Watercolor Women Opaque Men
A Novel in Verse
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- 14,99 €
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- 14,99 €
Publisher Description
2006 Independent Publisher Book Award for Story Teller of the Year
In this updated edition of Ana Castillo’s celebrated novel in verse, featuring a new introduction by Poet Laureate of Texas Carmen Tafolla, we revisit the story’s spirited heroine, known only as “Ella” or “She,” as she takes us through her own epic journey of self-actualization as an artist and a woman. With a remarkable combination of tenderness, lyricism, wicked humor, and biting satire, Castillo dramatizes Ella’s struggle through poverty as a Chicano single mother at the threshold of the twenty-first century, fighting for upward mobility while trying to raise her son to be independent and self-sufficient. Urged on by the gods of the ancients, Ella’s life interweaves with those of others whose existences are often neglected, even denied, by society’s status quo. Castillo’s strong rhythmic voice and exploration of such issues as love, sexual orientation, and cultural identity will resonate with readers today as much as they did upon the book’s original publication more than ten years ago. This expanded edition also includes a short preface by the author, as well as a glossary, a reader’s guide, and a list of additional suggested readings.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
An epic in verse, the story of Castillo's chicana Everywoman referred to alternately as "She" and "Ella" begins life in the rough-and-tumble world of California's migrant farm community. Ella's childhood is spent in los files, or the fields, and she is told early on by Mama Grande that "all men are the same." Rebellious aunt Renata brings her niece to Chicago, where she works a string of blue-collar jobs and attempts to better herself through college classes. After an attempted rape by a biology teacher and harsh words from an art history professor, she trades in college for marriage and baby, but eventually loses interest in her "dutiful husband" and turns to a female cop she meets in a bar. Things sour quickly, but involvement with the "Water Goddess/ Patroness of the Sea/ Governess of the Subconscious" empowers Ella. As the perspective shifts to the first person, Ella, describing herself as "Part Medusa/ Part Mother Goose/ and part Xochiquetzal," draws on all of her personal and cultural resources to raise her son to be different from all the "opaque" men she sees around them. The story and the verse itself offer few surprises, but Castillo (So Far from God) delivers a solid narrative of personal development.
