Brand New Memory

by Elías Miguel Muñoz, Elias Miguel Muunoz

Gina Domingo, the teenaged protagonist of this engaging novel, lives in the world of southern California pop culture. Cuban-American by birth, Gina is less a multiculturalist than an omniculturalist, absorbing everything in her path. Like Salinger's Holden Caulfield, or the heroines of Joyce Carol Oates's Foxfire, Gina is possessed of a voice so simpatica -- so engrossing in her perception of herself, her family and friends -- that we find ourselves mesmerized and unable to stop turning the pages.

232 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1998

About the author

Born September 29, 1954, in Cuba, heemigrated to the United States with my parents and younger brother at the age of fifteen. I arrived in Los Angeles in 1969 to finish my high school education in Hawthorne, a suburb of L.A., later attending the University of California, Irvine, where I earned an MA in Spanish (1979) and a PhD in Latin American literature (1984).

Reviews

[Aidan · Rating 5 out of 5]

My dad wrote this book!

[Joni · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is another book in the Humanities Kansas Hispanic Heritage book talk series. I'm not sure why this book made it into the series. It is about a Cuban-American family and there is some discussion about Cuba's culture, mainly politics and history, but the main character is a teenager who lives in a gated community and aspires to be a movie maker. The majority of her inner dialogue and life consisted of making up her own reality, which I not only did not enjoy but also tended to weigh down the story and created long lagging chapters.

[Danielle · Rating 1 out of 5]

Technically I only made it to page 170/Chapter 8 but I am close to the end and get most of the gist. I'm losing my mind over how dull the characters are and the lack of a story. I enjoy the idea of reconnecting with the past and heritage in the face of the silence of ancestors but goodness me they could have made things so much less tropey. I was reading it for class and didn't finish it in time and now have no incentive to read more.

[Anne Dancausse · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my new favorite authors!! I got the pleasure of speaking with him through my university’s Latinx Studies Program, and Elías was such a joy to talk to and learn from. Can’t wait to read more from him and I look forward to DEVOURING his new novel “Encore! Encore!”