Product Description

“Seductive ... full of infectious vigor ... these stories demand, above all, to be listened to.”—New York Times Book Review From Ana Castillo, the widely praised author of So Far from God and The Guardians, comes this collection of stories on the experience of love in all its myriad configurations. Infectiously moody and murderously comic, Castillo chronicles the rapturous beginnings, melancholy middles, and bittersweet endings of modern romance between men and women, men and men, and women and women.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #386484 in Books
• Published on: 2008-07-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Amazon.com Review
A collection of short stories about the seductive, vibrant, often defiant lives of lovers, not all of them boys. In "La Ronde," women fall for women, for men, for both, and explore the complex extension of this love in their own families. In "Vatolandia," an independent-minded woman creates a critical system in which to classify the men she dates. And in the title story a woman muses at the hypocrisy of life while mourning the departure of her latest boyfriend over drinks in a gay bar. Though the women in these stories have their fair share of heartache, they refuse to be victims. As they face their challenges head-on, they unknowingly shape their own destinies.

From Publishers Weekly
The vitality of Castillo's voice, and the fully engaged lives of her hot-blooded characters, endow her first collection of short stories with earthy eroticism and zesty humor. These 22 tales of love, lust, and Latina tradition showcase bold protagonists while investigating the substance of their lives. Despite the title, however, the lovers here are most often not boys, but experienced women, of Mexican heritage. In the title story, the essence of love's magic is slowly revealed by narrator Carmen, a bisexual would-be writer and proprietor of "the only bookstore in town that deals with the question of the soul." Carmen learns how to experience love from her friends, first as she secludes herself in a primitive adobe in the desert outside of Santa Fe and later from La Miss Rose's pied a terre in Chicago's Barrio. Friendship is vital in these often hilarious, sometimes tragic and always compelling stories about love in its many different permutations, or "multitudes," as one large and sexy character, Sara Santistevan, says in "Vatolandia." And we're not talking about idealized romance or even great physical specimens here. The gamut includes some unattractive, emotionally misguided, pathetic or bizarre social rejects. The white loverboy wearing the Malcolm X T-shirt never laughs, only knows how to smooch gay boys in dark corners; the brawny beer-bellied guy with Pancho Villa charm leaves his wife and kids each night to tend a gay bar, and poor little Mirna sleeps in a tomb to escape the importuning of the man for whom she works. Paco and Rose have no blankets for their beds but bask in the warmth of a 25-inch color TV while they wait to trap another golden cockroach to sell to the pawnbroker. The world of Castillo's literary art resembles the cinematic bohemia depicted by Pedro Almodovar, and her inventive vignettes convey the volatile magic of such a world. Carmen says: "I wish I could talk like my eyes can see." Castillo does. Author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Castillo, a novelist, poet, and critic who has won numerous awards, including the Carl Sandberg Prize, has been described as a first-rate storyteller. But in these terse, fragmentary pieces, her strength would seem to be in capturing character through a well-sketched situation. In the few pages of "Again, Like Before," for instance, missed cues at a disastrous dinner show just how badly matched two women are as lovers. As the narrator finally concludes wearily, "I left you simply because I did not love you," we feel her hard-edged indifference not just to her lover but to the world. Throughout, the prose is hip, street smart, and cutting?"Then his brothers started ragging him about running around with a lesbian?or worse, a bisexual, nothing more shady or untrustworthy (except a liberal)," the settings refreshingly far from suburbia, and the action (such as it is) on the edge. It might be satisfying to see Castillo develop her ideas more fully, but it's probably not on her agenda. For contemporary and gay/lesbian collections.?Barbara Hoffert, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Transcendent
With these stories, Ana Castillo enters the hearts of humanity and forces us to deal with sexuality with astonishing freedom. I had been enamored by her Mexican-American maidens of the past, now defiantly she refuses to be pigeon-holed as just a Chicana and transcends all concepts of conventional wisdom in literature, love and the everlasting. We need more writers to bridge these gaps in our psyche.

A box of delights, to suit many different tastes
I recommend the stories highly. Think of them as a box of Turkish Delight: best savored one piece at a time. Eat the whole box in one sitting and you're liable to make yourself sick. Read them singly, with breaks in between, and you'll appreciate each story for its own wit, charm, chutzpah. You may not love every story, but you'll definitely find that one or two sticks with you.

My personal favorite is "Crawfish Love," whose protagonist has the knack of reading a woman's shoe size at a glance. We see how upward mobility can make you overlook what's most important.

Castillo demonstrates her command over both the art and the craft of writing.

lovely and fulfilling
Ana Castillo explores her unique perspective on the joys and sorrows of love in all of its manifestations: woman and woman, man and man, woman and man. It was funny, heartbreaking, and beautifully written. There were a couple of stories that were rather slow; however, there were other stories written so well (for instance "Loverboys and "La Miss Rose"), that one will definitely want to read them more than once. This book takes you into the realm of the Latino world with wit and grace.