In Perfect Light.(Brief Article)(Book Review)

In Perfect Light BENJAMIN ALIRE SAENZ. HarperCollins/ Rayo, $24.95 (336p) ISBN 0-06-077920-9

A poet, children's book author, former priest and author of House of Forgetting, Saenz returns with the gut-wrenching drama of a Mexican-American family's dissolution. Ten-year-old Andres Segovia sees his life ripped apart after his parents are killed in an El Paso auto accident. Older brother Mando steals Andres and his sisters, Yolie and Ileana, away from their comfortable American foster home to a dismal life across the bridge in Juarez, Mexico, in a misguided attempt to preserve the family. The Juarez of the dispossessed is more or less lawless; it is also the favored …