Catalina
by Karla Cornejo Vollavicencio
Description:
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD • A year in the life of the unforgettable Catalina Ituralde, a wickedly wry and heartbreakingly vulnerable student at an elite college, forced to navigate an opaque past, an uncertain future, tragedies on two continents, and the tantalizing possibilities of love and freedom “[A] sparkling fiction debut.”—The New York Times Book Review “[A] fresh and unflinching take on the campus novel.”—People (Ten Best Books of the Year) “Diabolically charming and magnetic.”—Ira Glass A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Time, The Washington Post, NPR, them When Catalina is admitted to Harvard, it feels like the fulfillment of destiny: a miracle child escapes death in Latin America, moves to Queens to be raised by her undocumented grandparents, and becomes one of the chosen. But nothing is simple for Catalina, least of all her own complicated, contradictory, ruthlessly probing mind. Now a senior, she faces graduation to a world that has no place for the undocumented; her sense of doom intensifies her curiosities and desires. She infiltrates the school’s elite subcultures—internships and literary journals, posh parties and secret societies—which she observes with the eye of an anthropologist and an interloper’s skepticism: she is both fascinated and repulsed. Craving a great romance, Catalina finds herself drawn to a fellow student, an actual budding anthropologist eager to teach her about the Latin American world she was born into but never knew, even as her life back in Queens begins to unravel. And every day, the clock ticks closer to the abyss of life after graduation. Can she save her family? Can she save herself? What does it mean to be saved? Brash and daring, part campus novel, part hagiography, part pop song, Catalina is unlike any coming-of-age novel you’ve ever read—and Catalina, bright and tragic, circled by a nimbus of chaotic energy, driven by a wild heart, is a character you will never forget.
Reviews:
(6 months ago) |
31 Mar, 2025
I was going to give this book two stars but upon reflection I decided I liked it more than I originally thought. The first two parts seemed like just a bunch of posturing and dropping names of various artist, writers and intellectuals. It is written almost as a stream of consciousness, no doubt intentionally Joycean in style but much less opaque. Some of this, as well as references to Sylvia Plath, is foreshadowing and makes for a good story. I don’t know if it was the author’s intention to highlight the struggles (internal and external) an undocumented person faces, if it was I would say the book failed and the Plath comparisons doomed it. All it really made me think was that there is little to no difference between an undocumented person and a citizen in terms of internal struggles. If that was the point of the book then the author achieved her goal.
It’s not a bad read but I’ll remember it more for it’s style than content.
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Challenge:
Read Around South America Challenge
Country:
Ecuador
Ecuador
Language:
EN
Genre:
Contemporary fiction
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