was an agent between 2008 and 2012, and the book does not bleed into Trump's America. Yet even with some of the more flexible policies of Obama, there's still families torn apart, parents unable to see their American born children because of an unflinching immigration policy. The relationship between US and Mexico is a mess.

The book highlights how dangerous the crossing is, how hostile the landscape and weather is, as well as the risk of being held for ransom by the unscrupulous coyotes. The risk of being caught drug trafficking, or pissing off a cartel. That people still risk it shows that they are desperate.

Some of the dialogue is in Spanish and not translated, assuming the reader has a basic grasp of the language. I found this a bit distracting as I only know a few words and I kept having to try and work out if I'd missed something important. He also recalls these super meaningful dreams about a wolf, that are all a bit too coherent to read like real dreams. The text does jump around quite a lot, but it was an interesting perspective on a subject I know little about.

"Some politicians in the United States think that if a mother or father is deported, this will cause the entire family to move back to Mexico. But in fact, the mothers and fathers with the best family values will want their family to stay in the U.S., they will cross the border again and again to be with them. So you see, these same people, the ones with the most dedication to their family, they begin to build up a record of deportation, they have more and more problems with the government, and it becomes harder and harder for them to ever become legal. In this way, the U.S. is making criminals out of those who could become its very best citizens."

This is a book of gradually narrowing focus. In the early parts, we read quite a bit about the history of the border between the USA and Mexico. As I read it, I thought about how the border gradually became something more and more impenetrable. From being an agreement, it became a marked line:

"In keeping with the trend toward consolidating a well‑demarcated and enforceable line, the convention agreements stipulated “that the distance between two consecutive monuments shall never exceed 8,000 meters, and that this limit may be reduced on those parts of the line which are inhabited or capable of habitation."

And now someone wants to go all the way and make it into a wall.

The author is a man who who worked for several years in the Border Guard and we read of his experiences enforcing the border, stopping people crossing when they should not be, sending them back.

Finally, as the focus narrows even further, we read a detailed account of one man’s experience of the border.

This is a clever book. It is non-fiction and based on real experience. But it is structured in a way that pulls you in and reminds you that, however much there may be politics involved in borders and immigration, there are also real people living ordinary lives.

For most people reading this book, the USA-Mexico border will not be part of their everyday experience. There will, however, be areas of their lives where there is division. And this book makes you think about those areas. For this reason, it is a book that is well worth reading.

I would like to suggest two works of fiction as companion reads to this. Firstly, Signs Preceding the End of the World is a book based on a crossing of the border from Mexico to USA and which "explores the crossings and translations people make in their minds and language as they move from one country to another, especially when there’s no going back.". Secondly, Frankenstein in Baghdad explores some similar ideas about people and bodies and names. It is a very different book but I read it not long before reading this and was drawn back to it many times as I read this.

This is such a lyrical, passionate piece of writing as Cantu, conscious of his own mixed American-Mexican heritage, becomes a Border Patrol agent on the US-Mexican border. What he rapidly comes to understand is the huge chasm between the law and human realities, between what is legal and what is ethically 'right'.

Dealing with his mother's distrust ('Fine, my mother said, fine. But you must understand you are stepping into a system, an institution with little regard for people'), he comes himself to realise, and articulate so beautifully, that borders are liminal, constructed spaces, not hard walls - whatever contemporary political rhetorical might tell us.

Urgent, necessary, emotive and beautifully written.

Current events in the USA predispose us to a negative opinion of border patrol; our impressions reflect the comment by the author's mother that her son was entering an organisation run along paramilitary lines,.

However, Cantú's account of his time in border patrol retains at its core, humanity, and dissonance.too, as he wrestles with USA immigration policy and tries to implement it with a degree of respect and kindness. A linear account of the creation of the border and the necessary patrolling thereof is interspersed with the human stories behind the statistics: Jose's attempts to reenter the USA; the liminal spaces along the border where locals, mules, and those people attempting to cross co-exist in a dangerous and uneasy existence; the scattered bodies of those that die trying; the deliberate desecration of cached water and clothing supplies to deter others from trying keep the reader focused on what this REALLy means when we look past governmental narratives.

This novel is beautiful, fiercely honest, while being deeply empathetic, looking at those who police the Mexican-American border, and the migrants who risk and lose their lives crossing it. In a time of often ill-informed or downright deceitful political rhetoric, this book is an invaluable corrective.

The book follows author Francisco Cantu while he was a US Border Patrol agent from 2008 to 2012. Working the desert at the remote crossroads of drug routes and smuggling corridors, tracking humans through blistering days and frigid nights across a vast terrain. Hauling in the dead and detaining the exhausted, Cantu is haunted by nightmares, opting in the end to abandon his position. Line Becomes a River is a timely look at this arbitrary landscape.

Not my usual choice of books and this definitely hasn't swayed me

*3.5 STARS*

Francisco Cantú grew up on the American / Mexican border where his mother, ( a second generation Mexican - American ) was a park ranger. Francisco loved the landscape - the national parks and desert landscapes, and living in close proximity to the border ignited a curiosity in him to learn more about border control. He decided to pursue a degree in border relations, and although his studies provided some insight into the problems, he needed to see how things worked in the real world, and became a field agent with Border Control.

This is Cantú's personal account of what really happens, from both the perspective of the agents and also the immigrants themselves. Regardless of one's opinions on the subject of immigration, it's clear that there's no right or wrong - no black or white - these are human beings, each with their own story, their own hopes, dreams, and fears. Cantú shows great compassion for the people he encounters, but essentially the system appears flawed, and there's little he can do on a personal level, he's simply there to enforce immigration laws.

I found the first part of the book to be quite disjointed, and there were lots of facts and figures to absorb - ( and although I realise these were important ) I found it heavy going at times. There were some distressing scenes regarding drugs cartels and those dealing in human trafficking - they were heartbreaking to read, but it would have been wrong to omit these, because these are the facts laid bare, and there's no way of skirting round them.

This is an informed and honest look at something that everyone has an opinion on. Cantú uses a blank canvas to paint us a picture, but it's a picture you wouldn't want to stand and admire. I doubt you'll find a more crucial read regarding immigration and border control than this one.

*Thank you to Random House UK, Vintage Publishing for my ARC in exchange for an honest review*

The Line Becomes a River is an interesting book on a subject I would probably not have really thought to read about. Generally law enforcement autobiographies seem to hinge on people who have been involved in high profile cases or with high profile agencies/areas (e.g NYPD), which is something that sets this book aside from the others. Definitely a plus there.

However, the book falls into a number of other somewhat predictable traps, such as the "personal journey" narrative, covering the change in the author's attitudes as experiences shape his approach to the world - or how the world should approach the problem. A little expected in a way.

I would have preferred to have known a bit more about the Border Patrol's work and structure, and the day-to-day for the agents who work there, but there was some interesting content in there about how this is shaped - of course not enough to be useful to the opposition. The first part could have been a good spot to flesh this out at the expense of the very in-depth third part (no spoilers!).

The conversations in Spanish I found to be more than a little frustrating, as I could only guess at what was being said. They certainly serve a useful tool in that they demonstrate the strength of the relationship between the two parties speaking, but I couldn't help but feel I missed out a bit.

The book took a little while to read - more down to my circumstances than the content - but is written in a very readable style, despite lacking a bit of ooomph and directions at times. So don't expect this to take more than a weekend if you want to pick it up and can push some time into it.

Overall, despite its weakpoints, certainly recommended.

This is a hard hitting Biography showing how a job affects the people and to what lengths people will go to cross a border.
Scary.

Quite a heavy book and I took quite some time to read it. I had to put it down often to let the story sink in. Heavy subject and maybe dry sometimes but overall a good read.

found this book very interesting in light of current developments in american politics and history. the author expresses himself as the dehumanisation of the whole process of deportation and border patrol but at same lights gives some insight into mexican history too. The first part of the book took awhile to get going for me but the latter part of the book to me was more personal and humble.

A hard hitting story of what life is actually like patrolling the Mexican/American border. A little hard going for the first part but keep going, it is worth it. Adds that bit of 'real life' to something that most people never have to think about.

I expected this to be a somewhat dry but fascinating book. What I got was a curiously intriguing piece of writing.

I think, given this was an account of a time in a branch of law enforcement, I was expecting a very procedural account of outlandish experiences. The reality is that it's a very stylised collection of everyday life in the border patrol. The first two sections of the book almost read like freeform prose - the paragraphs leap about, they can seem disjointed initially but the thread connecting them gradually pulls tight and the story becomes clearer. I'm not a big fan of that style of writing generally, but luckily it's relatively subtle and didn't put me off. Another factor that adds to this unstructured feel is the random flipping into spanish. Now my spanish is basic at best so this was a little worrying at times, but it tends to just be short 3-4 word phrases here and there so even when I had no idea what any of the words were I could get a rough idea of what was said thanks to the surrounding text.

The final section of the book is far more what I had initially expected - although ironically it details a time after Cantú had left his job with the border patrol. It is more traditional writing, although the spanish phrases still loop in frequently and it still has a sense of stream of consciousness.

Oddly, I think I slightly prefer the unexpected initial sections. They slight randomness of it all seems fitting. The sudden burst of intensity breaking up an everyday dullness that seems to represent the lifestyle well. Cantú seems to frame the duality of enforcement and humanity quite well, there are hints of an internal struggle which all agents seem to have to deal with in varying degrees.

If you want to read about heroics on the border skip this book. It's far more about the people involved. It's about how there could/should be more compassion in policing a border. How arbitrary some of the regulations used to enforce immigration can be. How things are rarely black and white, and how people rarely fit the boxes of administrivia perfectly.

I'd recommend having some light entertainment to hand when delving into this, but overall it's a rewarding read. Not always a comfortable one, but one worth some time.

This is a really interesting book about being a US border control guard at the Mexican border. It is very well written and has obviously been very well thought out. This book tells the story of the different immigrants who try and cross the border. This is a tough job and it brings stress with it. This book feels like an honest account of life at the border.

This is a bittersweet, thought provoking memoir that gives an insight into what life is like for border patrols and migrants alike. Through Cantu's personal experiences, we learn more about an issue that is far from black and white. Detailing his experiences both as a border guard and then in trying to build a life after leaving the service, we learn more about how difficult life is like living near the border, told through a stream of easy-to-read, touching anecdotes that pose more questions than they answer.

This book is best described as skittish. Whilst the writing is good, the editing or structure really needs work. It almost appears if the author has taken his diary and removed the dates. One paragraph telling one story will end and the next will be completely unrelated. I also think the dream sequences are filler and offer very little to the reader. All in all this felt like a good writer without a story to tell. It wasn't until the end and the section on Jose did we feel like we got anything that wanted you to keep reading.

I persevered with this book however, gave up just over half way through. I found the use of Spanish, with no obvious translation) quite difficult. Although I could see where the author was trying to direct me I'm afraid I couldn't continue.

I wasn't able to read this because the galley copy was either corrupted or wouldn't display correctly in my Kindle.so I couldn't supply a review, though I notified the publisher. I had to give a star rating in order to post this though so I went with a neutral 3 which I will amend should I ever receive a readable copy :)

I want to give this book five stars but I can't. At times the passages from the author's studies read like a dissertation. I wanted to hear from Francisco Cantu, not from his sources...although mostly they are very interesting.
I am getting the negatives out first...a fair amount of conversation is in Spanish, with no translation. I know a little Spanish so had no problems. In most cases the conversation can be understood from the situation but I can see that it could be an issue fot some readers.
On the much larger positive side this is a book written for this moment.
The author graduated and opted to work for the Border Patrol. Being equally fluent in English and Spanish he was an ideal candidate. I am surprised by how few of his colleagues were bi-lingual. I would have expected it to be necessary to at least have a conversational level of Spanish before heading out into the desert looking for Mexicans, and others, trying to cross into the USA illegally.
The author seems to have been good at his job. He also has a conscience. He upholds the law, to the letter, without the cruelty that others may utilise. We have only his word for this of course as he wrote the book. I believe him.
After four years the nightmares that bombard his sleep and the horrible sights he cannot clear from his head become too much.
He opts to return to university.
Like many students he works as a barista. He finds a friend in Jose who has three sons who were all born in America. Two years along Jose returns to Mexico to be with his dying mother.
This is where the book is turned around. Where circumstances have the author questioning himself and the laws of his country. Is there a place in the rigid deportation rules for some humanity?
This is a book for this moment.

This is an unusual book dealing with a currently topical issue, the Mexican border. The teller has a mixed ancestry relevant to the story and also a balancing role as an enforcing officer. That gives him an unusual insight into the views on f both sides of the border. It is also blended with historical lessons and the comments of historians on the issues dealt with. An intriguing mix but it works and leaves the reader with greater knowledge of this impression rant and potentially explosive issue.