NOT MYSELF WITHOUT YOU
by Lourdes Vazquez
translated by Bethany M. Korp-Edwards
In NOT MYSELF WITHOUT YOU, a working-class Puerto Rican family of the 1950s performs occult rituals in the living room and must live surrounded by the resulting spirits, ghosts, and witches. Chronicling nearly two decades of the family’s history, the story involves characters who are connect to Puerto Rico but who move through the Caribbean, Central America, Spain, and New York, pulled by the conditions of the times and their own intense desires. 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 familiar and humorous. Based on oral history and research, NOT MYSELF WITHOUT YOU is the author’s own memoir with a strong fictional twist.
Lourdes Vazquez is an award-winning author of fiction, poetry, essays, and interviews that have been published worldwide. Her most recent full-length works include the script A PORCELAIN DOLL WITH VIOLET EYES, STARING INTO SPACE (WHEELHOUSE MAGAZINE, 2009), SAMANDAR: LIBRO DE VIAJES/BOOK OF TRAVELS (Buenos Aires: Tse Tse, 2007), a collection of poetry, BESTIARY (Bilingual Press, 2004). She has contributed to many journals, newspapers, and anthologies and is working on two more books.
144 pp paper $14.00 ISBN 978-1-931010-68-9
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