"Por nuestra cultura hablarán nuestros libros. Our books shall speak for our culture."
Twitching Heart. By Matt Méndez. Edited by Yasmeen Namazie and Genevieve Miller. ISBN 978-1480257023.
This is exactly how a winning debut should read—fluid and raw, redemptive and inevitable. Underneath the humor runs a gifted storyteller’s nuanced take on the paradox of the outsider. A triumphant first swing from one of the new stars in the next generation of Chicano literature. --Manuel Muñoz, author of What You See in the Dark
Méndez’s stories emerge out of the gritty and working-class barrios of El Paso. At times gesturing towards the magical realism south of the border, his characters struggle to carve out a piece of the “American Dream,” but the difficulties they endure often leave them speechless. This is where Méndez’s strength as a writer is most visible. While his characters struggle to find the right words, he does not. His prose is restrained, his metaphors apt, and his details are damn near perfect.
Hispanic literature, Latino literature, Mexican American literature, Latin American literature, Chicano literature, Mexican American barrio life Fiction, Latinx Fiction, Hispanic Fiction book