A Kiss Across the Ocean

Reviews / Votes

"This at-once scholarly and personal book is a moving tribute to the escapism and comfort that music can give to the most marginalized members of society: RodrIguez provides well-researched analysis of the influences on and of post-punk bands, in realms from racial politics to ethnic cultural dynamics, and also writes of his own experiences as a young fan searching for belonging. RodrIguez's book successfully balances an intellectual understanding of the cultural ramifications of post-punk music with poignant and alluring background stories, appealing to scholars and fans alike." - Lisa Henry (Library Journal) "In this part-memoir, part-ethnography of England and SoCal in the 1980s, author RodrIguez, a professor of media and cultural studies and English at UC Riverside, investigates what binds these two seemingly disparate cultures. Starting with his own tween-age fandom of Boy George and the Culture Club, RodrIguez plumbs the depths of the passionate, sometimes tainted love affair between British post-punks and the Latinos who worship at their altar." - Suzy Exposito (Los Angeles Times) "Extremely well written and researched the book is a fantastic exploration into the wider reaches of UK post-punk and compulsive reading for those with an interest in subculture studies and the post-punk scene itself." - Lee Powell (Vive Le Rock) "RodrIguez could've easily ripped into a press corps that still largely thinks Latinos only listen to Spanish-language music backed by either accordions or congas. He does critique them but limits the bile in favor of a warm, poignant memoir-analysis, which he writes is 'animated by a deep investigative labor propelled by fannish investment.'" - GustavoArellano (Los Angeles Times) "An intriguing study of how music builds connections between different communities, and how pop desire translates over time and space."

- Rob Sheffield (Rolling Stone) "Ultimately, Rodriguez's book is a tribute to the music that not only provided a soundtrack to his teenage years but also enabled him to navigate his way through the thorny questions of identity." - Gilbert Garcia (San Antonio Express-News) "Tender, wry, delicate, and rich, A Kiss across the Ocean is a love letter to the theatrically potent musical and visual gestures of the artists and bands of the British postpunk scene that made a difference in the mid-1980s and continue to do so today, even when people may have forgotten some of the bands' names." - Caridad Svich (Theatre Survey) "In seven short chapters, the author's intertwining of autobiography and a deeply researched history is a winning approach for articulating the equally intertwined friendships, influence and politics of British post-punk and Latin American cultures." - Maria Elena Buszek (Punk & Post-Punk) "The book is valuable in furthering a grasp of the deeply nuanced cultural hybridity, orientation and style sensibilities that have informed U.S. Latinx life from its very beginnings, and how this community has in turn been pivotal in determining artistic output beyond our borders and into the mainstream. . . . , Rodriguez opens up vistas from personal experience and lifelong research to chart dizzying connections across fandom, fantasy and friendships, showing influences from Latinos on both U.S. coasts on recording artists who received and processed Latinx culture in tandem with their trans-Atlantic careers." - Benjamin Ortiz (New Lines Magazine) "With A Kiss across the Ocean, RodrIguez has offered scholars and fans alike a complex and heartfelt portrait of contemporary US Latinidad, cultural exchange, and queer aesthetic liberation. Written with rigor and soul, with the sounds of thrumming bass lines, searing vocal melodies, and whirling synthesizers laced into each page, the book preserves a sense of mystery about musical life without resorting to mystification, honors the affects of a good show while holding them up to the light. A Kiss across the Ocean is a beacon for anyone interested in the musical and cultural legacies of British post-punk and US Latinx cultural production, as well as a model for scholars interested in the ways our lived experiences can push our language and our theorizing-in the ways, that is, that our feelings, memories, and arguments touch." - Jonathan Leal (American Literary History) "RodrIguez potently describes the affective interactions and affinities of the transatlantic touch, allowing us to attend to these aleatory, imperceptible, complex, and difficult-to-explain phenomena. The effect of the touch on the recipient can be palpable and decisive, despite spatial, ethnic, and cultural differences." - Richard A. Grijalva (Aztlan)