NOT MYSELF WITHOUT YOU
by Lourdes Vazquez
In NOT MYSELF WITHOUT YOU, a working-class Puerto Rican family of the 1950′s lives surrounded by spirits, ghosts, and witches, a result of incantations performed in the living room. Chronicling nearly two decades of the famaily history- including their occult activities- the story involves characters who are centered in Puerto Rico but who move through the Caribbean, Central American, Spain, and New York as they are pulled by the economic, political, and social coditions of the times as well as by their own intense desires. Lacking the tools to understand the complexity of the world around them, these beings often travel without a clear concept of place or time, envoloped in a constant aura of exile. As their stories come to light through fragments of prayers, sayings, poems, newspaper articles, and excerpts from books- a sort of family scrapbook-the characters themselves speak to a wide range of issues in voices that are famailiar and humorous. Based on oral history and reseach, NOT MYSELF WITHOUT YOU is the author’s own memoir with a strong fictional twist.
Lourdes Vazquez is the author of numerous works of fiction, poetry, essays, and interviews that have been published worldwide. Her most recent full-length works include the script A PORCLAIN DOLL WITH VIOLET EYES, STARING INTO SPACE (WHELHOUSE MAGAZINE, 2009); SAMANDAR:BESTIARY (Bilingual Press, 2004). In 2002 she was a winner of the prestigious Juan Rulfo prize for short story. She has contributed to many journals, newspapers, and anthologies, and she is working on two more books.
144 pp. Paper $14.00 ISBN 978-1931010-68-9
Bilingual Review Press
Place orders (480) 965-3867 Toll free: (866) 965-3867
Website: www.asu.edu/brp
ME GUSTARIA HABLAR CONTIGO