Lala Reyes is the youngest of seven children and the only girl in a Mexican-American family that makes yearly road trips between Chicago and Mexico City. Her grandmother, the Awful Grandmother, tells stories about the family, including a caramel-coloured rebozo that gives the book its name. Lala tries to piece together who her relatives were, especially her grandmother's resentments and her father's secrets. Sandra Cisneros moves between Lala's voice and the voices of the older generations, mixing Spanish and English humour with family myth.
Readers of Latino family sagas and anyone who has sorted through relatives' contradictory tales to find a truth will recognise the pleasure of it. It's long and digressive, and best when taken slowly.
Deep, inward-looking, contemplative, open-ended and thought-provoking; a moderate read.
Best for readers like The Wisdom Collector. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 2003
- Publisher
- Vintage Espanol
- ISBN
- 9781400030996
- Language
- ES
