02/10/2014
Castillo (The Guardians) is highly acclaimed for an adventurous and exquisite use of language in her plays, poetry, essays, and novels, but this latest novel misses the mark. Palma Piedras, who is over 40 and recently divorced, allows her sexual interest in her younger cousin, Pepito, to both flare up and quickly peak when he is released from prison. Sex is the only way that Palma can relate to anyone else, despite a strict upbringing by her grandmother. It’s tempting to call her an unreliable narrator, but the book isn’t necessarily told from her point of view. The reader hovers somewhere above the action through the essay-like narration, as Palma flits from bed to bed, lover to lover, in New Mexico, L.A., and Chicago. Yet even in bed, Palma finds little genuine sense of connection to those around her. Unfortunately, readers may feel equally distant from her, partly due to such distracting stylistic choices as a lack of quotation marks and repeated references to Palma by her full name. Another issue, though, is the nature of Castillo’s heroine, who invariably makes the poorest choice available and then wonders why things aren’t going better. The result is a lack of both character growth and narrative drive. (May)
Full of drama and gossip (because who doesn’t love chisme), this is a must-read for any chica in the process of finding her true self.” —Cosmopolitan
“Palma Piedras, 43 and divorced, tries on lovers of both sexes like a woman grabbing stilettos at a sample sale. She’s a Latina Moll Flanders, cheeky and passionate, clawing her way up from some very mean streets. Raw, funny and real.” —More
"In this gritty and entertaining novel, Ana Castillo paints a captivating portrait of a future that defies odds, questions stereotypes, and always maintains a sense of humor." —Elena Poniatowka, author of Massacre in Mexico
“Cheeky, amoral, and a gritty survivor, Palma Piedras is a picaresque heroine for the 21st century. With an unflinching satirical flare, Castillo creates a vivid cast of rogues and helpless characters who alarmingly resemble people we know.” —Jaime Manrique, author of Cervantes Street
“The novel is one-half sexual adventure, and one-half poignant search for love and meaning that are always found within. Palma is feisty and uninhibited, and unblinkingly realistic about herself and the world.” —Huffington Post Blog
"In Ana Castillo’s edgy new novel Give It to Me, no-holds barred Palma Piedras, ‘lone satellite orbiting in space,’ crash-lands on everybody’s heart. Palma’s escapades—erotic, sexy, comic and, by the end, devastating and poignant—illustrate how those who fling themselves onto love and desire are the same people who, at one time or another, must flee from it. An evocative page-turner." —Rigoberto González, author of Butterfly Boy, Memories of a Chicano Mariposa
“Through deadpan humor, impulsive characters, and a romp across America, Castillo’s absorbing novel is a search for twenty-first-century identity at a time when we find that very notion at its most unstable.” —Tony Valenzuela, executive director of the Lambda Literary Foundation
“In her new novel, Give It To Me, Castillo delivers a story that is both tawdry and transcendent. The sense of contemporary rootlessness chafes against deeply rooted Mexican-American culture creating a raw friction unlike any other story out there.” —Jewelle Gomez, author of The Gilda Stories
“Give It To Me gives us a post-9/11, post-Bush, fast-talking, fast-walking multicultural, multiracial, multisexual panoply of characters... I thought I would die laughing.” —Cheryl Clarke, author of The Days of Good Looks: Prose and Poetry 1980-2005
“The novel is a brave exploration of uninhibited feminine sexuality — at least on the surface. But it's also, in many ways, a great American novel, an examination of family, class issues and the search for happiness.” —Las Cruces Sun-News
“Full of drama and gossip (because who doesn’t love chisme), this is a must-read for any chica in the process of finding her true self.” —Cosmopolitan
“Palma Piedras, 43 and divorced, tries on lovers of both sexes like a woman grabbing stilettos at a sample sale. She’s a Latina Moll Flanders, cheeky and passionate, clawing her way up from some very mean streets. Raw, funny and real.” —More
"In this gritty and entertaining novel, Ana Castillo paints a captivating portrait of a future that defies odds, questions stereotypes, and always maintains a sense of humor." —Elena Poniatowka, author of Massacre in Mexico
“Cheeky, amoral, and a gritty survivor, Palma Piedras is a picaresque heroine for the 21st century. With an unflinching satirical flare, Castillo creates a vivid cast of rogues and helpless characters who alarmingly resemble people we know.” —Jaime Manrique, author of Cervantes Street
“The novel is one-half sexual adventure, and one-half poignant search for love and meaning that are always found within. Palma is feisty and uninhibited, and unblinkingly realistic about herself and the world.” —Huffington Post Blog
"In Ana Castillo’s edgy new novel Give It to Me, no-holds barred Palma Piedras, ‘lone satellite orbiting in space,’ crash-lands on everybody’s heart. Palma’s escapades—erotic, sexy, comic and, by the end, devastating and poignant—illustrate how those who fling themselves onto love and desire are the same people who, at one time or another, must flee from it. An evocative page-turner." —Rigoberto González, author of Butterfly Boy, Memories of a Chicano Mariposa
“Through deadpan humor, impulsive characters, and a romp across America, Castillo’s absorbing novel is a search for twenty-first-century identity at a time when we find that very notion at its most unstable.” —Tony Valenzuela, executive director of the Lambda Literary Foundation
“In her new novel, Give It To Me, Castillo delivers a story that is both tawdry and transcendent. The sense of contemporary rootlessness chafes against deeply rooted Mexican-American culture creating a raw friction unlike any other story out there.” —Jewelle Gomez, author of The Gilda Stories
“Give It To Me gives us a post-9/11, post-Bush, fast-talking, fast-walking multicultural, multiracial, multisexual panoply of characters... I thought I would die laughing.” —Cheryl Clarke, author of The Days of Good Looks: Prose and Poetry 1980-2005
“The novel is a brave exploration of uninhibited feminine sexuality — at least on the surface. But it's also, in many ways, a great American novel, an examination of family, class issues and the search for happiness.” —Las Cruces Sun-News
