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Emily Winfield Martin: IMG Kids' Q&A: Emily Winfield Martin

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Gringa: A Contradictory Girlhood

by Melissa Hart

Gringa: A Contradictory Girlhood Cover

ISBN13: 9781580052948
ISBN10: 1580052940
Condition: Standard
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Review-A-Day

"Instead of being horrified by Patricia's run-down ranch house, Hart was gripped by a strange excitement. 'I went wild and barefoot, braided my hair like an Indian maiden, and planted a garden of sunflowers and corn next to a rickety chicken coop my mother stocked with Rhode Island Reds.' It's where she began a lifelong infatuation with Latino food and culture, associating her mother's blue VW bus with freedom, tacos and the songs she heard driving around town." Katie Schneider, The Oregonian (read the entire Oregonian review)

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Torn between the high socioeconomic status of her father and the bohemian lifestyle of her mother, Melissa Hart tells a compelling story of contradiction in this coming-of-age memoir.

Set in 1970s Southern California, Gringa is the story of a young girl conflicted by two extremes. On the one hand there's life with her mother, who leaves her father to begin a lesbian relationship, taking Hart and her two siblings along. Hart tells of her mom's new life in a Hispanic neighborhood of Oxnard, California, and how these new surroundings begin to positively shape Hart herself.

At the opposite extreme is her father's white-bread well-to-do security, which is predictable and stable and boring. Hart is made all the more fraught with frustration when a judge rules that being raised by two women is "unnatural" and grants her father primary custody.

Hart weaves a powerful story of fleeting moments with her mother, of her unfolding adoration of Oxnard's Latino culture, and of the ways in which she's molded by the polarity of her parents' worldviews. Hart is faced with opposing ideals, caught between what she is "supposed" to want and what she actually desires.

Gringa offers a touching, reflective look at one girl's struggle with the dichotomies of class, culture, and sexuality.

Review:

"Hart lets us in on the desires, aspirations, and vulnerabilities of growing up as a queerspawn who's straight and forcibly separated from her lesbian mom....A wonderful story from a brave and endearing soul!" Rachel Epstein, editor of Who's Your Daddy? And Other Writings on Queer Parenting; coordinator, LGBTQ Parenting Network, Sherbourne Health Centre, Toronto

Review:

"Gringa is a truly timely book. As a middle-class WASP child of divorce whose lesbian mother relocates to a Latino neighborhood, Hart longs for a 'discernable culture'.... a compelling story, lyrically written, from the new America." Sue William Silverman, author, Fearless Confessions: A Writer's Guide to Memoir
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About the Author

Melissa Hart teaches journalism at the University of Oregon and memoir writing for UC Berkeley’s online extension program. Her essays have appeared in the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, the Advocate, Fourth Genre, and High Country News. Hart is a contributing editor for Writer magazine. She lives in Oregon with her husband, photographer Jonathan B. Smith, and their daughter, Maia.
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What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 2 comments:
jessicajo.hill, October 5, 2009 (view all comments by jessicajo.hill)
Melissa Hart writes a painstakingly honest tale of her childhood that manages to be both heartfelt and hilarious. Not afraid to admit her confusion about who she is and where she came from, Hart puts herself at the butt of her own jokes and explains the many defeated attempts along her journey to find herself before realizing she is a product of both her father and her mother, a mixture of two opposite ends of the human spectrum. It's "colorfully" written, with each chapter begging the reader to turn the page.
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riverbear03, October 4, 2009 (view all comments by riverbear03)
Pitch-perfect, engrossing and extremely readable memoir about the difficulties of growing up under unusual family circumstances. Queerspawn audiences will appreciate Melissa Hart giving such lyrical voice to their beautiful, complicated experiences. And OH MY, us babes of the 80's will thrill to her vivid retelling of the trials and tribulations of growing up under the social dictates of John Hughes. This is how memoir is supposed to be done -- I laughed loudly, I cringed with embarrassment, I wondered aloud at the plight of young women who are engaged in scarring wars surrounding self-worth, and I didn't want to put the book down for even a second. Most of all I grieved for the mother and the daughter who were torn apart for no real reason. On this topic, Hart reveals her incredible talent -- she doesn't belabor the colors of her pain, but lets us feel it through almost imperceptible movements in the landscape of her growing world.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9781580052948
Author:
Hart, Melissa
Publisher:
Seal Press (CA)
Subject:
California
Subject:
Hart, Melissa
Subject:
Personal Memoirs
Subject:
Childhood Memoir
Subject:
Biography-Childhood Memoir
Subject:
Biography - General
Edition Description:
Trade Paper
Publication Date:
20090931
Binding:
TRADE PAPER
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Pages:
276
Dimensions:
8.08x5.56x.76 in. .64 lbs.
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Gringa: A Contradictory Girlhood Used Trade Paper
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$5.95 In Stock
Product details 276 pages Seal Press (CA) - English 9781580052948 Reviews:
"Review A Day" by , "Instead of being horrified by Patricia's run-down ranch house, Hart was gripped by a strange excitement. 'I went wild and barefoot, braided my hair like an Indian maiden, and planted a garden of sunflowers and corn next to a rickety chicken coop my mother stocked with Rhode Island Reds.' It's where she began a lifelong infatuation with Latino food and culture, associating her mother's blue VW bus with freedom, tacos and the songs she heard driving around town." (read the entire Oregonian review)
"Review" by , "Hart lets us in on the desires, aspirations, and vulnerabilities of growing up as a queerspawn who's straight and forcibly separated from her lesbian mom....A wonderful story from a brave and endearing soul!" Rachel Epstein, editor of Who's Your Daddy? And Other Writings on Queer Parenting; coordinator, LGBTQ Parenting Network, Sherbourne Health Centre, Toronto
"Review" by , "Gringa is a truly timely book. As a middle-class WASP child of divorce whose lesbian mother relocates to a Latino neighborhood, Hart longs for a 'discernable culture'.... a compelling story, lyrically written, from the new America."
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