Loverboys

by Ana Castillo

Loverboys is the award-winning author Ana Castillo's stunning collection of twenty-three stories that depict the wildly varied faces of love, from rapturous beginnings to bittersweet endings.From the regret-tinged soulfulness of the title story in which a woman reminisces about a former lover, to the down-and-dirty settling of scores in "Vatolandia" to the high-spirited comedy of "La Miss Rose," about a West Indian fortuneteller on a mission to help the lovelorn, Ana Castillo bares the secret hearts of women and men. By turns hopeful, hilarious, and heartbreaking, Loverboys is an irresistible pairing of author and subject. In prose that is at once erotic and eloquent, streetwise and surreal-in a voice like no other in recent literary fiction-Ana Castillo covers the waterfront of modern romance and proves why she is, in the words of Julia Alvarez, "a first-rate storyteller."

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Banned Books, LGBT, Latino, Womens, Literature

224 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1996

About the author

Ana Castillo (June 15, 1953-) is a celebrated and distinguished poet, novelist, short story writer, essayist, editor, playwright, translator and independent scholar. Castillo was born and raised in Chicago. She has contributed to periodicals and on-line venues (Salon and Oxygen) and national magazines, including More and the Sunday New York Times. Castillo’s writings have been the subject of numerous scholarly investigations and publications. Among her award winning, best sellling titles: novels include So Far From God, The Guardians and Peel My Love like an Onion, among other poetry: I Ask the Impossible. Her novel, Sapogonia was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. She has been profiled and interviewed on National Public Radio and the History Channel and was a radio-essayist with NPR in Chicago. Ana Castillo is editor of La Tolteca, an arts and literary ‘zine dedicated to the advancement of a world without borders and censorship and was on the advisory board of the new American Writers Museum, which opened its door in Chicago, 2017. In 2014 Dr. Castillo held the Lund-Gil Endowed Chair at Dominican University, River Forest, IL and served on the faculty with Bread Loaf Summer Program (Middlebury College) in 2015 and 2016. She also held the first Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Endowed Chair at DePaul University, The Martin Luther King, Jr Distinguished Visiting Scholar post at M.I.T. and was the Poet-in-Residence at Westminster College in Utah in 2012, among other teaching posts throughout her extensive career. Ana Castillo holds an M.A from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D., University of Bremen, Germany in American Studies and an honorary doctorate from Colby College. She received an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation for her first novel, The Mixquiahuala Letters. Her other awards include a Carl Sandburg Award, a Mountains and Plains Booksellers Award, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts in fiction and poetry. She was also awarded a 1998 Sor Juana Achievement Award by the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum in Chicago. Dr. Castillo’s So Far From God and Loverboys are two titles on the banned book list controversy with the TUSD in Arizona. 2013 Recipient of the American Studies Association Gloria Anzaldúa Prize to an independent scholar. via www.anacastillo.net

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is something so Chicagoan about these stories, and I can't exactly put my finger on it. Maybe it is the sense of simultaneous defeat and defiance rumbling underneath the crushing overwhelm of people, politics, poverty, and the sprawling buildings of a metropolis? Maybe it is the fluidity of bisexuality and the tug or war with the boundaries of sex, race, and everything else? I'm not sure.

Sometimes when I was reading these stories, I wanted to be finished with them and to move on to something else that was stronger and more compelling. But then I find little pieces of these stories floating around inside my mind while I go about my day doing other things.

There is no magical realism here like there is in "So Far From God," and the writing is not as tight as in "The Guardians." Sometimes it feels like the characters are all variations of the same woman, but, even if that's the case, it's okay, because she's a woman of depth and many stories.

Here's a quote that I liked from the story "Conversations with an Absent Lover....":
"I am not polished. I am not whipped cream. I do it raw.... All the voices of those who call writing a craft, who speak grammatically correct, who studied with this name or that one, well up in my head and tell me once again, each time I sit to do it, that I have no business doing what I'm doing. I don't have enough credits, awards, no Guggenheim, no South of France-New York poet in residence, nada, hombre. It's just me, desperately cutting an unknown path with a machete, trying not to remember, but writing it all down anyway." (p. 148)

[E H · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ana Castillo is such a badass. My favorites were Christmas Story of the Golden Cockroach and Conversations with an Absent Lover on a Beachless Afternoon. The latter was especially inspiring for a writer, more of a love story with her craft than with a guy.

[Ender · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very seldom that I can't finish a book, but this was way too much of the same thing, over and over.

I appreciated the novella style of Mexicana writing, and some parts were okay, but nothing compelling or even interesting enough to warrant finishing I'm afraid.

[Abigail Munson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Castillo’s stories are beautifully written, but at the same time they are almost too casual. Not Dybek casual where you feel like you’re best friend or your crush is telling you a story that’s almost a secret on a 5 hour bus ride to somewhere humid, not Munro casual where it’s like being stuck in a room with everyone you knew personally in high school, you all still live in your small home town, you all still have the same problems. Castillo is family casual, like way familiar and unexplained because you should already know parts of the story, she doesn’t connect any dots for you and it’s written like you’re living it but with no context. It’s good but also incredibly frustrating. I don’t if I like it or hate it.

[Denise Hatcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loverboys is a collection of twenty three short stories. Each revolves a relationship, detailing the role the woman or women had. Few of them have happy endings and many involve infidelities. Each story was easy to read and helped to create an interesting book, reinforcing the powerful role that Ana Castillo has had in sharing the Chicano experience.

[Chloe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really pretty and easy read. Pretty concise review but that's what i have to say

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chili heated page turner--

[Elisa Sinnett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really loved some of these stories. Loved the final story SO MUCH.

[Zoe Lubetkin · Rating 4 out of 5]

<3

[Nicci · Rating 2 out of 5]

didn't really enjoy the different stories :/ kind of bland to be honest

[Allison Vazquez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not every story was worth the read. But holy shit some were amazing

[Whatcha Reading Heather? · Rating 4 out of 5]

Each story I this collection was very well written no matter the length and I could absolutely see adapted to the stage.

[Kallie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is indescribable, but I will try. All the stories share the same narrator voice but with varying elements of: poetry, humor, sadness, Latina voice, diva, witch, sensual woman who suffers fools but wryly (Vatolandia!), adventurer . . . I like all the places this narrator takes me: her New Mexico, Texas, Chicago. And all the well-differentiated 'locas' she meets and tells about so vividly. Another plus: not dwelling in the romantic, consumerist culture too many contemporary women writers worship. These Ana Castillo environs and stories are raw and earthy without being in the least crass, and full of wry, snappy wit within and between characters.

[Shay Ingram · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

Published in the wake of her formative Chicana feminist text, Massacre of the Dreamers: Essays on Xicanisma (1994), Ana Castillo’s confessional and transcendent short story collection, Loverboys (1996), portrays in a multitude of guises, the lustful, romantic, illicit, and sanctioned nature of love and sexuality in its many forms. Not only does the collection explore both heterosexual and homosexual relationships but also complicated relationships between friends, between mothers and their children, between artists and their craft, and so on.

The best word to describe Castillo’s collection is: “transcendental”

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was ok. Some of the stories didn't really seem to have a point. And some of them would just be starting to get good, and then they would end. Others seemed to connect to the story before. At the end of the book, the author says the idea for a book was accepted and she had to write the stories last minute, and it shows. But I did appreciate that many of the stories dealt with different races and sexualities.

[Ammie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly, I felt like I'd read much of this before. Emily commented when she loaned it to me that it sounded a lot like sherman alexie to her, and I'd have to agree. Sherman Alexie, plus a few other authors who I really enjoy but still... Eh. Some nice moments, but I felt like I'd actually read it before. Maybe I had?

[Laura Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

As usual with short story collections, I liked a bunch. Others, not so much. I always enjoy Castillo's writing. I really liked that she included a few short shorts in the collection. The one big negative. My absolutely, least favorite story ended the book. A bit of a letdown. I did love the way she wrote the acknowledgements, though.

[Chelsea Martinez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vatolandia
Christmas Story of the Golden Cockroach
Mother's Wish
Crawfish Love
La Miss Rose - last story in the book, makes more sense after you read the acknowledgments that follow, but still zany in a Love and Rockets way, just without pictures.

[Brenda · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite quotes is in the first short story of this book.

[Deb Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eh.

[Hena · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were a few stories that I liked a lot, a few that were pretty good, and a few that I just couldn't connect with. So, on average 3 stars. Maybe 3.5.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

See my review at danielshankcruz.com.