Loverboys: Stories

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.

This is a good book of stories maligned by bad editorial design. Please take my advice and read it in the opposite order in which the stories are arranged. Short story books should always start with the best stories up front, and the best stories in this collection are towards the end. The high comic spirit of "La Miss Rose" is definitely the gem of the book, with a surprising ending that doesn't feel like a resolution but like a new start; it made me want to know more about the three characters in the story. I was also profoundly affected by "Conversations with an Absent Lover on a Beachless Afternoon," which contains very powerful writing, including segments that appear to be autobiographical in nature. Try the short vignettes: two as short as a paragraph and one, "Foreign Market," seems as complete as any story despite its brevity. Try "Vatolandia." Then try the rest. You'll savor then Ana Castillo's rare gift for invention. She's a really good writer. And she happens to be Chicana.

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.

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.