At first read, Cathedral City is a bit of a ramshackle. There are lots of characters running around having lots of flashbacks. There are a number of deaths and near-deaths that are so near that the near-dead person is referred to omnisciently as a corpse. And the first hot sex scene is heterosexual. Why would you want to read such a mess?
The story is fairly complex. Cathedral City is on the edge of a California desert trying to reclaim it, while developers think it needs an ice rink. Kenny and Nick lease and operate a mostly gay bar there; the bar is soon the last reminder of a happier ice rink-free past. Sam owns the land and collects rent from immigrants trying to make a life. Ruthie is his wife, a deeply depressed woman. Maria is a Mexican girl trying to get into the States with her grandmother; Inez is an angry immigrant living near the bar, trying to figure out if being married and in the States is any bonus over her home in Mexico.
It’s a mess, alright, but it grows on you. There are a couple of primary themes presented here that improve with age and work fairly well together. The first is the motivation to recreate and maintain the past; this comes with a lot of reminiscing, nostalgia, and flashbacks. Hinton covers this well with the Lost-quality flashbacks that are naturally interwoven into the plot. The character that succeeds the most in this aim is Ruthie.
The other theme is somewhat the opposite; the motivation to propel one’s self into the future. This of course is the driving force behind the immigrants, who risk their lives relocating from Mexico to the United States in an unapproved way. Maria is the character that succeeds the most in this theme by, ironically, being able to embrace both themes.
A mess is a mess, though, and there are some flaws. Kenny and Nick have been together for 18 years, but theirs is a deeply troubled relationship due to Nick’s alcoholism and his dependence on Kenny, which Kenny feeds from. Observe as Kenny’s loyalty to Nick rises and falls along with Nick’s dependence. It’s unhealthy, if natural. But observe Sam’s response to the impending demise of the relationship before Nick is referred to unflatteringly as a corpse and needs Kenny again. Sam is one of the less politically correct characters you’ll ever meet, but even he should not see these two and think that they epitomize a healthy relationship. Other characters behave oddly too.
The villains are well-crafted and some are subtle. The obvious ones are the terror trio who hover near the bar in order to present the only random physical threat in the entire story. They, along with Alex and Ralph are blatant bad boys. Carmen and Marcella are much more crafty in their badness, and are thus more dangerous to our protagonists.
One exceptional character is Pablo, who develops intriguing relationships with Nick, Maria, and Inez. I wondered if Hinton crafted Pablo after himself. (Pablo is the only character to appear in the 1-page preview for Hinton’s follow-up novel, Desperate Hearts, which came out in 2002.)
This is an acceptable, if not extraordinary read.