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How Winter Began: Stories
Iréne gives the wealthy businessmen what they want, diving headfirst into the filthy river, thinking only of providing for her baby daughter, Marisa, as the men salivate over her soaked body emerging onto the bank. A young boy tries to befriend the reticent younger sister of the town’s cruelest bully, only to discover the family betrayal behind her quiet countenance. Josefa, a young bride, is executed for murdering the man who raped her. Joy Castro’s How Winter Began traces these and other characters as they seek compassion from each other and themselves. Thematically linked by the lives of women, especially Latinas, and their experiences of poverty and violence in a white-dominated, wealth-obsessed culture, How Winter Began is a delicately wrought collection of stories. The question at the heart of this riveting book is how or whether to trust one another after the rupture of betrayal.
210 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
October 2, 2015
There’s a pull quote on both the front and back cover of Joy Castro’s new short story collection How Winter Began from American Book Award winning author Sandra Cisneros which in its entirety reads, “Joy Castro’s writing is like watching an Acapulco cliff diver. It takes my breath away every time.” Yes, but no. Cisneros isn’t wrong per se, but she has failed to adequately convey the full effect that the power of Castro’s words can have on an unsuspecting reader. Watching implies that you’re standing a safe distance away from the action. There’s nothing even remotely safe about Joy Castro’s writing. You may be emotionally harmed by these stories. You will be changed by them. That’s their purpose. That’s her gift.
The twenty-plus tales contained in Winter are primarily presented from the point of view of Latina protagonists, thematically speaking however their link isn’t gender or race, but rather how commercialism distorts our world view, obscuring the more important things in our lives—family bonds, friendship, love—and how societal pressures and expectations place enormous, almost impossible weights upon our shoulders. There are fractured families on display here. There are single mothers. There is poverty. There is pain. But it’s how people respond to life’s difficult situations that fascinates Castro most. She’s not the least bit content with what’s on the surface because she knows it’s a reflection of how the world expects us to appear and act. Instead she fearlessly dives head first (yes, here like an Acapulco cliff diver) into the head space of her troubled subjects, providing readers with an all-access pass into their most intimate thoughts, fears, motivations, and desires.
READ MORE:
http://www.typographicalera.com/how-w...
The twenty-plus tales contained in Winter are primarily presented from the point of view of Latina protagonists, thematically speaking however their link isn’t gender or race, but rather how commercialism distorts our world view, obscuring the more important things in our lives—family bonds, friendship, love—and how societal pressures and expectations place enormous, almost impossible weights upon our shoulders. There are fractured families on display here. There are single mothers. There is poverty. There is pain. But it’s how people respond to life’s difficult situations that fascinates Castro most. She’s not the least bit content with what’s on the surface because she knows it’s a reflection of how the world expects us to appear and act. Instead she fearlessly dives head first (yes, here like an Acapulco cliff diver) into the head space of her troubled subjects, providing readers with an all-access pass into their most intimate thoughts, fears, motivations, and desires.
READ MORE:
http://www.typographicalera.com/how-w...
March 15, 2018
Joy Castro's How Winter Began is powerful, sometimes breathless, sometimes angry, always observing with a keen eye. Her stories are
Most, but not all of Castro's protagonists in this book of short stories, often short-shorts, are Latinas, facing a choice point: rape, leaving a lover, meeting a never-met father, being ridiculed for being old-fashioned. Many protagonists (not all) make the smart, albeit difficult decisions:
Castro's stories often have a thread connecting one to the next. Two characters face the same dilemma (e.g., childlessness or a gallows). This thread made the stories hang together in a way that short story collections don't always for me.
In some stories, Castro's stories take an experimental form, as with the title story, which reads forwards, but better back.
These are stories where the feminism is sharp-edged, where the women recognize (perhaps too late) that they too are responsible for their dilemmas or for escaping them:
Most, but not all of Castro's protagonists in this book of short stories, often short-shorts, are Latinas, facing a choice point: rape, leaving a lover, meeting a never-met father, being ridiculed for being old-fashioned. Many protagonists (not all) make the smart, albeit difficult decisions:
In Version A, what could have happened is that I got in the car, because what else could I do? Raul drove to the party, and we all drank too much and got high, and the girl and me never looked at each other all night, and I never saw her again, and after a while Raul and me broke up and now I’m with some other guy.These decisions are not only for the woman, but sometimes her children or grandchildren: All those pretty dreams went wrong for us, and we don’t want our kids learning them. This is the house of making it up from scratch (p. 192).
But in Version B, the girl’s door opened, too, and she got out into the cooling dark air. (p. 195)
Castro's stories often have a thread connecting one to the next. Two characters face the same dilemma (e.g., childlessness or a gallows). This thread made the stories hang together in a way that short story collections don't always for me.
In some stories, Castro's stories take an experimental form, as with the title story, which reads forwards, but better back.
These are stories where the feminism is sharp-edged, where the women recognize (perhaps too late) that they too are responsible for their dilemmas or for escaping them:
It was confusing, being a muse, and now at twenty-six I should know better than to be shoving pens into my hand but am left still wondering if my talent lay at all in the writing, or merely in the folding and unfolding of my black-clad legs, the way I ran my fingers through the soft long strands of my dark hair, stroked and tugged the silver hoops in my ears as dusk fell and his talk lowered us gently into our shared crepuscular trance— or if it actually lay in the brutish sex I had in study carrels and the bathrooms of dance halls and in alleys, bent forward with my hands braced against a reeking dumpster, my throat clogging with the rot-smell as I came, just another kind of stabbing, another kind of wound I did to myself with what I could find. (p. 37)This book is the One Book read for my mother's community (along with Castro's essays). They will have much to discuss.
March 25, 2016
I received an advanced readers' copy of this book for free through Goodreads Giveaways.
I have mixed feelings on the stories in the book. Some of the stories I really disliked or was very confused after finishing and other stories I loved. I found that the longer the story the more I seemed to enjoy it.
This collection is a very nice mix of characters, locations and content.
Although I may not have enjoyed all the stories contained in this collection, I would be interested in reading more from the author, Joy Castro.
Please don't let my review stop you from picking up a copy and deciding for yourself. In my opinion the stories I enjoyed outweighed the ones that I didn't.
I have mixed feelings on the stories in the book. Some of the stories I really disliked or was very confused after finishing and other stories I loved. I found that the longer the story the more I seemed to enjoy it.
This collection is a very nice mix of characters, locations and content.
Although I may not have enjoyed all the stories contained in this collection, I would be interested in reading more from the author, Joy Castro.
Please don't let my review stop you from picking up a copy and deciding for yourself. In my opinion the stories I enjoyed outweighed the ones that I didn't.
September 4, 2015
Great read that is haunting, unsettling, and beautifully written.
This collection of short stories is slightly unsettling due to the vivid images, and legitimacy of characters and writing style. Any book that makes you consider your social views is a good one; this is a good one! One story was very hard to read, others were funny and light, while all just make you think. So happy I picked this up.
I received this as an advanced copy, this is my honest review.
This collection of short stories is slightly unsettling due to the vivid images, and legitimacy of characters and writing style. Any book that makes you consider your social views is a good one; this is a good one! One story was very hard to read, others were funny and light, while all just make you think. So happy I picked this up.
I received this as an advanced copy, this is my honest review.
February 8, 2016
This is a luminous short story collection by the author of the outstanding "Island of Bones." This latest work is every bit as dark as that earlier one, which took as its themes violence and oppression both physical and psychological. So here’s the deal: if you want delicate, middle-class, slice-of-life vignettes, don’t come near this book. It reeks of blood, of poverty, of Latinas scrapping and brawling and finding hope in the detritus of their lives.
This is underdog territory. In the first story, an impoverished food worker jumps into a river on a hundred dollar wager made by her revolting clients. It’s an act that captures in microcosm the whole book: people on the margins sticking a middle finger up at the mostly white male monsters that dominate their world.
My favorite story here is “Independence Day,” based on an episode that took place during the California Gold Rush: a Mexican woman stabbed to death a white, racist fortune-seeker who had broken down her door and insulted her. As a portrait of defiance in the face of injustice, it could hardly be bettered, and the last line will leave you speechless.
If I had to use one word to describe this collection, it would be “fierce.” Time and again, the characters rise up and do battle against their own devastating predicaments. Motifs recur throughout the collection: the cleansing and obliterating power of water, the hangman’s noose, and the bitter taste of betrayal.
Above all, the writing is flawless. If an angel fell to Earth and landed on a patch of Nowhere in Twenty-First Century America, mouth full of dust, skin scraped raw, this is the book she would write.
This is a version of a review on https://jjawilson.wordpress.com/
This is underdog territory. In the first story, an impoverished food worker jumps into a river on a hundred dollar wager made by her revolting clients. It’s an act that captures in microcosm the whole book: people on the margins sticking a middle finger up at the mostly white male monsters that dominate their world.
My favorite story here is “Independence Day,” based on an episode that took place during the California Gold Rush: a Mexican woman stabbed to death a white, racist fortune-seeker who had broken down her door and insulted her. As a portrait of defiance in the face of injustice, it could hardly be bettered, and the last line will leave you speechless.
If I had to use one word to describe this collection, it would be “fierce.” Time and again, the characters rise up and do battle against their own devastating predicaments. Motifs recur throughout the collection: the cleansing and obliterating power of water, the hangman’s noose, and the bitter taste of betrayal.
Above all, the writing is flawless. If an angel fell to Earth and landed on a patch of Nowhere in Twenty-First Century America, mouth full of dust, skin scraped raw, this is the book she would write.
This is a version of a review on https://jjawilson.wordpress.com/
December 10, 2015
I am amazed at the writing skill of this author who can give the reader an in-depth look into someone else's life in a few pages.
The 28 short stories are all of women, at different stages of life and socio-economic levels, married and single, kids and no kids, and with settings in the mid-West to Brazil.
Some of the stories are startling in their presentation, like the story of the young waitress who does whatever it takes to provide for her child or the ones depicting violence (Josefa and How Winter Began). Other stories are quieter, as in the one titled River-one of my favorites. And yet others, a quiet startling read: Personal Effects.
I've read previous books by this writer and look forward to more as I know I'll be taken into a realm where I'll get lost for a few hours and be amazed by the words of this writer.
The 28 short stories are all of women, at different stages of life and socio-economic levels, married and single, kids and no kids, and with settings in the mid-West to Brazil.
Some of the stories are startling in their presentation, like the story of the young waitress who does whatever it takes to provide for her child or the ones depicting violence (Josefa and How Winter Began). Other stories are quieter, as in the one titled River-one of my favorites. And yet others, a quiet startling read: Personal Effects.
I've read previous books by this writer and look forward to more as I know I'll be taken into a realm where I'll get lost for a few hours and be amazed by the words of this writer.
October 28, 2016
I maxed out my library renewals on this book—these short stories pack so much power into so few words, I had to pause between reading each one just to absorb the impact. Truly incredible writing.
January 1, 2022
It is true many of the protagonists are Latina in these stories. But I found Castro's choleric, scathing rendering of American Whiteness and white academic masculinity to be most compelling here.
Her writing style is also incredibly adept at pulling you into a character's world very, very quickly, which I liked a lot. Getting into the dynamics of relationships, past and present in a micro short like, 'A Place I Shouldn't Go'.
Her writing style is also incredibly adept at pulling you into a character's world very, very quickly, which I liked a lot. Getting into the dynamics of relationships, past and present in a micro short like, 'A Place I Shouldn't Go'.
July 19, 2018
At times the stories started to mesh together and while it was mildly irritating it was also very true to life. Woman all have a story to tell, and overlap of themes makes sense since we all live in this world and it's restrictions. The viewpoints could have been a bit more diverse but overall enjoyable.
March 8, 2021
This was a collection of powerful short stories that immediately pull you in to the protagonist's world. I couldn't put it down and read it over a weekend. This book covers an intersection of topics, such as racism and sexism, and inhabits the moments in which each character sees the world and how the world sees them. Highly recommend reading.
June 20, 2017
I give this book of short stories 3.75 stars. I didn't like all of the short stories, some of them I found boring and disjointed. But the ones I enjoyed were really good. I still recommend this book of short stories. I will definitely will be reading more of her work!
February 10, 2020
How Winter Began is one of the best collections I’ve read in years. It took me a long while to finish it because after each story I felt compelled to pause and sit with it, or go back and re-read it again. Powerful and beautiful, I strongly recommend.
October 16, 2019
Fabulous, painful and triumphant stories. She’ll be an author I’ll follow.
January 21, 2020
Joy Castro killed it. KILLED IT.
June 10, 2024
Some real gems in here, a few I’m going to have rolling around in my head for some time. Perfect mix of ordinary and noteworthy, from settings to characters.
October 2, 2016
I did not enjoy this book of short stories.In my opinion some just were too short to really even make sense and almost all of them were very crude.Just not my type of book
August 31, 2016
Another phenomenal book by Joy Castro. I so admire her range as a writer, from essays, memoir, awesome feminist thrillers, and this collection of short and very short stories. The women in these stories are badasses, survivors, women who've been through shit, and have strong visions of the world and what they want out of it. On top of that, Castro is a gorgeous writer, with some of the best descriptions of food and sensory images that I've read.
October 16, 2015
I really enjoyed this book of short stories. Many were very thought provoking and relevant to life in general. The River made me think of my Gramma and her friends when I was a child and also of being happy with your life regardless of how you choose to live it. I won an ARC from Goodreads and the author.
October 8, 2015
Thouroughly enjoyed reading each of these stories.Won the book on Goodreads. Would recommend.
May 4, 2018
There is some really gorgeous, haunting prose in these stories. Wow.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews