Book Review: Try To Remember, by Iris Gomez

Try to Remember by Iris Gomez is transporting. In many ways reading Gomez’ debut novel is like sitting across from a thoughtful storyteller who painstakingly and lovingly recreates the story of Gabriela, an intelligent, sensitive Colombian teenager growing up in Miami in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s.

Gabi’s story is about many things: a teen girl coming of age and discovering herself during the American women’s liberation movement; an immigrant family living in fear of deportation; a young woman torn between loyalty to the family who depends on her to help manage the household and her need to escape her crazy parents and live the life she wants; and a daughter and sister who struggles to comprehend her increasingly unstable father, spending hours typing his progressively nonsensical letters (more like manifestos) to companies and the government.

Iris Gomez, a lawyer with expertise in immigration rights, was born in Cartagena, Colombia. She has also published books of poetry. Elements of her experience are expertly woven into the fabric of the novel, which presents Gabi’s episodic story arc, covering about three or four years of her life, with honest and compelling language and pacing that never flags. Lyrical yet straightforward, Gomez inserts compelling details that spring Gabi’s story to life.

You feel the claustrophobia of Gabi’s family’s small house. The constant Miami heat, especially during the torpid summer months. The harrowing hurricane that hits Miami and almost carries away her father and their house. Gabi’s high school experience getting into trouble from teachers for speaking Spanish in class. Gabi’s first experiences with boys and the men who whistle at her whenever she walks through her neighborhood.

One of the central storylines the novel expertly showcases is the steady decline of Gabi’s father, who descends from loving, hardworking family man to an unemployable hothead who lives in a haze of confusion and at times is overcome with an uncontrollable, lashing rage. Gabi, her mother Evi, and her two younger brothers never know what will set him off—it could be a chaste kiss between husband and wife on TV or the sight of a male friend driving Gabi home from school.

Even as his behavior turns violent, Evi keeps blinders in place and believes Roberto will be himself again someday and that his temporary condition is exhaustion born of a life of hard work supporting the family. Instead of taking him to a doctor, Evi feeds him a daily regimen of downers to keep him docile. It’s a Band-Aid to an obviously wider and deeper problem.

The genius of Try to Remember is how Iris Gomez tells Gabi’s story in honest, clear language with moments of lyrical transcendence with sympathy for her characters without a false note. This is not an easy accomplishment. The point of view is close first, which pulls us quickly into the Gabi’s thoughts and experiences. The novel could have been bogged down with flashbacks and constant remembrances of the way things used to be.

Gabriela does harbor memories, but these fleeting, necessary snapshots expose a time when her father was normal, doting, and employable. There is no secret from the past that haunts the present. At once bittersweet and hopeful, the story of Gabi’s day-to-day life, her struggles and accomplishments, is told with a minimum of melodrama and the novel is stronger for it.

Writing Reaction

Summer has brought hot temps and activity. The past couple weeks my writing schedule's been thrown off track, but a writer is supposed to find time to write anyway. Right? It's all about balance, as I've droned on about before. And it's true, no matter what I'm doing, I try to bring my writing life to the table. Every action has a writing reaction.

That means when I go away for a few days, I bring reading material and maybe my laptop. That means if I sleep late Thursday morning instead of getting up to write, I've been at a Grub Street class the night before.

I'm enrolled in a summer novel writing class. Each class three students read five pages of their manuscript. So I've been workshopping some early chapters of my current novel-in-progress. I wasn't sure how I'd feel about showing work so early in the process, but I knew I needed ideas and guidance in terms of structure and plot and all those things that make a novel cohesive. Plus, it's got me thinking about how best to open a novel with four main characters.

I'm always reading. Right now I'm reading Iris Gomez' wonderful Try to Remember, about a teenage girl from Colombia growing up poor in 1970's Miami. She has a crazy father and a mother in denial. When she's not typing up illegible letters that her father writes to corporations and the government, she's figuring out ways to escape her oppressive family situation and discover what she wants for her life. It's a glowing debut novel, and I'll be posting a full review soon.

I've got a lit mag review in the wings, ready to help launch Becky Tuch's reboot of her site The Review Review, which constantly answers the question Why do literary magazines matter?

My story Casey is indeed slated for Fiction Magazine issue 56 hitting the shelves in August.

I continue in good stead over at Beyond the Margins, which is gaining momentum and lit cred.

So, my writing life is still fairly balanced. Or, unbalanced in a good way. I love being involved with all this lit stuff. And I hope there's more to come.

This Week's Boston Literary Scene

Lots going on this week in the world of Boston's literati. Let's get right down to it, shall we? 

Try To Remember

I'll start off with a big congratulatory shout out to fellow Grub Street writer Iris Gomez whose first novel Try To Remember is hot off the Grand Central Publishing presses.

"It's the story of spirited Gabriela de la Paz, a Colombian teenager struggling to forge her own identity in the changing cultural landscape of 1970s Miami, while keeping her increasingly volatile, mentally ill father out of legal trouble - in order to protect his green card status and save her family from exile in disgrace."

It's already garnering great reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist. Can't wait to crack it. Catch Iris on May 10th when she holds a discussion and book signing at the UMass Boston bookstore, May 12 at the Downtown Crossing Borders, and May 13 at Brookline Booksmith.

The Muse and the Marketplace

Hurry, time's running out! For what? For registering for Grub Street's 9th annual The Muse and the Marketplace writer's conference, which will be held this upcoming Saturday and Sunday, May 1st and 2nd. Registration ends this Tuesday, April 27th, at noon.

This year you can catch keynote speaker Chuck Palahniuk, along with guest authors Steve Almond, Donovan Campbell, Michael Downing, Hallie Ephron, Ethan Gilsdorf, Elizabeth Graver, Lauren Grodstein, Ann Hood, Victor Lavalle, Jennifer 8 Lee, Benjamin Percy, Michelle Seaton, Jessica Shattuck, Anita Shreve, Janna Malamud Smith, and Elizabeth Strout among many others.

Where else can you mingle with literary agents and editors from agencies and publishers large and small? No where else. Sign up to join the 500+ writers who will be in attendance. Register online, or give Grub Street a call at 617.695.0075.

Randy Susan Meyers

Be sure to catch Randy Susan Meyers this Thursday, April 29, at 7 PM over at Newtonville Books reading a selection from her novel The Murderer's Daughters. She'll be appearing along with Kelly O'Connor McNees, author of The Lost Summer Of Louisa May Alcott.

Tinkers

Belated congratulations to local rocker (drummer for Cold Water Flat) turned novelist, Paul Harding, who made more than good by winning this year's Pulitzer Prize for fiction for Tinkers, which was published last year by independent Bellevue Literary Press with a an initial run of 3,500 copies. This week Perseus Books Group (parent company to the book's distributor, Consortium) is readying another 100,000 books for shipment.

Read Geoff Edgers' article in The Boston Globe about how Tinkers rose from collecting dust in the author's desk drawer to prize winning novel. It's a great underdog story. What writer doesn't like to hear that a tiny novel, with a small first printing and a 1,000 dollar advance, can climb into the heady clouds of year-end top ten lists and then ascend even farther to be the first novel released by a small press in thirty years to win the Pulitzer? Not this writer.

Here's Magnetic North Pole, the Cold Water Flat song Boston's WFNX played in the mid-'90s:

Writing Group Plugs

Two weeks ago the new book of poetry, New Eden, A Legacy, by E.B. Moore (which I had pre-ordered earlier this year), arrived in the mail. E.B. Moore is in my writing group, so it was a delight to receive a fellow writer’s work delivered to my condo’s doorstep (okay, mail room—no actual steps in front of my door).


Poet and novelist Ann Killough says, “New Eden is a wonder. The story of Moore’s great-grandmother’s disastrous 19th-century exodus West from her Old Order Amish community in Pennsylvania is detailed in a sequence of short poems and letters.” I’m familiar with Ms. Moore’s work as a novelist, as she has been working on a beautifully crafted, lyrical narrative that covers some of the same themes, locales, and time period as New Eden. I can’t wait to immerse myself back into her stories. She also designed the lovely cover image.

New Eden is published by Finishing Line Press, out of Kentucky. Get your copy while supplies last.

Upcoming Books

E.B. Moore is not the only writer in my group to come out with a book. Actually, two others are set to release novels in the coming year.

While its U.S. publication date is six months away, I figured it’s not too soon to tout Randy Susan-Meyers' The Murderer’s Daughters, to be published by St. Martin’s Press in January 2010.


The Murderer’s Daughters concerns two young girls who witness the murder of their mother at the hands of their father, and the effects of this act throughout their adult lives. Great hook. The book’s garnering a lot of interest in the publisher world. It's positioned to be a major hardcover next year and is also being published in France, Germany, Holland, Israel, and the UK. Can you say international book tour? Read my interview with Randy from this past March.

Pre-order it now!

Here’s the Dutch cover:


Then there's Iris Gomez’s novel, Try To Remember, to be published in May 2010 by Grand Central Publishing (Hachette Book Group). I’m relatively new to Iris’ work, but have been blown away by everything I've read. Her writing is lyrical, evocative, and honest.

Try To Remember is about a Colombian teenager living in the strangely evolving cosmopolis of 1970s Miami. She desperately tries to love her increasingly mentally ill father as he drives her family into poverty, and towards possible deportation. Another great hook. Keep an eye on amazon--the book should be available for pre-order later this year.

Here’s her cover:


Thanks to Iris for supplying me with her book's description, and to both Randy and Iris for supplying their cover images.

Grub Gone Wrong

Friday night Liz and I drove into Boston for the festive Grub Street event, Grub Gone Wrong.


Three times a year, Grub Street holds a series of Grub Gone shindigs, featuring a different theme and authors reading excerpts of their work that fit the theme. There’s been Grub Gone Spooky (Halloween) and Sweaty (mid-July heat and torpor), and Silly (funny ha ha). This time the Grub Gone series celebrated the wrong, with mistakes, devolutions, and foolish choices.

One of the main reasons I wanted to attend was to support fellow writer Randy Susan Meyers, who recently sold a book for publication. I met Randy in Ms. X’s Grub workshop and so was familiar with her work. Randy is the first writer from one of Ms. X’s classes to be published. Exciting on many counts, one that it bodes well for us writers noodling away at our novels and also any publishing success story is welcome in this dismal fiscal climate.

When we arrived, the place was packed, the event having sold out. Ms. X was there as well as a few other writers that have taken Ms. X’s class over the past few years, including Cecile Corona, Iris Gomez, and Javed Jahangir. Always good to catch up with Ms. X. I pointedly do not ask her how her new novel is progressing. I don’t know if this irks her or not, but my attitude is, give the lady a break already. Of course, as any good concerned teacher, she always asks after my own work.

Me, the mysterious Ms. X, and Cecile.

Around eight the festivities got under way. Chris Castellani, working author and Grub’s artistic director, welcomed everyone and introduced the night’s M.C., Steve Almond. Who then in turn introduced the night’s readers. Randy was first up, and read a wrenching scene from her novel, tentatively titled Adopting Adults, but that’s the working title and will undoubtedly change. Her novel concerns two young sisters who witness the murder of their mother at the hands of their father and how this trauma dogs them through their adult lives, along with some twists I already know about but won’t divulge. Only to say, when this book comes out in about a year, I’ll be on line to purchase a copy and procure an author inscription.

Randy and Steve.

Randy’s got a commanding presence. Like any good reader, she knows which words and lines of dialogue need punching, when to pause for effect, and when to speed through a sequence to create tension. Hearing her read reminded me what makes Randy a great writer: it’s her word choice, giving the reader just enough information, paring off the stuff that would just slow you down. Also, she laces scenes of emotional heavy-osity with black humor while filtering out that bothersome sentimentality that clogs up the works of many literary novels. I’ve also read some of her novel-in-progress, and those characters and their situations have stayed with me for the past few months. So anyway: shameless plug for Randy Susan Meyers. Be on the lookout.

After Randy was Sarah Banse, with a humorous if cringe inducing piece about what to do when your kid’s school nurse calls you up and says, come get your son, he’s got head lice. Let’s just say, a mother does what needs doing. And it ain’t pretty. Next it was Jane Roper reading an excerpt from her as-yet unpublished novel; An affecting, humorous story of a young woman who has a crush on and subsequent affair with an older married man who is also her boss.

Next up: Jorge Vega, a comic book writer and illustrator, Grub instructor, and winner of Platinum Studios’ 2007 Comic Book Challenge. Jorge projected panels of a new work on the wall of Grub’s front room. One of his hapless assistants held the projector sideways to correct the image while Jorge read from what sounded like a screenplay. Each panel had a description of the action and the accompanying dialogue. I couldn’t see the projection because I wasn’t wearing my glasses. Which was fine because the assistant was blocking my view. Foiled at every turn. Still, Jorge’s reading grabbed the room’s attention with an intense and violent story of a young pregnant girl killing the abusive father of her unborn child. That scene was cross-cut with an emotional, rain-drenched high school track meet.

The evening’s readings culminated with Keith Lee Morris, whose new novel, The Dart League King, was recently published by Tin House Books to some great reviews. He riveted the room with his rendition of one of the books’ characters, Vince.

Keith Lee Morris.

In a few pages, Keith nailed Vince’s voice, through which we learn of his history in the Idaho town where he grew up and still lives, and how, due to both fate and the coincidence of lost opportunity, he became a fuck-up and minor-league drug dealer. With a sullen, pissed off logic, Vince schemes to finally get enough money to extricate himself from this dreary town. I haven’t read the book yet, but I imagine things will probably not go as planned for Vince. And I can’t wait to see how badly they do (and Vince isn’t even the main character).


After the readings Steve announced winners of the night’s contest, which had Grubbies answer the question, What’s Your Secret Confession? The prize? Free drinks.


I didn’t enter because I couldn’t think of anything. How lame is that? Some fiction writer I am.


Here are some of the winning confessions:

• I sound like Chewbacca when I make love.

• I didn’t want to come here alone.

• I got a priest to make a pass at me

• I tape every episode of Who Wants to be a Millionaire

Liz’s confession didn’t win, so we had to buy our drinks. We wandered the Grub rooms and halls. I poked my head in the back room where two games of poker were just starting up. I caught sight of Andrew, from one of Ms X’s classes a couple years ago. The last piece he workshopped, about a boy growing up in New York with some absolutely crazy relatives, was a wonderful evocation of environment and character. I hope he’s still working on it.

Then we stood online to buy a copy of Keith’s book. He had brought fifteen copies with him, the last of the first editions (Nice—let’s get that second print run started). He inscribed the book to both Liz and me as I stumbled over some words and made a general ass of myself. Liz endeared herself and saved the moment by asking when he could come to our house and read to us; by way of saying she had enjoyed his reading and the character of Vince.


Here’s looking forward to the next Grub Gone event.