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Trace Elements of Random Tea Parties
A striking debut novel in the tradition of Michelle Tea and Sarah Schulman, Trace Elements spins a crazy and beautiful narrative that turns tradition on its head while laying flowers at its feet.
Leticia Marisol Estrella Torrez, a university honors graduate, moves north to Los Angeles in an attempt to break from the traditional grandmother who raised her and from Weeping Woman, the Mexican folkloric siren who is said to fly through the skies at night to steal troublesome children and who has courted Leticia since her adolescence.
In Los Angeles, Leticia is quickly immersed in the post-punk, post-Queer hipster scene, and after a short-lived affair with the devastating Edith, Leticia meets K, a tall, dark and handsome Old Spice-wearing lovely from Philadelphia. K and Leticia tumble into "candy heaven" bliss, with, to Leticia's amazement, her nana's blessing. As her confidence in herself and her own sexuality grows, Leticia moves toward an identity that K refers to as "shy bookworm sweater femme boy"-- only to have her newfound happiness brutally shattered by Nana's sudden illness and by the disturbing discovery that K is not as trustworthy as she seems. Vividly wrought, heart-breaking and compelling, Trace Elements of Random Tea Parties is a wonderful debut from Felicia Luna Lemus.
Leticia Marisol Estrella Torrez, a university honors graduate, moves north to Los Angeles in an attempt to break from the traditional grandmother who raised her and from Weeping Woman, the Mexican folkloric siren who is said to fly through the skies at night to steal troublesome children and who has courted Leticia since her adolescence.
In Los Angeles, Leticia is quickly immersed in the post-punk, post-Queer hipster scene, and after a short-lived affair with the devastating Edith, Leticia meets K, a tall, dark and handsome Old Spice-wearing lovely from Philadelphia. K and Leticia tumble into "candy heaven" bliss, with, to Leticia's amazement, her nana's blessing. As her confidence in herself and her own sexuality grows, Leticia moves toward an identity that K refers to as "shy bookworm sweater femme boy"-- only to have her newfound happiness brutally shattered by Nana's sudden illness and by the disturbing discovery that K is not as trustworthy as she seems. Vividly wrought, heart-breaking and compelling, Trace Elements of Random Tea Parties is a wonderful debut from Felicia Luna Lemus.
256 pages, Paperback
First published September 8, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
September 14, 2024
This book has broken me
October 19, 2011
The writing style is cute at first, and by mid-point gets a bit bothersome. A cute story, but nothing special. My favourite parts had to do with gender...about being a woman who feels herself to be not quite feminine and not quite masculine, but somewhere wavering in between. With that I can relate.
The use of the Weeping Woman myth is intriguing, but not adequately woven into the story. It mainly just causes confusion.
By the end, I didn't feel much of anything for the main character, or for any of the characters for that matter.
The use of the Weeping Woman myth is intriguing, but not adequately woven into the story. It mainly just causes confusion.
By the end, I didn't feel much of anything for the main character, or for any of the characters for that matter.
December 12, 2008
Overall, the book was good but could have been grating if it went on any longer. This applies to the distinctive and compelling narrative voice, the lives of the protagonist and her string of relationships that don't quite work, and the whole "post-hipster queer" lifestyle which I'm not quite sure what it means, but reads like an urban twenty-something navel gazing about not having made it yet.
April 11, 2008
i love this book. love love love love love. i've been looking forever for someone barbara kingsolver/julia alvarez-ish who writes about queer themes and this book is rockin it. it's so lyrically, poetically written and no one cuts themselves or fucks someone anonymously in a bathroom. gorgeous.
January 2, 2011
I had high hopes of this book, but it didn't really live up to them. I hate to say, honestly, I enjoyed the LA lesbians of The L Word more. Some interesting language, but it pushed too hard with its central use of the myth of Weeping Woman, and the writing was often overdone.
February 21, 2011
Sadly, this one fell far short of my expectations - it all goes downhill from the catchy title and the cute girl on the cover. The story itself was okay even if it didn't have an original bone in its body, but I just completely wasn't feeling Lemus' writing style. Oh well.
April 12, 2015
this woman breaks language open. a perfect antidote to all five hundred versions of that one michelle tea book.
December 7, 2017
This was one of the books on a reading list that I had for a university course for a gender in literature focus. The novel has almost a poetic style in writing, and it was easy to follow along. The ending wasn't all that great to me personally, but it didn't affect my reading experience in a negative way.
I loved the minor inclusions of some folk stories that are connected to the life of Leti.
I loved the minor inclusions of some folk stories that are connected to the life of Leti.
January 6, 2022
The stream of consciousness and magical realism of this story really spoke me to as a queer POC who juggles my culture and my queerness and the ways I fall between the cracks of both and more.
September 16, 2024
4.5 ⭐️
Deeply flawed, rooted in emotional trauma, and the open line seam of sexuality.
Deeply flawed, rooted in emotional trauma, and the open line seam of sexuality.
August 5, 2016
This had a rough start—the language being overly styled and familiar, characters popping up without introductions, their pronouns being muddled before the reader learns that several are gender-nonconforming, etc. But eventually it smooths out and the book becomes much more readable.
There are some interesting discussions on language, identity and LGBT+ politics here. Set in what I assume was the late 80s or maybe early 90s (cassette tapes were featured) Leti navigates her own identity as a dyke, lesbian, homosexual or what would have once been called a ki-ki, neither/nor (her terms), trying to find what fits both her sexuality and her fluctuating gender. We also feel her marginalized place in both straight society (American and Mexican) and on the gay scene. The world seems to belong to the boys, as she puts it, who occasionally loan the woman a corner to congregate, even if they own all the establishments and maintain VIP areas all to their cis-gendered, male selves. This sense of being outside, even in what should have been friendly spaces was one of the most powerful aspects of the book for me and I appreciated it a lot, along with the descriptions of women who don't conform to conventional standard of beauty still being sexy and attractive. Yes!
But in the end, I still struggled to find the actual plot. There is some growth in the character, as she becomes sexually active and comes to understand and express her gender, sometimes as a princess and sometimes as a boy/boi. But the book is essentially a description of a succession of crushes and relationships, followed by one lengthy relationship that ends badly. Leaving the book to end on a parable I didn't particular understand in context. Mixed in there was Leti's relationship with the Weeping Woman, whose inclusion I never quite understood. Though this may be due to a lack of deep understanding of the place of Weeping Woman within the Mexican American community.
All in all, it's not a bad book. I enjoyed some aspects of it. But it's not topping my favorites list.
There are some interesting discussions on language, identity and LGBT+ politics here. Set in what I assume was the late 80s or maybe early 90s (cassette tapes were featured) Leti navigates her own identity as a dyke, lesbian, homosexual or what would have once been called a ki-ki, neither/nor (her terms), trying to find what fits both her sexuality and her fluctuating gender. We also feel her marginalized place in both straight society (American and Mexican) and on the gay scene. The world seems to belong to the boys, as she puts it, who occasionally loan the woman a corner to congregate, even if they own all the establishments and maintain VIP areas all to their cis-gendered, male selves. This sense of being outside, even in what should have been friendly spaces was one of the most powerful aspects of the book for me and I appreciated it a lot, along with the descriptions of women who don't conform to conventional standard of beauty still being sexy and attractive. Yes!
But in the end, I still struggled to find the actual plot. There is some growth in the character, as she becomes sexually active and comes to understand and express her gender, sometimes as a princess and sometimes as a boy/boi. But the book is essentially a description of a succession of crushes and relationships, followed by one lengthy relationship that ends badly. Leaving the book to end on a parable I didn't particular understand in context. Mixed in there was Leti's relationship with the Weeping Woman, whose inclusion I never quite understood. Though this may be due to a lack of deep understanding of the place of Weeping Woman within the Mexican American community.
All in all, it's not a bad book. I enjoyed some aspects of it. But it's not topping my favorites list.
Read
October 17, 2016I should not have finished this book in public. But, on second thought, I think it would please Felicia Luna Lemus that I spent the final third of her novel weeping openly in a chain fresh Mex restaurant. It seems bizarrely fitting.
I would call this a classical love story, as my professor once outlined it: "Boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl again." But Trace Elements is more: girl meets girl, girl gets girl, what is a girl anyway, girl loses girl, girl's grandma dies, the end. I don't know. What I do know is that I am utterly charmed by Leti, her talky-talk, and the way she traces the female influences in her life, even if those influences are unresolved. Call it a thumbs up.
I would call this a classical love story, as my professor once outlined it: "Boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl again." But Trace Elements is more: girl meets girl, girl gets girl, what is a girl anyway, girl loses girl, girl's grandma dies, the end. I don't know. What I do know is that I am utterly charmed by Leti, her talky-talk, and the way she traces the female influences in her life, even if those influences are unresolved. Call it a thumbs up.
September 18, 2007
This book is about a dyke princess that lives in L.A. and her lovers and friends and ex lovers who become friends and her grandmother whose she left behind in a way so that she can explore her life away from the city she was raised in. She's haunted by a childhood character called Weeping Woman who follows her throughout her life.
I started reading this book and put it down and came back to it when I was brave enough. It wasn't an easy read. The way Lemus uses language and the way she forms her sentences demands more than just a casual read.
What I got from this book was a real desire to write a novel. Lemus is an inspiration.
I started reading this book and put it down and came back to it when I was brave enough. It wasn't an easy read. The way Lemus uses language and the way she forms her sentences demands more than just a casual read.
What I got from this book was a real desire to write a novel. Lemus is an inspiration.
November 7, 2007
this book was alright... if there were 2 and 1/2 stars i would have given it that. i like it.. but her writing style is at times tiresome. It was nice to read queer lit and her characters were charming...but i wanted more-especially considering all the press she has received. Maybe I should have started with her second book.
February 19, 2008
Eh. I wanted to like this more, but the writing style was too distracting for me to be able to even notice the lovely metaphors that my friends say are tucked in there. I just can't deal with five adjectives in front of everything, and all the made-up words. It just makes me feel so snarly irritated irritable angrymush.
February 1, 2008
I read this before I was fully out to myself (fascinating how all these gay books just seemed to hop off the shelves and into my eager hands!), and was fascinated with the complex set of friend/love/sexual relationships the group of main characters have with one another. I'd like to reread it now; I suspect all of it would seem a lot more familiar at this point.
Read
February 21, 2008I used this book in a class I taught once about queer media studies, and one of my students said "At first, I didn't care, because it's about women, and then I realized that the author does amazing things with language."
And there you have it.
She wrote another book which is also good, but I liked this one better.
And there you have it.
She wrote another book which is also good, but I liked this one better.
November 5, 2008
"I've looked up at clouds before and wanted to take a bite out of them. Not out of some nauseating cute appreciation for their soft purity, but to consume their thick bitter dense smog into my body before it evaporates into something that will disappear from my sight. The latte Rob bought for me that day tasted like a cloud." -44
May 9, 2010
Instead of the classic 'Coming of Age' story, I'd put this in a 'Coming of Gender' category which I have now just invented.
It was a nice read, but the writing style was a litter jerky for me. Around the middle things started to get slow so it was bit of a push to get through it and the ending was a little lacking in power.
It was a nice read, but the writing style was a litter jerky for me. Around the middle things started to get slow so it was bit of a push to get through it and the ending was a little lacking in power.
October 4, 2007
I am clearly not "post-hipster queer" or whatever the book jacket blurb said this book was about. But it was still fun. A little bit magical, a little bit post-modern, and, indeed, a little bit post-hipster queer. Not for everyone, for sure.
May 18, 2011
Sometimes this touched on little characterisations, snippets of romance or place that worked so well I would get sucked in..
but mostly the overall romance, ghosty haunting mystical device didn't work for me at all.
It seemed to be trying just a little too hard.
but mostly the overall romance, ghosty haunting mystical device didn't work for me at all.
It seemed to be trying just a little too hard.
May 23, 2007
what i learned? that i need to stop reading lesbian fiction.
August 8, 2007
it's sad.
March 10, 2008
maybe i just didn't get it.
January 14, 2008
Uneven but sometimes charming love story...Her second book displayed a great deal of growth beyond the obvious.
February 4, 2008
this book actually rivals "to kill a mockingbird" for my all-time favorite!
October 7, 2008
Beautiful and original writing style. I loved this book.
A queer girl's coming of age story.
A queer girl's coming of age story.
August 25, 2009
This book is written with a strong, unique voice and it helped fulfill my goal of reading more queer literature this year, but I think my favorite thing about it was the title.
December 31, 2010
fantastic read. I couldn't put it down!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews