Castillo's ( Sapogonia ) inventive but not entirely cohesive novel about the fortunes of a contemporary Chicana family in the village of Tome, N.M., reveals its main concerns at once. Sofi's three-year-old daughter dies in a horrifying epileptic fit but is resurrected (and even levitates) at her own funeral, reporting firsthand acquaintance with hell, purgatory and heaven. Magic and divine intervention in varying ways touch each of Sofi's three other daughters: the eldest, mainstreamed yuppie Esperanza; Caridad, whose path leads toward folk mysticism; and the more mundane Fe, who--seized with a screaming convulsion when her fiance jilts her--is brought to silence only months later through the intercession of the resurrected youngest sister, ``Loca.'' Castillo takes a page from the magical realist school of Latin American fiction, but one senses the North American component of this Chicana voice: in her work, occult phenomena are literal, not symbolic; life is traumatic and brutal--as are men--but death is merely tentative. She sounds a secondary note as a proponent of feminism and social justice, but her hand falters when she attempts to blend the formation of an artisans' cooperative or an industrial toxins scandal into a universe of magical healings and manifestations. Castillo is also a critic, a translator and a poet. (May)
So Far from God
Narrated by Frankie Corzo
Ana CastilloUnabridged — 7 hours, 50 minutes
So Far from God
Narrated by Frankie Corzo
Ana CastilloUnabridged — 7 hours, 50 minutes
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Overview
Editorial Reviews
This masterfully written novel by the author of The Mixquiahuala Letters (Anchor: Doubleday, 1992) tells the story of Sofia and her four daughters. The Hispanic family lives in Tome, New Mexico, a small, quiet town whose inhabitants nonetheless directly deal with such current social issues as AIDS, industrial pollution, the volatile political situation in the Middle East, poor people's struggle for self - sufficiency, and the current interest in alternate spirituality and natural medicine. Although filled with tragic events, the narrative also offers hope in its portrayal of successful journeys toward wholeness by each of the five women. Each chapter stands on its own as a complete story, but readers won't be satisfied until they've finished the entire skillfully constructed book. Highly recommended for collections with demand for Hispanic, women's, or spiritual literature.-- Sherri Cutler, Children's Memorial Hosp. Lib ., Chicago
A delightful novel…impossible to resist.
—Los Angeles Times Book Review
"While reading, you may get an eerie feeling that you are 12 years old and back in your grandmother's kitchen smelling all those wonderful smells and hearing all her curious stories."
"Ana Castillo has gone and done what I always wanted to do—written a Chicana telenovela—a novel roaring down Interstate 25 at one hundred and fifteen miles an hour with an almanac of Chicanoismo—saints, martyrs, T.V. mystics, home remedies, little miracles, dichos, myths, gossip, recipes-fluttering from the fender like a flag. Wacky, wild, y bien funny. Dale gas, girl!"
"Ana Castillo is una storyteller de primera…Her voice is distinctive-zany, knowing, rhythmic, with its very own mix of Latino–U.S. of A. cadences…able to hold our attention from the first to last page of this packed, picaresque novel. So Far from God is the novel that wasn’t there before but which I’d been missing. Bravo, Ana!"
"Exuberant and slangy...a chili mix of the conversational and poetic...haunting...profound...powerful."
"Exciting and wonderful! I gave it to my mother, my sister, my daughter, my whole family. Anybody who's ever been the daughter of a mother will appreciate this book."
"Ana Castillo is immensely insightful in every sense of the word…A writer with enormous integrity, with common sense and lyric sense, yet one who passes back and forth between more than one psychic world…and is able to bring back what she has seen and sensed into the land of her intense and beautifully crafted writing."
"Castillo is simply dazzling, tossing off miracles, scathing social commentary, and smart-ass humor as easily and naturally as shaking water from a mane of wet hair."
"History may one day proclaim So Far from God the breakthrough novel about Chicano life that Ana Castillo…was born to write…Compulsively readable, lilting, and profound…A teaching story that delights as much as it instructs, bringing us memorable characters whose lives stay with us long after the book’s end."
"The author tells an important story and she tells it with inventiveness and verve…So Far from God is a hymn to the endurance of women, both physical and spiritual."
Ana Castillo is immensely insightful in every sense of the word…A writer with enormous integrity, with common sense and lyric sense, yet one who passes back and forth between more than one psychic world…and is able to bring back what she has seen and sensed into the land of her intense and beautifully crafted writing.
Castillo is simply dazzling, tossing off miracles, scathing social commentary, and smart-ass humor as easily and naturally as shaking water from a mane of wet hair.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940159857743 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Dreamscape Media |
| Publication date: | 08/22/2023 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
| Sales rank: | 1,015,433 |
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