So Far from God

this book is great. i couldn't put it down once i started reading it. i've read it more than once. i recommend to all.

Ana Castillo truly takes us for an unforgettable trip as we take a glimpse into the lives of Sofi, a Chicana woman, and her four daughters, Esperanza (Hope), Caridad (Charity), Fe (Faith), and La Loca (The Crazy One). The story reads like an epic parable about life, death, sexuality and the bridge between the world of the living and the afterlife. It also raises very important questions about the division between heaven and hell and whether is really such a bad place after all in comparison with the life that we come to accept. Each woman in this story is touched by fate in unexpected, and (sometimes) supernatural ways. While Esperanza, the successful, upwardly mobile sister acts on her name and is relocated to Iraq as part of her journalism work, her sister Caridad becomes a faith healer, Fe loses her voice after a fit of desperate screaming, and La Loca cheats death as a young toddler only to become the subject of social scrutiny in their community as an isolated loner with a sixth sense only understandable to her mother, Sofi. This book is truly enjoyed when you suspend disbelief and just go with the supernatural and magical elements. SO FAR FROM GOD is true poetry, and also very important in cultural studies. It was assigned to me in a comparative literature class through the department of American Ethnic Studies with the following books: The Grass Dancer, A Lesson Before Dying, Ruby Ridge, and Homebase. (Books also worth checking out!)

I have read this wonderful story about relationships between women, politics, and spirituality at least four times. The first time, I devoured most of the lyrical dialogue and marvelous images during a college all-nighter. Hungry for voices that reminded me of family, I couldn't put the book down!Most recently, I have asked my students to read this novel at the beginning of the UC Berkeley course, "Redefining Chicana and Latina Health: Body, Mind, and Spirit." It always creates a space to discuss health and healing in relation to culture, environmental racism, labor exploitation, sexism, homophobia, faith, and political organizing . Ana Castillo's characters ask us to consider the costs of internalizing oppression, as well as present transformative ways of being in the world. A hopeful novel about the need for social change and personal transformation, it deals with the challenges many of us experience across difference in the United States.Instead of describing this story as "magical realism," I prefer the more accurate translation of the Carribean and South American consciousness and style of representation called "lo real maravilloso" - So Far From God is about the "marvelous real." Reading this book is a sensuous experience that engages your physical body, as well as your mind and soul.

What a wonderful book! I have three sisters and all of us loved So Far From God. We shared it with our mother and aunts and comadres and they all loved the remedios and stories that brought home close to our hearts. Bless Me Ultima? Please! In So Far From God the spiritual strength is with the women and STAYS with the women, not passed on to a macho little boy who gives orders to his mother. Moving into the professional world has separated some of our family memembers but So Far From God was a shared and loved experience which brought us all back to the New Mexico of our childhoods where the sight of people traveling long distances on their knees inorder to fulfill a promesa was commonplace. What an incredible and amazing testimonial to female strenth is So Far From God. I don't understand why some of my fellow New Mexicans get so territorial that they can't see the beauty and the truth of the story. Who cares if Castillo comes from the moon? She's a gifted and versatile Chicana writer, the best in my opinion, and I am grateful she took the time to love my beloved New Mexico in one of her books.I am still living along the frontera en tejas, but far from my New Mexican roots. Reading Castillo's novel is like taking a trip back in time to the place of my childhood. Gracias.

It has been four years since I was obligated to read this novel in my college literature class. I am so pleased that my professor assigned this book. It still holds up today as one of the best I have ever read. Although I come from a white middle-class family in a small white-bread community, I was able to relate to these characters as sisters, as family. I have read this story several times. Even though the pages are tattered and the cover has been ripped off, I will never give this book up to any recycle bin. From page one you will be so engrossed that you will not be able to put it down. You may finish it in one sitting or fall down trying.