Inhabiting other worlds

Ana Castillo is coming to our campus in the fall, and I'll be teaching her new novel The Guardians.

So that means I need to read it in advance, which I'm doing right now. (I guess I need to read it in advance; I used to have a professor who liked to assign one book she'd never read so that she could "discover" it along with the students.)


I'm loving it. The voices are lively, powerful. The novel is told from four points of view: Regina (a teacher's aide in her 50's who is taking care of her nephew while trying to find her missing brother); Gabo (the nephew, who wants to become a priest but is hanging out with a gang-banger); Miguel (a teacher and acivitist and Lothario at the school where Regina works); and Milton (Miguel's crusty old grandfather).

The novel takes place in El Paso and grapples with things that happen at the U.S./Mexico border.

I love that the characters have opinions and social issues, politics, life. Of course are those who say Castillo's being didactic or political. But the multitude of voices and the art of her writing make it a rich read.

Besides, when John Updike's white male characters speak they are being "universal." But when Ana Castillo's Chicanas and Chicanos speak, they are being "didactic." Sorry, I don't buy the straight white male point of view as automatically universal. I relish inhabiting Rabbit's world; and I relish inhabiting Regina's.

Sneak preview

We've worked hard over the past few months to create a great 2008-2009 season at the Center for Literary Arts...and now I can announce it:

Caille Millner, author of the memoir The Golden Road: Notes on My Gentrification, which takes place, in part, in San Jose. (Sept. 2008)

Ana Castillo, novelist and poet, whose most recent novel The Guardians is about life along the US/Mexico border. (Oct. 2008)

Four-time Tony Award-winner Terrence McNally, author of many great plays including Kiss of the Spider Woman and Love! Valour! Compassion! Our theater arts department will put on one of his plays to coincide with his visit. (Nov. 2008)

National Book Critics Circle-winning poet and memoirist Mark Doty, author of the best-selling memoirs Dog Years and the recently-released collection Fire to Fire. In one of his events, he will do an on-stage conversation with his partner, the writer Paul Lisicky, about being a literary couple. (Feb. 2009)

Fantastical short fiction writer and novelist Aimee Bender, who teaches at USC, author of The Girl in the Flammable Skirt. (March 2009)

Slam poet and novelist Thad Rutkowski. (April 2009)

Plus...one more major poet whose name I can't yet announce, but as soon as I can, I will.