Vous voulez voir cette page en français ? Cliquez ici.

Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Watercolor Women / Opaque Men: A Novel in Verse
 
See larger image 
Share your own customer images
Publisher: learn how customers can search inside this book.

Watercolor Women / Opaque Men: A Novel in Verse [Paperback]

Ana Castillo (Author)

Available from these sellers.


Product Details

  • Paperback: 160 pages
  • Publisher: Curbstone Press (Sep 1 2005)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1931896208
  • ISBN-13: 978-1931896207
  • Product Dimensions: 21.6 x 14 x 2.1 cm
  • Shipping Weight: 363 g
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #454,566 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

An epic in verse, the story of Castillo's chicana Everywoman—referred to alternately as "She" and "Ella"—begins life in the rough-and-tumble world of California's migrant farm community. Ella's childhood is spent in los files, or the fields, and she is told early on by Mama Grande that "all men are the same." Rebellious aunt Renata brings her niece to Chicago, where she works a string of blue-collar jobs and attempts to better herself through college classes. After an attempted rape by a biology teacher and harsh words from an art history professor, she trades in college for marriage and baby, but eventually loses interest in her "dutiful husband" and turns to a female cop she meets in a bar. Things sour quickly, but involvement with the "Water Goddess/ Patroness of the Sea/ Governess of the Subconscious" empowers Ella. As the perspective shifts to the first person, Ella, describing herself as "Part Medusa/ Part Mother Goose/ and part Xochiquetzal," draws on all of her personal and cultural resources to raise her son to be different from all the "opaque" men she sees around them. The story and the verse itself offer few surprises, but Castillo (So Far from God) delivers a solid narrative of personal development. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* There is a renaissance in the novel in verse, thanks to poets as diverse as Anne Carson and Kevin Young. Now Castillo, revered for both her fiction and poetry, makes powerful use of the form as she tells the story of an invincible and independent Chicana who raises her son on her own, cleans condos and offices for a living, reads poetry and philosophy, takes male and female lovers, and paints. Ella, or She, remembers her migrant-worker parents and the free-spirited woman who brought her from Mexico to Chicago in the 1970s. Then, moving forward in time, Ella vividly and often caustically portrays adversaries and allies and charts the waves that rock the zeitgeist while hard truths such as misogyny and prejudice persist. Castillo is breathtaking in her scorn for outsiders who commercialize Mexico's traditions while holding Mexican people in contempt and is bracingly candid in her take on sexual politics and the furor over illegal aliens. Castillo's novel in verse is mythic, earthy, sardonic, and unsparing in its outrage and compassion as she joins story and poetry, past and present, and love and valor. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
See all Product Description

Tag this product

 (What's this?)
Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items.
Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

Customer Reviews

There are no customer reviews yet on Amazon Canada
5 star:    (0)
4 star:    (0)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
Share your experience with this product with others
Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com: 4.0 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars verse novel of the hardscrabble life of a Hispanic woman, Feb 22 2006
By Henry Berry "Henry Berry" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Watercolor Women / Opaque Men: A Novel in Verse (Paperback)
The narrator is a poverty-stricken Hispanic woman named Ella who early in the tale becomes pregnant while having sex "on a lumpy sack of garlic heads." Although her fortunes do not improve much from such a fateful, inauspicious moment, she manages to struggle along. Her tale in the form of a long poem broken into chapters describes her varied situations and relationship. The voice is by turns regretful, optimistic, determined, wary, amused, political, introspective. As expected in a poem even though meant as something of a story, description, dialog, and setting of scenes is weak. And characterization too is faint except for the central character of Ella giving the narration. But this is enough for lively snapshots of a Hispanic woman surviving at the margins.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars gorgeous and forceful, Feb 3 2006
By NYC Reader - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Watercolor Women / Opaque Men: A Novel in Verse (Paperback)
I inhaled WATERCOLOR WOMEN OPAQUE MEN all in one night; it was gorgeous and forceful. I loved the two journeys that bracketed Ella's adult life: the run to Chicago with Tia Renata and the astonishing first-class flight out of the frame of the book at the end. I loved too the braid of hair that reappeared toward the end, the line, "You will always be your most reliable resource." And Ella's secret paintings! Brava to Castillo. I've been her fan since I read THE MIXQUIAHUALA LETTERS in college, and while I still long for a novel that envelops me as much as SO FAR FROM GOD did, it was a pleasure to read this new one.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Once more, from the heart, Jan 8 2006
By Rebel Girl - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Watercolor Women / Opaque Men: A Novel in Verse (Paperback)
I am not a Chicana but I appreciate Ana Castillo's new novel as an accurate reflection of the way of thinking of Latina women caught in dead-end blue-collar jobs and unequal personal relationships, whether with men or other women. "Ella" reminds me of many of my ESL students who clean homes and offices and diaper babies for a living. Ella's observations can be painful to hear, especially for anyone coming from a more privileged position. Others, including many righteous Latinas, might object to the less than traditional morality of this character. They would prefer her to be 100% virtuous and beyond reproach, but Ana Castillo is a bigger writer than that. The fact that none of the characters in this poem/novel is heroic is the best indicator that they are not stereotypes. Instead, we are invited for too brief a time into the mindset of one woman whose personality emerges through a series of vignettes, like a watercolor painting. And, if we are honest, we may find a little of ourselves in some of these vignettes too. Gracias, Ana.
› Go to Amazon.com to see all 5 reviews  4.0 out of 5 stars 

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject













i.e., each book must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback

Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?