Margins

by Terri de la Peña

In Veronica Melendez, the novelist paints a vibrant portrait of a multidimensional young woman fully embracing her life.

Genres: LGBT, Fiction, Lesbian

First published April 1, 1992

About the author

Terri de la Peña, novelist, short-story writer, and fifth-generation Californian, focuses her narratives on the myriad of cultural and social issues that Chicana lesbians face, such as a search for identity, cultural assimilation, class consciousness, historical awareness, internal and external racism, and homophobia. Her writings, therefore, continue a literary tradition and treatment of themes that began with earlier Chicana writers such as Gloria Anzaldúa and Cherríe Moraga.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Writing is a bit iffy, but still an especially meaningful story and group of characters for me.

[Bina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book follows Veronica (Roni) Melendez as she struggles to recover from a car accident that left her life-long lover dead. What makes the novel beautiful is that it weaves Roni's coming out as a lesbian with her coming out, so to speak, as an author. She undergoes a series of transformations throughout the course of the story: from Roni to Verónica, closeted lesbian to self-identified public "dyke," from grad student to author. Moreover, what makes the novel so important is that it is considered the first Chicana lesbian novel. My only criticisms are: 1) that the dialogue felt too artificial during the times when Roni would challenge stereotypes about lesbians; during those moments, the novel read more like an essay, but these were few and always short, and 2) the Spanglish felt forced at times, but that may just be because my own bilingual experience is vastly different from Roni's. Other than that, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and was so moved by Roni and the other characters De la Peña created.

[Naomi Gutierrez · Rating 3 out of 5]

finished this early in feb. forgot to mark it up. Liked it but was not my fave. I really did like this story of a queer chicana. Made me think a lot about identity, working through it, and how the people around you play a role

[Corey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book, but the dated quality was difficult to get over at times. Although, not a big deal. What put me off of this book was right at the end, when it was obvious the love interest was going to be the person who was racially the same as the main character. That's okay though, I felt the era while I read the book. Feminine identity, as well as racial identity was very important to those experiencing life at the time. But I really liked Siena. LOL xD All in all, a very good book.

[Natalie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel like a read an unlikely amount of lesbian Latina lit during college. Is that possible that it's such a huge category? Regardless, this is the one I remember most clearly. Good one, I do recall.

[Sasha · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story helped to distract from the simplistic writing and expected, stereotypical Spanglish. I'm very rarely left completely satisfied with novels focusing on/ featuring Latin American culture, so maybe I'm being more critical than necessary, but it was still a decent book.

[Bridget · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a Chicana lesbian coming-out novel - it was way outside my "normal" reading. Easily frustrated at the end of the book because it introduced a lot of Spanish dialogue that was not translated and not easy to infer the translation.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

awesome coming out novel, featuring women of color.