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Summary: fantasy folk culture with an urban overlay
Review: By meandering on a side road instead of following the highway, Ana Castillo reveals human nature. Hispanics have approached life without the constrictions of the organizing and conforming force of money. They haven't had much but it's obvious from reading Ms. Castillo's novel, poverty has not stunted her poetic voice nor her need and ability to express the truth. Actually, I haven't finished the book. I'm in no hurry to finish the pleasure of reading events expressed with such humor, such perception, such spitituality. Thank you, Ms. Castillo.
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Summary: Castillo's brilliance shines!
Review: Castillo demonstrates her admirable brilliance in this novel. As she expresses her explorations through the lives of five Hispanic women, she constructs a sense of familiarity between the reader and the characters that allows the story to become part of oneself. Her deep illustration and details surrounding the plight of a family reminds one of the "magic" expressed by Gabriel García Márquez. Similar to Márquez, she enlightens her readers by expressing the reality of family, culture, and life itself. Because of her vividness expressed in this novel, Ana Castillo deserves many commendations. So Far From God should not be rated anything other than simply amazing.
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Summary: I second the opinion of the other readers
Review: Delightful "magical realism" novel. Hugely entertaining.
And, yes, Castillo does an excellent job of bringing to life the images of the Southwest. I grew up in Texas, and have traveled extensively through the Southwest. Castillo's book and its vibrant characters feel like "home" to me (even though I'm not Hispanic).
Definitely a "must-read"!!
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Summary: A book my students took home to their mothers!
Review: Having taught Chicano/a literature in a university in the southwest, I can attest, firsthand, to the power of Castillo's writing. There is no comparison between the women in this novel and the women in Anaya's Bless Me Ultima. Sophia, Fe, Esperanza, Caridad, y La Loca are remarkable women who do much more than simply personify the wisdom, faith, hope, and charity which allows them to triumph over the obstacles placed in their paths. This IS a book which my students, both female and male, took home to their mothers.
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Summary: Extraordinarily mystical --very unusual story.
Review: Hispanic writing today seems to fall within three distinct categories, i.e., contemporary fiction (mostly urban in context), historical fiction and mystical fiction. This novel is most emphatically a work of mystical fiction.Set in Chicana country the story is both down-to-earth and full of unearthly happenings. Its matter-of-fact delivery serves to make the magical believable. When one character is dying of AIDS, a Doctor Tolentino and his wife come to help her. His ministrations involve prayers and cotton wool soaked in holy oil. But then he reaches into La Loca's stomach 'maintaining his left "material" hand in the opening, while the right "spirit" hand sought out the maladies' and 'pulled out some cystic fibroids and finally a tumour...' The lines between the surgical and the miraculous are blurred and anything seems possible. Castillo uses a direct colloquial style with little regard for punctuation, almost as if the writer is confiding her thoughts directly to the reader. Each chapter is prefaced with a description of what is going to happen next but phrased in such a way as to make the book impossible to put down. For instance: 'Of the Hideous Crime of Francisco el Penitente, and his Pathetic Calls Heard Throughout the Countryside as His Body Dangled from a Pinnion like a Crow-Picked Pear; and of the End of Caridad and Her Beloved Emerald Which We Nevertheless Will Refrain from Calling Tragic.' So Far from God is a tale both tragic and funny; a hymn to women's endurance and to the harshness of their lives. It is a heavily allegorical tale. The novel has Sofia, the embodiment of "wisdom," at its core, a mother who survives the death of her four daughters: Esperanza, Fe, Caridad, and La Loca. The names of the first three daughters denote the three major Christian ideals. However, in the cruelest of ironies, the destiny of each of these characters is the antithesis of the ideal the name represents. Esperanza, the most liberated of the sisters, devotes the energy of her college years to the Chicano Movement. She lives her life as a glowing example of La Raza Politics, working to better the lives of her people. But her death as a television reporter covering the Gulf Crisis is utterly meaningless. The reader is left without any hope or, better yet, "Esperanza," of finding redemption in this character's demise.
Fe, the sister who most subscribes to the traditions of her culture, desires nothing more than to participate fully in society's patriarchal mandate for women to marry and serve their husbands. She does, finally, find a man who will fulfill her dream of marrying: her cousin Casimiro. He is completely devoted to her, and together they plan a blissful future. In order to secure this, however, Fe leaves her safe position at the bank for a higher paying job at an arms manufacturing company. She tackles her work with her usual diligence and earns a promotion. Thus, her faith in the American Way of Life is rewarded. This "promotion," however, proves fatal as the company exposes her to a hazardous chemical that causes her death from cancer. In the end, the faith that Fe places in the basic tenets of society and its culture completely fails her. Thus, faith also becomes meaningless. Caridad, after being abandoned by her husband, became known for "loving anyone she met at the bars who vaguely resembled Memo" (27). Because of her promiscuous life, she is brutally raped and disfigured by a mysterious and misogynist spirit identity known as the "malogra." In this manner, Caridad's charity towards men is severely punished. However, she heals miraculously and from that moment on, she no longer has an interest in men. Caridad becomes an apprentice curandera, and during a religious pilgrimage with her mentor, she spots a woman with whom she instantly falls in love. Caridad never reconciles herself with her homosexual feelings until she suddenly and dramatically leaps off of a cliff while holding hands with Esmeralda, the object of her affection, as they are being pursued by Francisco el Penitente, Caridad's obsessed stalker. Those who witness the jump search for the bodies, but they are never found. La Loca is without question the most intriguing of the sisters. Dead at age three, she resurrects and is immediately believed to possess miraculous powers. The residents of Tome accept the young girl's return from the dead as being of a divine nature and they dub her "La Loca Santa." Following her return, however, she shuns human contact and only lets her mother touch her. She also rarely speaks, but her resurrection has spoken volumes for her. La Loca is the embodiment of a miracle; she cannot be preoccupied with the mundane task of finding a job, like her sisters. She remains at home, content in her solitude. Her household chores are to tend her animals, keep the house clean, and cook. She does, though, assist in the healing of Fe and Caridad, and she performs abortions for the latter because La Loca instinctively "knew all about a woman's pregnancy cycle". Toward the novel's end, she becomes ill and is diagnosed with the HIV virus, even though she had never participated in any activity commonly associated with its acquisition. Ultimately, La Loca's destiny, like those of her sisters, is to die at an early age. On a surreal death pilgrimage to an Albuquerque hospital, the people canonize her and eventually declare her the patron saint of kitchens, new brides, and progressive grooms. La Loca's life, then, is characterized by her first death, resurrection, contraction of AIDS without human contact, and her canonization. After the deaths of hope, faith, and charity, the three theological ideals of the Church, and the death of what can arguably be construed as the female personification of Jesus Christ in the personage of La Loca, all that remains is Sofia's wisdom. Sofia has a feckless husband - who suddenly appears after an absence of twenty years - and four daughters who suffer all the indignities known to woman. But she decides to become the Mayor of Tome and goes on to found a workers' co-operative and MOMAS ('Mothers of Martyrs and Saints'). Sofia endures, no, she triumphs - while at the same time retaining her sense of humour. So Far from God is wacky and powerful. Its humor belies a strong political message - that in a world which deals them many harsh blows, women are still survivors, after death as well as during life.
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Summary: I Agree with So Far From True
Review: I agree with the review "So Far From True." I am from a town near Tome', New Mexico and Castillo's characters did not ring true to me either. The characters don't fit the place. They just aren't people from New Mexico. It would be like a white person from Arizona trying to create a story about white people in New York, simply because they are white. Without studying the uniqueness of the people of a particular area, the writing comes across sounding false. Many of the traditions described in Castillo's book are similar traditions but she doesn't quite get them right either. And agreed - several mountain ranges away, you would not be making the trip to Chimayo from Tome' on your knees - not even the most devote. I would recommend Castillo read "Bless Me Ultima," by Rudolfo Anaya and then come back and try again.
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Summary: In response to "So far from true..."
Review: I cannot believe that. I live in NM, I've lived here 20+ years and the book wasn't supposed to "ring true" in that manner. It was a fabulous depiction of NM, giving the land and its people the richness that only people who have not lived here their entire lives can see. We live here and see all the daily dirt, the bugs, the problems; but Dona Ana saw the miracles, the beauty and the wonderment that continues to exist in NM: the magic. I resent that statement that it is not an accurate depiction; it's the SOUL of NM that is being seen and depicted. If New Mexico were NORMAL we wouldn't have the a monument to the bomb, stealth bombers that fly over our heads daily, UFOs supposedly in our backyard and a television show to prove how bizarre NM is supposed to be. On the other hand, how many authors from NM talk in mumbling polite phrases about how hot it is, how pretty our pottery is, and how much we pay for a pink coyotes. I could read dozens of books and that would be accurate; it is hot, our pottery is pretty, and we pay too much for pink and turquoise coyotes with kerchiefs howling at the moon. Then again, I could read history and STILL not get an "ACCURATE depiction." For accuracy, someone should have asked her to write about Hanta Virus in Northern NM instead of violence against women, which is a global issue. It's called a perspective and I believe Dr. Castillo got it right. As for the mountain range, obviously both people from NM are not writers and have never heard of artistic license. Besides, it's not about Tome. Who CARES about Tome? It's about people in general. It's about spirit and soul. No one makes these statements about Georgia O'Keefe and she was white. No one makes a noise when a white MAN writes about Geishas, but when a brilliant Chicana writes a story about the spirit of people, she gets lambasted for accuracy! I suggest these folks read it again! Perhaps you don't read Spanish and didn't understand some of the plot? Perhaps it was too "supernatural" for you, or you don't know enough about Catholicism and mythology to make the connection. I suggest you look up some of that up before you insult Dr. Castillo about "Accurancy." I'm from NM, I'm a Chicana, and I liked what Dr. Castillo had to say. Try some "suspension of disbelief" and forget you live in this "Land of Enchantment." If you want NM "accuracy," read some Denise Chavez, try Saez. But if you are looking for that element of enchantment and spirit, look at Castillo. Either way, she will change the way you look at things. By the way, I think it should be noted that Chicana scholars have supported Dr. Castillo 110%. I think that counts for something, especially since "accuracy" does not make a story inspiring or brilliant. If that were the case, "Braveheart" would have never inspired the Scots to free themselves from the British. The message is what counts, if you're just willing to hear it.
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Summary: Disappointed
Review: I found this book amongst my roomate's things when we were moving out of our dorm for the summer. It had been an assigned reading for a Southwestern Literature at my college. I thought it seemed intresting enough so I picked it up over the summer and started to read. At first I really got into it. It's typical of Southwestern Lit. Full of magical realism, descriptions of the landscape, use of spanish and english. At first I really got into it. I was fasinated by the charaters and liked the discursive narrative. About two-thirds through the book it seemed to fall flat. Fist, there author includes a story that had little relationship to the plot at all. The tangent did't add any "color" or anything elese redeamable, except to confuse the reader. Secondly, over half the book was focused on the intresting stories of the sisters. I really liked the characters, and I was intrested in their stories. I was hurt when they were all killed off, mostly in long painful deaths. I'm not a happy-ending kind of person, usally I find them sappy and mawkish. After finishing So far from God I was depressed. Althought the book has some artistic meritm this is not a fun read or a "beach read". If you really want a good read from this Genre, read the Milagro Beanfield War.
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Summary: A sensuous reading experience
Review: I have read this wonderful story about relationships between women, politics, and spirituality at least four times. The first time, I devoured most of the lyrical dialogue and marvelous images during a college all-nighter. Hungry for voices that reminded me of family, I couldn't put the book down! Most recently, I have asked my students to read this novel at the beginning of the UC Berkeley course, "Redefining Chicana and Latina Health: Body, Mind, and Spirit." It always creates a space to discuss health and healing in relation to culture, environmental racism, labor exploitation, sexism, homophobia, faith, and political organizing . Ana Castillo's characters ask us to consider the costs of internalizing oppression, as well as present transformative ways of being in the world. A hopeful novel about the need for social change and personal transformation, it deals with the challenges many of us experience across difference in the United States. Instead of describing this story as "magical realism," I prefer the more accurate translation of the Carribean and South American consciousness and style of representation called "lo real maravilloso" - So Far From God is about the "marvelous real." Reading this book is a sensuous experience that engages your physical body, as well as your mind and soul.
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Summary: Thinly Disguised Attack on Catholicism
Review: I read this book as a part of a Chicano Literature course during my undergrad studies. While I found the first 140 or so pages okay, I found the overall story a bit boring (educational, but boring). Lest you think I am being unfair, let me note that the story did pick up again at the end and I do not recall ever having fallen asleep while reading it. (2 stars so far)
I really liked the use of language in creating the voice of the narrator. It gave me the feeling that I was sitting with an elder aunt or grandmother who was telling the story to me. (Make it 3 stars, bordering on 4).
So, why the 1 star? Mainly because I did not like what I interpreted to be a thinly disguised attack on a straw man version of Catholicism and I can't rate it a zero.
I found many of the incidents in the story and especially the commentary of the narrator to be very critical of Catholicism. I find it unfortunate that, like most critics of Catholicism, Castillo critizes/attacks a straw man version of Catholicism rather than the real thing. In an interview the author was asked about fact checking in works of fiction (specifically in her book "Massacre of the Dreamers"), Castillo answered:
"No. There isn't any point in it. It's your opinion. It's your reflection, your reaction, your own opinion. When you write a critical -- and this isn't personal essays, these are critical essays -- then you have to prove ever single thing you say."
Maybe that's why she chose to attack a straw man rather than the real thing.
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