So Far From God - Who's Reading? / Discussion

[Odette]

The September 2014 book is So Far From God by Ana Castillo. Who's reading?

[Jalilah]

I read it years ago and recently re-read, so I am looking forward to joining in on the discussion. This one is not so hard to find so hopefully you will be able to get hold of a copy Odette!

[Odette]

Glad to hear it, Jalilah.

It looks like this is a book sometimes assigned to students. I came across several study guides for it online. Nice to know an Endicott book has made it into the schools.

[Melanti]

Hm. I ordered a copy of this early last month and it just occurred to me that it hasn't arrived yet!

Unfortunately, I'm not sure if I'll have time to reorder and get it read before the end of the month but if I don't I'll try to catch up later.

[Melanti]

So, I finally got a copy of this book and just finished it.

Ms. Castillo obviously has a political agenda here - I don't think there's any way to deny that given the title of the book and the last handful of chapters... But I'm not really sure the episodic format of the story really served her agenda very well.

It was good, but just not nearly as good as a lot of the Latin American magical realism that I've read.

I'm not sure what the recipes were doing in there, frankly... Was she trying to copy Like Water for Chocolate perhaps? Or is that just typical of Chicano lit?

[Jalilah]

Melanti wrote:
Ms. Castillo obviously has a political agenda here - I don't think there's any way to deny that given the title of the book and the l...I'm not sure what the recipes were doing in there, frankly... Was she trying to copy Like Water for Chocolate perhaps? Or is that just typical of Chicano lit? "

This bothered me when I read this book for the second time. I felt like Castillo was trying too hard to make her novel fit into the genre ofMagical Realism. When Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez wrote One Hundred Years of Solitude and Rudolfo Anaya wrote Bless Me, Ultima in the 1970s each author in his own individual way wrote from his heart. I know that when The House of the Spirits came out later, some people criticized Isabel Allende for copying Gabriel Garcia Marquez, but I disagree. I think Allende also wrote from her own experience and in her own individual style. When it came out Like Water for Chocolate was also unique.
Since then, I have the feeling that everyone writing in English who has a Spanish last name feels obliged to have certain characteristics; a large extended family, a Curandara, a Ghost, a Bruja, food recipes.
To me it just seemed like So Far From God is full of clichés and was not really written from the heart.
And why on Earth does she (view spoiler)[Kill off all the characters one by one (hide spoiler)]. What purpose does this serve?

I should add that my mothers family is from New Mexico so this is why some of these clichés start getting annoying.

[Melanti]

Well, given the quote that the title is referring to - "Poor Mexico, so far from God and so close to the United States!" - I think she's trying to show how the US's capitalist policies that favor the rich and powerful work against the poorer and disadvantaged communities in New Mexico... That aspect reminded me of some fiction set in the poorer areas of Appalachia, to be honest. A lot of the same criticisms were made.

(view spoiler)[As far as why she specifically killed off everyone, one by one, instead of just having them injured or loosing their house or some other bad effect, I really can't say... It seemed a bit over the top to me, and it kind of lost it's effectiveness after awhile. A lot of the most effusive reviews compare it to a telenovela - which again, I haven't ever watched. Is it possible that some of this is meant to invoke the telenovela feel? (hide spoiler)]

And yes, I also wasn't blown away by the magical realism aspects... I didn't want to blame magical realism itself, because Allende has proved it can be effectively used to talk about serious social issues. But saying that Castillo's use of it is a bit formulaic is a fair criticism, I think.

But I've not read a whole lot of Chicano lit - no matter the genre. Basically just this, Like Water for Chocolate and Bless Me, Ultima... So, really, I'm not a great judge of what can be considered expected, what's formulaic, etc.