Castillo gets intimate with 'Loverboys'

"Two boys are making out in the booth across from me. I ain't got nothing else to do, so I watch them. I drink the not-so-aged house brandy and watch two boys make out. It's more like they're in the throes of passion, as they say. And they're not boys, really. I think I've seen them around before, somewhere on campus maybe. Not making out though."

Thus begins "Loverboys," the first story in Ana Castillo's collection of the same name. The 23 stories all contain the same underlying theme of love, but they display every possible quirk, hope, and heartbreak. Award-winning author Castillo will be reading from this collection tonight at 8 at Shaman Drum.

Castillo, a writer of many forms, is known for her novels, poetry, short stories, and nonfiction works. In a recent interview, she compared the different styles to different forms of art: "They're all very different. It's a lot like being trained as a dancer, trained to do modern dance. You don't necessarily get up and do ballet, and if you're a ballet dancer you don't necessarily get up and tap dance. So each one has taken time to develop.

"Poetry is like working with filigree; you can never take it for granted. It's really work. And prose is different. Prose writing doesn't take inspiration; you sit down and work at it every day."

However, her writing style in her short stories often appears to have been inspired by something other than daily devotion. In her characters, the reader can see a piece of him or herself melded with a piece of Castillo and a piece of the Latina culture.

These pieces date all the way back to the early '80s, and so they are as varied in time and experience as they are in character. They represent a period of life full of wishes and confusion; and isn't that what it's all really about?

Castillo's writing doesn't define a specific ideal reader; she simply states that "Loverboys" will be appreciated by "someone who can understand and enjoy the many apertures which my stories hopefully present." Indeed, anyone with an open mind with discover these apertures with joy.

"Loverboys" is about love, yes, but it is also about people and life and a place in this world. To read Castillo's view of life makes the reader think of it a little more philosophically.

As she writes, "... maybe we shouldn't bother trying to figure it out, just go about our business tripping over it like that crack in the sidewalk that send you flying in an embarrassing way and when you look back to see what tripped you, and everybody's looking at you, there's nothing there."

Listening to Castillo read from this collection will be a revealing and soulful experience, one in which the listener can truly hear the spirit of the character. Castillo says, "I think that what happens to me with most of my books is that I enjoy them; I always feel that it's a point of arrival in terms of my writing and my skills ... They're such different stories. They work differently for me, in different ways." As they do for the reader.

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