The Mixquiahuala Letters
Ana Castillo's novel traces two women's correspondence as it explores borders, gender, and cultural pressure.
Work Information
The exchange of letters shapes a story of movement and self-discovery.
In an experimental form, the novel carefully follows the travels and conflicts of two women.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
- Published
- 1992-04-17
- Pages
- 144 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 13.18 x 0.84 x 20.32 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9780385420136
- ISBN-10
- 0385420137
- Price
- 3348 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Literature & Fiction/United States/Hispanic
"A wonderful, wonderful book." —Maxine Hong Kingston Focusing on the relationship between two fiercely independent women—Teresa, a writer, and Alicia, an artist—this epistolary novel was written as a tribute to Julio Cortázar’s Hopscotch and examines Latina forms of love, gender conflict, and female friendship. This groundbreaking debut novel received an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation and is widely studied as a feminist text on the nature of self-conflict.
Ana Castillo is also the author of So Far from God , which received a 1993 Carl Sandburg Award and the Southwestern Booksellers Award, numerous poetry collections, including My Father Was a Toltec , and a critical work on Latina writing, Massacre of the Dreamers . She lives in Chicago, Illinois.
Reviews
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It baffles me how this can have any negative reviews. This book is perfect. It examines literally everything feminist and chicana.. it's amazing! It does have a "chose your own story" concept, and I read each one of the options and they all tell a different story. but you also HAVE to read it all the way through.. there are some letters that none of the 3 options include. This book examines the "la virgen/ la puta" aspect women face and so many controversial things that everyone can relate to, I thought this book was phenomenal. And if you have an interest in feminist or chicana literature you need to read this.
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This book is amazing! Castillo really has a way of transporting you through her letters. I read this for an English class and couldn't of been happier!
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I love that this book tackles issues relating to race, nationality, and gender, through its main characters and setting. The narrator of the novel, Teresa, is a woman of Mexican heritage and modest upbringing, and is contrasted with the woman to whom she writes her letters, Alicia. Alicia is lighter skinned and of Spanish ancestry, and her family is from an upper-middle-class background. This contrast between the characters allows the reader insight into the privileges and disadvantages that exist around racial and ethnic backgrounds as well as class statuses. In conjunction with the race and class discussion, the novel also highlights the experiences of women in the US as well as Mexico. This combination leads to a compelling story of two women in a world that is often dangerous and unfriendly to them. However, the epistolary format, with the option to read the letters in different orders, necessitates that the letters are a bit ambiguous at points. For me, this made it difficult to discern a firm plot and made the book feel a little rhythm-less. That said, I personally prefer books that are more linear, while someone who enjoys putting together the pieces of a story would likely not have an issue with the format.
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My son's book for college, arrived on- time.
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It was a good read the reader will understand the Chicano identity and how it was developed. A cultural phenomenon.
Related Literary Awards
- American Book Awards Edition 8 (1987) ・Winner