I really like Alvarez. This is the third of her books I have read. I discovered her sometime after college when I was looking for authors like Sandra Cisneros. Alvarez writes about her homeland in the Domincan Republic. She writes literature, so I read it a little more slowly than beach reads, which is good. But she isn't trying so hard to be impressive with big words and confusing sentences like a lot of the literature I avoid, which is another reason she is so good. I'm not sure what else to say about it, other than that she is amazing and lovely! I recommend this one along with In The Name of Salome and How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents (I have yet to read Yo!).
Next time you behave like the "jackass" Kayne, go here.
You may recall back in June that I had a distressing incident with a car tire. Since then it's been on my list to replace the others... but you know how it goes.
"So we're on 4th Street, leaving a campus lot, when I discover I'm having difficulty steering. I pull over in the bank lot two blocks down. And behold, a new flat tire! So I call AAA, who tells me it will be a 90 minute wait. Unlike last time, it is not the middle of the night, and I am not in the middle of nowhere. I decide to call around. Unfortunately, the two guys I know who can do car stuff are busy... so there I am, sitting on a curb, watching Chrisafur try and try to remove the lug nuts, and fail and fail.
"I look around, and what do I see directly across 4th Street? What do I think about for maybe 10 seconds before I talk myself into it?"
"NO! You did NOT get a fireman to change your tire!"
"Oh, but I did!"
Finally, the dream has come true. I played damsel in distress at the fire house ("Who wants to show up my boyfriend and change a car tire for me?") and two burly lads came to my rescue. Chrisafur and I were on the road in 15 minutes flat. Yay, sexy firemen!
This was a charming book of essays. I forgot a lot about these books I read so long ago, and I didn't entirely relate to what a lot of the women remembered about their girlhood, but I still enjoyed these stories. Little glimpses back at books I loved, books I read more than once, books that helped girls to know whatever they were feeling was also felt-- maybe even understood-- by someone else. I recommend these essays... and maybe rereading your favorite Judy Blume book-- even if it's _Wifey_ :)
Yay, fixed link on Vox!! Woo-hoo!
While waiting on Vox to clean up its act, I've had a lot of time to reflect on this book. And yet, I'm still not sure what to say about it. I didn't dislike it-- the characters were full people, the story was told in an interesting order, the writing was good. But I don't think I liked it either-- I didn't especially like any of these full characters, I didn't really like how it ended, and it took me entirely too long to finish for me to suspect I liked it. So I guess this is a mixed review. The writing was good, encouraging me to maybe go look up one of her previous titles... but probably not in any hurry.
