Sergio Troncoso's Blog: Chico Lingo, by Sergio Troncoso, page 16

Gabi, a Girl in Pieces

<!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Times New Roman"; panose-1:0 2 2 6 3 5 4 5 2 3;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} table.MsoNormalTable {font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} </style>Isabel Quintero’s <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASI..." target="_blank"><i>Gabi, a Girl in Pieces</i></a> (Cinco Puntos Press) is a hilarious and powerful young adult novel with an unforgettable character in Gabi, la gordita, seeking to be true to her independence and integrity while she navigates the disasters and dramas of her senior year in high school. Quintero has created a voice that will resonate for many years to come. I hope this book will find the legions of readers it deserves, students, parents, teachers, and beyond.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://images-blogger-opensocial.goo...*" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jpo74PDqR5s..." height="320" width="207" /></a>Gabriela Hernandez starts a journal right before senior year, and it is this taboo-breaking, gut-spilling text where Gabi is true to herself, where she chronicles her confusions and declarations about being “a bastard child,” teenage sex and pregnancy, being too Mexican or not Mexican enough, her love of food, especially Hot-Cheetos, and society’s hypocritical expectations and pressures on young women, especially Chicanas. Gabi’s journal writing is profane, funny, revealing, and wise, but her experiences and decisions during her last year in high school will keep the reader riveted to the story.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Gabi struggles with her weight and self-image, yet she finds an outlet in writing when a teacher, Ms. Abernard, nurtures her poetry, recommends “secret reading lists” to Gabi and her classmates, and encourages them to read their poetry at a coffeehouse, The Grind Effect. Gabi has early crushes on Joshua Moore and Eric Ramirez, and has never been kissed. But she will change that soon enough, with the aroma of Hot-Cheetos on her “soft luscious lips.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Meanwhile, Gabi’s two best friends have dramas of their own. Sebastian reveals to Gabi that he’s gay, which goes well, but when Sebastian reveals this to his father the son is kicked out of the house. Sebastian ends up staying with Gabi. Another best friend, Cindy gets pregnant by German, “one of those guys who knows he’s super hot and assumes girls HAVE to like him.” Gabi witnesses the birth of Cindy’s baby and wonders “how something so utterly disgusting can be so utterly beautiful at the same time.” Later, Cindy will confide a secret to Gabi that will cause la gordita to turn (justifiably) violent.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Gabi’s family is also a mess around her, and she must endure, explain, and overcome them. Her father is a methamphetamine addict, who is missing from home for days at a time. Gabi loves and hates her mother, who harangues her about her weight and constantly admonishes her to keep her ‘ojos abiertos y las piernas cerradas.’ Gabi listens and doesn’t listen to her mother’s advice, yet it is the mother who ends up pregnant after having unprotected sex. Beto, Gabi’s younger brother, skips school to paint graffiti art, and seems lost without his father. At the end of senior year, as Gabi is applying to the University of California at Berkeley, she must take whatever steps are necessary to go beyond this family and her life at Santa Maria de Los Rosales High School.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Gabi is in pieces in more ways than one: with emotions that contradict each other, with expectations and pressures that pull her every which way, with “jiggly goodies” in awkward dresses, and with crushes on boys she thinks she likes and those she learns to love. She is trying to put her self together, like a jigsaw puzzle, making mistakes and discovering solutions on the fly, her heart on her sleeve, with a verve that often astonishes the reader. If this is not one of best contemporary books about the teenage soul, I don’t know what is.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Perhaps the best achievement of Isabel Quintero’s “Gabi, a Girl in Pieces” is what it says about what is ‘good’ and what is ‘bad’ about teenage sexuality, and how many adults are captive to a moral system that often denies them their best sense of self. You can be responsible, you can be honest about who you are and what you want, and you can empower yourself, if you can only survive the treacherous shoals of those teenage years. Like Gabi, you will need a razor-sharp wit and family and friends, as long as they don’t screw you up too much. You will need a ferocious independence, even when you see yourself with so many faults and limitations. Finally, you will need an integrity that demands you be true to your emerging self, always.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">(This book review originally appeared in the <i><a href="http://www.elpasotimes.com/living/ci_..." target="_blank">El Paso Times</a></i> on April 19, 2015.) </span> </div>

“The Good Son,” by Sergio Troncoso

I have a new essay, “The Good Son,” in April’s Texas Monthly. I hope you enjoy it. Thank you, all, for reading my work.

http://www.texasmonthly.com/story/good-son

"The Good Son," by Sergio Troncoso

I have a new essay, "The Good Son," in April's Texas Monthly. I hope you enjoy it. Thank you, all, for reading my work.

http://www.texasmonthly.com/story/good-son

The Last Tortilla available as e-book

Today The Last Tortilla became available as an e-book. Now all my books are available as e-books. “An earthy collection….These stories are richly satisfying.” —-Publishers Weekly

http://www.amazon.com/Last-Tortilla-Other-Stories-Camino-ebook/dp/B00UPW9SSS/

I’m having a great time in Germany. See you soon, with more news!

The Nature of Truth by Sergio Troncoso is a finalist in ForeWord Review’s Book of the Year...

The Nature of Truth by Sergio Troncoso is a finalist in ForeWord Review’s Book of the Year Awards in Thriller & Suspense, and Multicultural Fiction.

https://indiefab.forewordreviews.com/books/the-nature-of-truth/

Foreword Reviews will celebrate the winners during a program at the American Library Association Annual Conference in San Francisco on Friday, June 26 at 6 p.m. at the POPTOP stage in the main exhibit hall. 

The Nature of Truth by Sergio Troncoso is a finalist in ForeWord Review’s Book of the Year...

The Nature of Truth by Sergio Troncoso is a finalist in ForeWord Review’s Book of the Year Awards in Thriller & Suspense, and Multicultural Fiction.

https://indiefab.forewordreviews.com/books/the-nature-of-truth/

Foreword Reviews will celebrate the winners during a program at the American Library Association Annual Conference in San Francisco on Friday, June 26 at 6 p.m. at the POPTOP stage in the main exhibit hall. 

The Modern Latina Reviews From This Wicked Patch of Dust

“The story that really hit home for mewas the moment when Ismael received the call from his mother that his dear abuelita had passed away. It was as if this story was taken from my own life experience. The guilt and sadness Ismael felt for living so far away from the family were
feelings I’ve felt before. Family is a huge part of the Mexican culture,
especially our abuelitas who are typically the
matriarch of our families….I cried reading this beautiful and powerful scene in the book as I felt
like I was reliving those hard but powerful moments in my own life….

Troncoso does a wonderful
job in depicting this same struggle that many Latino children face growing up
in America.
For modern Latinas everywhere, I highly recommend reading this book. Even if
you’re not from El Paso or a border town, there
is one story that you can relate to growing up as a Latina
in America.
Whether it is religion, moving away from family, pursuing your education, or
even his intermittent use of Spanish and English throughout the story, Troncoso delivers a heartwarming and beautiful story that
you can identify with.”

http://themodernlatina.com/a-must-read-for-all-modern-latinas-from-this-wicked-patch-of-dust/

Sergio Troncoso's reading at University of Michigan

Sergio Troncoso’s reading and book-signing at the University of Michigan, Thursday, Feb. 5, 5-6:00 PM, Helmut Stern Auditorium, University of Michigan Museum of Art, as part of the Zell Visiting Writers Series.

http://events.umich.edu/event/20652

The Nature of Truth makes the top ten list for Best Fiction Books

The Nature of Truth makes the top ten list for Best Fiction Books By Latino Authors for 2014:

“An excellent book that shows a Nazi war criminal who has managed to hide in plain view, and a young man with the dilemma of disclosing this man’s background. The author brings to light many human frailties scattered within a campus setting and also the subconscious.”

http://thelatinoauthor.com/top/2014/fiction/

Words on a Wire Interview: Sergio Troncoso

With two of my favorite writers from El Paso, Benjamin Alire Saenz and Daniel Chacon, on their program “Words on a Wire.” We argue about tamales, asaderos, literature, creativity, and what it is to be an artist. I read from The Nature of Truth, a novel about a Yale researcher who discovers that his boss hides a Nazi past.

http://ktep.org/post/words-wire-sergio-troncoso-0