Book Review: Catalina

Here’s my book review for Catalina by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio. Don’t forget to leave a comment if you’ve read it too. And check out today’s writing prompt at the bottom of this post.

Catalina by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio is full of punchy sentences that will force you to ponder the essence of identity and belonging and culture and history and literature and narratives and documents and belonging, etc.—but not in the typical depressing sort of way that books like this tend to force you to think about them. This is a book about what it is like to be undocumented in the United States, and offers a more realistic perspective, from what I can tell. But it is also funny, raunchy, and sarcastic, never overly dramatic. 

The main character, Catalina, is complex, doesn’t hold back, and isn’t always likable. In other words, she is very real, very human, and doesn’t embody all the tropes that an ‘ideal immigrant’ or undocumented person would have to have in order for elites at Harvard to even bother ‘helping’ her. Or does she? As Catalina does mention that she feels like she’s following a script multiple times throughout the novel and says things that she doesn’t mean to ‘fit in’ or placate the white and upper-class people she’s around all the time. Or does she? It’s interesting to follow Catalina’s stream of consciousness and actions as she navigates her life during a pivotal point in her life (college) for this very reason. As a reader, you can sense that she is always aware of how she has to wear multiple hats and identities (perform), or that people expect her to wear those hats anyway, and that she does her best to use those hats to her advantage while also remaining somewhat provocative and pushing (acting or DREAMing, if you will) the stereotypical envelopes in which everyone wants to put her. 

That being said, I still never found myself attached to any of the characters in the novel, or what they were doing or going through, least of all Catalina. I really wanted to root for her, but as she tried so hard to remain stoic and nonchalant, it forced me to remain more stoic and distant as a reader too, I am afraid. If she was acting like she didn’t care, why would I? Sure, the novel didn’t necessarily need to be a tearjerker in order to have an impact, but there were times when the plot was a little too distant. Perhaps that was the point? Regardless, it still left me not caring as much as I wanted to about Catalina, her plight, and or the people in her life in the end, like what happened with her grandfather. She seemed to get over what he did a bit quickly and didn’t seem that attached to anyone. 

Overall, I think lit nerds will enjoy this one. 

My favorite parts of the book include passages like the following: 

“I wanted to be Art… Once again, I would have to rely on my own scruples to make things happen. I would have to become a writer myself.” (p.6)

“The way Dante thought about Beatrice—lustful, possessive, theatrical—is how I thought about absolutely everything.” (p.72)

“I’d heard stories of migrants being driven across the border without money or papers or phones, dropped off defenseless in cartel-run areas. Let’s say this happens to you. What would you do? Describe your plan below. I’m dying to know.

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______________________________________” (p.130)

“Only a writer could transfigure their stories into literature. Once they were literature, they could no longer be disappeared.” (p.162)

“I sometimes forgot what it meant to have a body. But I did not for a second forget the camera was there.” (p.181)

“Unless it is read, a book is just an object. There are no holy texts without believers to read them.” (p.187)

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Today’s Writing Prompt