Customer Reviews

So Far from God

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I have read this wonderful story about relationships between women, politics, and spirituality at least four times. The first time, I devoured most of the lyrical dialogue and marvelous images during a college all-nighter. Hungry for voices that reminded me of family, I couldn't put the book down!

Most recently, I have asked my students to read this novel at the beginning of the UC Berkeley course, "Redefining Chicana and Latina Health: Body, Mind, and Spirit." It always creates a space to discuss health and healing in relation to culture, environmental racism, labor exploitation, sexism, homophobia, faith, and political organizing . Ana Castillo's characters ask us to consider the costs of internalizing oppression, as well as present transformative ways of being in the world. A hopeful novel about the need for social change and personal transformation, it deals with the challenges many of us experience across difference in the United States.

Instead of describing this story as "magical realism," I prefer the more accurate translation of the Carribean and South American consciousness and style of representation called "lo real maravilloso" - So Far From God is about the "marvelous real." Reading this book is a sensuous experience that engages your physical body, as well as your mind and soul.

Hispanic writing today seems to fall within three distinct categories, i.e., contemporary fiction (mostly urban in context), historical fiction and mystical fiction. This novel is most emphatically a work of mystical fiction.

Set in Chicana country the story is both down-to-earth and full of unearthly happenings. Its matter-of-fact delivery serves to make the magical believable. When one character is dying of AIDS, a Doctor Tolentino and his wife come to help her. His ministrations involve prayers and cotton wool soaked in holy oil. But then he reaches into La Loca's stomach `maintaining his left "material" hand in the opening, while the right "spirit" hand sought out the maladies' and `pulled out some cystic fibroids and finally a tumour...' The lines between the surgical and the miraculous are blurred and anything seems possible. Castillo uses a direct colloquial style with little regard for punctuation, almost as if the writer is confiding her thoughts directly to the reader. Each chapter is prefaced with a description of what is going to happen next but phrased in such a way as to make the book impossible to put down. For instance: `Of the Hideous Crime of Francisco el Penitente, and his Pathetic Calls Heard Throughout the Countryside as His Body Dangled from a Pinnion like a Crow-Picked Pear; and of the End of Caridad and Her Beloved Emerald Which We Nevertheless Will Refrain from Calling Tragic.'

So Far from God is a tale both tragic and funny; a hymn to women's endurance and to the harshness of their lives. It is a heavily allegorical tale. The novel has Sofia, the embodiment of "wisdom," at its core, a mother who survives the death of her four daughters: Esperanza, Fe, Caridad, and La Loca. The names of the first three daughters denote the three major Christian ideals. However, in the cruelest of ironies, the destiny of each of these characters is the antithesis of the ideal the name represents.

Esperanza, the most liberated of the sisters, devotes the energy of her college years to the Chicano Movement. She lives her life as a glowing example of La Raza Politics, working to better the lives of her people. But her death as a television reporter covering the Gulf Crisis is utterly meaningless. The reader is left without any hope or, better yet, "Esperanza," of finding redemption in this character's demise.
Fe, the sister who most subscribes to the traditions of her culture, desires nothing more than to participate fully in society's patriarchal mandate for women to marry and serve their husbands.

She does, finally, find a man who will fulfill her dream of marrying: her cousin Casimiro. He is completely devoted to her, and together they plan a blissful future. In order to secure this, however, Fe leaves her safe position at the bank for a higher paying job at an arms manufacturing company. She tackles her work with her usual diligence and earns a promotion. Thus, her faith in the American Way of Life is rewarded. This "promotion," however, proves fatal as the company exposes her to a hazardous chemical that causes her death from cancer. In the end, the faith that Fe places in the basic tenets of society and its culture completely fails her. Thus, faith also becomes meaningless.

Caridad, after being abandoned by her husband, became known for "loving anyone she met at the bars who vaguely resembled Memo" (27). Because of her promiscuous life, she is brutally raped and disfigured by a mysterious and misogynist spirit identity known as the "malogra." In this manner, Caridad's charity towards men is severely punished. However, she heals miraculously and from that moment on, she no longer has an interest in men. Caridad becomes an apprentice curandera, and during a religious pilgrimage with her mentor, she spots a woman with whom she instantly falls in love. Caridad never reconciles herself with her homosexual feelings until she suddenly and dramatically leaps off of a cliff while holding hands with Esmeralda, the object of her affection, as they are being pursued by Francisco el Penitente, Caridad's obsessed stalker. Those who witness the jump search for the bodies, but they are never found.

La Loca is without question the most intriguing of the sisters. Dead at age three, she resurrects and is immediately believed to possess miraculous powers. The residents of Tome accept the young girl's return from the dead as being of a divine nature and they dub her "La Loca Santa." Following her return, however, she shuns human contact and only lets her mother touch her. She also rarely speaks, but her resurrection has spoken volumes for her. La Loca is the embodiment of a miracle; she cannot be preoccupied with the mundane task of finding a job, like her sisters. She remains at home, content in her solitude. Her household chores are to tend her animals, keep the house clean, and cook. She does, though, assist in the healing of Fe and Caridad, and she performs abortions for the latter because La Loca instinctively "knew all about a woman's pregnancy cycle". Toward the novel's end, she becomes ill and is diagnosed with the HIV virus, even though she had never participated in any activity commonly associated with its acquisition. Ultimately, La Loca's destiny, like those of her sisters, is to die at an early age. On a surreal death pilgrimage to an Albuquerque hospital, the people canonize her and eventually declare her the patron saint of kitchens, new brides, and progressive grooms. La Loca's life, then, is characterized by her first death, resurrection, contraction of AIDS without human contact, and her canonization. After the deaths of hope, faith, and charity, the three theological ideals of the Church, and the death of what can arguably be construed as the female personification of Jesus Christ in the personage of La Loca, all that remains is Sofia's wisdom.

Sofia has a feckless husband - who suddenly appears after an absence of twenty years - and four daughters who suffer all the indignities known to woman. But she decides to become the Mayor of Tome and goes on to found a workers' co-operative and MOMAS (`Mothers of Martyrs and Saints'). Sofia endures, no, she triumphs - while at the same time retaining her sense of humour.

So Far from God is wacky and powerful. Its humor belies a strong political message - that in a world which deals them many harsh blows, women are still survivors, after death as well as during life.

It has been four years since I was obligated to read this novel in my college literature class. I am so pleased that my professor assigned this book. It still holds up today as one of the best I have ever read. Although I come from a white middle-class family in a small white-bread community, I was able to relate to these characters as sisters, as family. I have read this story several times. Even though the pages are tattered and the cover has been ripped off, I will never give this book up to any recycle bin. From page one you will be so engrossed that you will not be able to put it down. You may finish it in one sitting or fall down trying.

Ana Castillo truly takes us for an unforgettable trip as we take a glimpse into the lives of Sofi, a Chicana woman, and her four daughters, Esperanza (Hope), Caridad (Charity), Fe (Faith), and La Loca (The Crazy One). The story reads like an epic parable about life, death, sexuality and the bridge between the world of the living and the afterlife. It also raises very important questions about the division between heaven and hell and whether is really such a bad place after all in comparison with the life that we come to accept.

Each woman in this story is touched by fate in unexpected, and (sometimes) supernatural ways. While Esperanza, the successful, upwardly mobile sister acts on her name and is relocated to Iraq as part of her journalism work, her sister Caridad becomes a faith healer, Fe loses her voice after a fit of desperate screaming, and La Loca cheats death as a young toddler only to become the subject of social scrutiny in their community as an isolated loner with a sixth sense only understandable to her mother, Sofi.

This book is truly enjoyed when you suspend disbelief and just go with the supernatural and magical elements. SO FAR FROM GOD is true poetry, and also very important in cultural studies. It was assigned to me in a comparative literature class through the department of American Ethnic Studies with the following books: The Grass Dancer, A Lesson Before Dying, Ruby Ridge, and Homebase. (Books also worth checking out!)

Samuel Taylor Coleridge called drama "that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith." The same may be said of reading fiction. When we sit down with a novel, we enter into a shared agreement with the author and other readers when we willingly suspend disbelief. We know that everything that is happening in the narrative isn't real, but the author and the audience have all entered into a conspiracy "of poetic faith" in an attempt to bring to life a quasi-reality that will transcend and communicate some perception about life in this world.

That willingness to enter the world the author had created--be it in traditional fiction, magical realism, science fiction, utopian/distopian literature, was one of the agreements I asked my university students to make at the start of every semester. It was therefore particularly disturbing to read the reviewer who insisted that Castillo's characters and settings "did not ring true." So Far From God is fiction and is not intended as biography or ethno-sociology. It is what it is: an excellent novel about a remarkable woman, Sofia, and her equally remarkable, if somewhat unusual, daughters. Like the previous reviewer, I too found that So Far From God was the novel which my students were most likely to take home to their mothers, and to recommend to other women--not for its realistic depiction of New Mexico, but for its empowering treatment of women.

What a wonderful book! I have three sisters and all of us loved So Far From God. We shared it with our mother and aunts and comadres and they all loved the remedios and stories that brought home close to our hearts. Bless Me Ultima? Please! In So Far From God the spiritual strength is with the women and STAYS with the women, not passed on to a macho little boy who gives orders to his mother. Moving into the professional world has separated some of our family memembers but So Far From God was a shared and loved experience which brought us all back to the New Mexico of our childhoods where the sight of people traveling long distances on their knees inorder to fulfill a promesa was commonplace.

What an incredible and amazing testimonial to female strenth is So Far From God. I don't understand why some of my fellow New Mexicans get so territorial that they can't see the beauty and the truth of the story. Who cares if Castillo comes from the moon? She's a gifted and versatile Chicana writer, the best in my opinion, and I am grateful she took the time to love my beloved New Mexico in one of her books.

I am still living along the frontera en tejas, but far from my New Mexican roots. Reading Castillo's novel is like taking a trip back in time to the place of my childhood. Gracias.

Delightful "magical realism" novel. Hugely entertaining.

And, yes, Castillo does an excellent job of bringing to life the images of the Southwest. I grew up in Texas, and have traveled extensively through the Southwest. Castillo's book and its vibrant characters feel like "home" to me (even though I'm not Hispanic).

Definitely a "must-read"!!

As an avowed Ana Castillo fan, I always think hat herlatest book is my favorite. After doingsome serious soul-searching, I ve decided that So Far From God remains my personal favorite book-- not just of Castillo's work, but indeed, one of the best books ever, a book that seemed to be written to feed what my soul hungered for and what nerve needed tickling. So Far from God is funny, angry, consciousness-lifting and in the end a spiritually transforming book that brings the reader to the realization that forgiveness of those who have trespassed against us is as far as we can go as human beings. A set of four sisters and their Amazon mother are abandoned by their father. Each sister lives, endures her individual tragedy and love -- each with her specific brand of success-- but what we see unfold before our eyes is HOW they manage to mend themselves, heal when others less strong yet pliant would have collapsed. La Loca Santa is a hilarious section that deals with one of the sister who is erroneously deemed dead. Take it from there -- no use in spoiling a sweet, delicious tale. The laughter La Loca Santa evokes in the reader will certainly cause friends and family to peer and check if you've gone nuts. Yes, each sister is loved and is spurned by love, but the favorite and most enduring character is La Mamá who seems to expand in strength and wisdom as the book progresses. She even becomes the town mayor and by that time, we want to link her with Gore! The novel not only deal with women's issues. Small town cruelties, environmental pollution, the plight of the disenfranchised and how to deal with the dad who ran away are all touched upon with a deft, powerful stroke. Forgiveness, the gift of charity surfaces and floats within the reader's heart long after the story has ended.

I cannot believe that. I live in NM, I've lived here 20+ years and the book wasn't supposed to "ring true" in that manner. It was a fabulous depiction of NM, giving the land and its people the richness that only people who have not lived here their entire lives can see. We live here and see all the daily dirt, the bugs, the problems; but Dona Ana saw the miracles, the beauty and the wonderment that continues to exist in NM: the magic. I resent that statement that it is not an accurate depiction; it's the SOUL of NM that is being seen and depicted. If New Mexico were NORMAL we wouldn't have the a monument to the bomb, stealth bombers that fly over our heads daily, UFOs supposedly in our backyard and a television show to prove how bizarre NM is supposed to be.

On the other hand, how many authors from NM talk in mumbling polite phrases about how hot it is, how pretty our pottery is, and how much we pay for a pink coyotes. I could read dozens of books and that would be accurate; it is hot, our pottery is pretty, and we pay too much for pink and turquoise coyotes with kerchiefs howling at the moon.

Then again, I could read history and STILL not get an "ACCURATE depiction." For accuracy, someone should have asked her to write about Hanta Virus in Northern NM instead of violence against women, which is a global issue.

It's called a perspective and I believe Dr. Castillo got it right. As for the mountain range, obviously both people from NM are not writers and have never heard of artistic license. Besides, it's not about Tome. Who CARES about Tome? It's about people in general. It's about spirit and soul.

No one makes these statements about Georgia O'Keefe and she was white. No one makes a noise when a white MAN writes about Geishas, but when a brilliant Chicana writes a story about the spirit of people, she gets lambasted for accuracy! I suggest these folks read it again! Perhaps you don't read Spanish and didn't understand some of the plot? Perhaps it was too "supernatural" for you, or you don't know enough about Catholicism and mythology to make the connection. I suggest you look up some of that up before you insult Dr. Castillo about "Accurancy." I'm from NM, I'm a Chicana, and I liked what Dr. Castillo had to say.

Try some "suspension of disbelief" and forget you live in this "Land of Enchantment." If you want NM "accuracy," read some Denise Chavez, try Saez. But if you are looking for that element of enchantment and spirit, look at Castillo. Either way, she will change the way you look at things.

By the way, I think it should be noted that Chicana scholars have supported Dr. Castillo 110%. I think that counts for something, especially since "accuracy" does not make a story inspiring or brilliant. If that were the case, "Braveheart" would have never inspired the Scots to free themselves from the British. The message is what counts, if you're just willing to hear it.

Having taught Chicano/a literature in a university in the southwest, I can attest, firsthand, to the power of Castillo's writing. There is no comparison between the women in this novel and the women in Anaya's Bless Me Ultima. Sophia, Fe, Esperanza, Caridad, y La Loca are remarkable women who do much more than simply personify the wisdom, faith, hope, and charity which allows them to triumph over the obstacles placed in their paths. This IS a book which my students, both female and male, took home to their mothers.