Reviews

What an absolutely beautiful piece of literature. This novella was assigned in my graduate literature seminar, and it's so unfortunate that I wasn't introduced to Viramontes before now. She is certainly an author who has been left out of the literary canon, but who very much deserves a place in it. The writing is incredible - a short work (a novella), but a work packed with symbolism and deep meaning. Every word is intentional. She varies the form of writing to emphasize and explicate the content of the story. Every character is masterfully developed. You could read this book over and over again and continue to find new elements of the story and discover deeper meaning within the text. If you are not familiar with Viramontes, don't wait any longer to discover her work.

katie_turt's review

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emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

ella__carroll's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

meggomyeggo28's review

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challenging informative reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

3/5

this was for english class

um. really confused, but that’s prob a skill issue so im giving it 3 stars for the benefit of the doubt. not sure there was a plot the entire time, but the imagery was really pretty and it def tackled different themes than a lot of other classic american novels, so it was a nice change of pace.

lattelibrarian's review

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4.0

This is one of those books that you need to read slowly, and with intention. I'm sad to say that I didn't realize that until about halfway through, but in my defense, I had a day to read this before my class. Estrella's story isn't necessarily beautiful, but it certainly is poetic. It's filled with facts and fiction and that good ol' fatalism that so often finds its way into Chicanx literature in my experience. This is fairly similar to The Circuit by Jimenez in terms of topic (so if you want to continue reading about migrant workers on farms, look no further!), but the circumstances and situations were so incredibly different--which only goes to show that there is no one single experience, though one thing can be experienced by many.

I learned a lot from this book, though it wasn't overtly didactic. The purpose of this story, as far as I could garner, not knowing Viramontes myself, was to tell Estrella's story of love and hardship, not necessarily to teach me things. But teach me, it did. This reinforced so many things that I'd learned both in English classes and by keeping in the loop with politics, that, as I previously mentioned, there's no "single experience," that migrant workers are extremely important to the United States economy, and that they have personhood unto themselves and in respect to themselves, and should be respected for that. Overall, this was truly such a wonderful tale that grips you until the very end.

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