The Rain God was awarded the best fiction prize from the Border Regional Library Conference in 1985 and was selected by the Bay Area Reviewers Association as one of the three best novels of 1984.

After a move to a nicer home her son Antony becomes interested in the emerging Pachuco culture of youth in the area.

It's unclear if the death was a suicide, or if he was murdered, as the specter of anti-Mexican white supremacist practices floats around the various characters in the novel.

As the novels various characters and themes are developed, the religious undertones of sin & sinners becomes apparent, mostly because of the way the family moves around and responds to the matriarch Mama Chona.

The community knew of their infidelity, but Juanita chose to ignore it, because she liked the family & life Miguel Grande had granted her, and them.

It is clear to the reader that they are in the hands of a skilled writer, as Islas even begins to bend the realism of the family's history and choices.

He is a man who helps migrants find work, loves food, and cares deeply for his family, but also cheats on his wife Angie with young men.

Later in the novel we come to find it is likely the first signs of the boys mental illness that leads to drug addiction.

Throughout the whole novel Islas' portrays her as a woman who is judgmental, racist towards indigenous Mexicans, and privileges Castilian ways.