Product Description

A collection of works by well-known and emerging Latina writers includes short stories, excerpts from novels, and nonfiction pieces from a range of contributors--Sandra Cisneros, Julia Alvarez, Denise Chavez, Ana Castillo, Cristina Garcia, and Sandra Beni+a7tez.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #803343 in Books
• Published on: 1995-08-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Sampling works from over 30 contemporary female Latin writers, this is a worthwhile and fashionable digest. The stories, recollections, letters and essays range widely in topic, tone, style and quality. Unfortunately, most of the strongest pieces are buried deep in the book. Among them, the story "Personality Fabulosa" by Monica Palacios captures with deceptive levity a heavy crush at the moment it develops into mutual courtship. Also terrific, Lucha Corpi's essay, "Epiphany: The Third Gift" depicts a tomboy distressing her traditional parents, who find solace in her bookishness: "'When you educate a man,' my father would often tell my younger sister and me, 'you educate an individual. But when you educate a woman, you educate the whole family.'" Mary Helen Ponce's "Just Dessert" deftly portrays a disastrous dinner date, as the woman futilely tries to concentrate on the man's gorgeous lips and ignore the bigotry coming out of them. The stories of Cristina Garcia, Aurora Levins Morales, Kathleen Ann Gonzalez and Judith Ortiz Cofer also work brilliantly. Less successfully, other writers rely too much on their ethnicity for interest rather than intrinsic merit. For example, Esmeralda Santiago's excerpt comes across as politically correct and facile: "Americanos talk funny when they speak Spanish." By and large, however, the several gems in this collection outweigh the weak parts.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.