September Intermission: So Far From God (1993) - Ana Castillo

Hi there!

Welcome to our September Intermission for Ana Castillo's 1993 novel So Far From God.

Trigger Warning: Animal Death, Violent Assault, People Death, Mutilation, Rape, Firearms

Overall

Ceraya likes this book; it's definitely a slower-paced book, even though a lot of things happen to these characters. The book doesn't feel eventful, but a ton of things occur that are considered intense, even though the book is written in a casual tone.

The magic and mysticism in this book are rooted in realism, which makes it incredibly mythic and epic, but almost too normal. Some of the religious mysticism, like La Loca rising from the dead, but it's absolutely going to be symbolic of Christ rising from the dead. Because the events of this book are so outlandish, but regarded as normal and not out of the ordinary, the book has a certain level of fantastical aura.

Each daughter faces her own battle, but we agree that Caridad is more relatable in a lot of ways to the contemporary woman, and slightly less so is Fe. La Loca and Esperanza are harder to relate to for obvious reasons.

Sofia and Domingo

Shout out to single moms! Sofia was a single mom for most of the daughters' lives. Sofia is still a single mom after Domingo returns. How shocking. She is the unsung hero for these girls. Sofia may not rewrite motherhood, but rather she could be an expression of what motherhood should be in today's day and age. Her rage is quiet, but wise. She doesn't let it pollute her life.

Domingo came back. He's stinky, but he's also just kinda there. He DID get yelled at, which is good - he was still welcomed back in, but not without being reamed for leaving. Also, he's not a good person in general, from our perspective. The only time he really seems to have agency is when he tries to use Caridad's dreams for lotto numbers. Loser.

La Loca

La Loca is unique in the sense that she's quirky and strange, but we haven't quite figured out what her deal is yet. It's alarming that she thinks humans smell because of reasons we don't understand, but that she went through hell, purgatory, and heaven. She said her father smelled like hell.

We want to know why she is there - what is the point of her in the story? We're curious about part two.

Caridad

Caridad is by far the most relatable character because she seems to be our age and has the most fleshed-out story. We think she's really cool, and we think it's cool that she makes friends with Doña Felicia (even tho Brieanna dislikes Doña Felicia), and then Caridad has superpowers!

Maria and Helena are the two women that Caridad meets and instantly falls in love with one of them. We find out later that the woman was looking at Caridad because she thought Caridad was her long-lost cousin. What does Francisco have to do with Helena and Maria? We gotta learn more.

Fe

Fe was the most normal character, and then her fiancé broke up with her and bailed on her. Fe starts screaming and doesn't stop for a long time. This could even be an expression of internal screaming - female rage yet again. Whenever she talks, her voice is super hoarse, but we don't know if she's done anything else significant in part 1 yet. Her rage is loud and vocal.

Esperanza

Seeing her get a big girl job in Houston is so incredibly cool, but then seeing her throw it away on a boy was soooooo disappointing for us. After getting this job, she gets with this guy who treats women poorly because of his religion. After a few months of that, she goes to D.C. for this job, and nobody cares about it - but then she gets sent to Saudi Arabia during the war, which is wild - we are so glad for her success, but scared for her future. And then she becomes a POW in that country. We don't know anything else after that. We learn that she's alive, but damn. This character's rage, if it exists, is very quiet, if not silenced.

Conclusion

Looking forward to part two!

With love, see you soon!

Ceraya & Brieanna