The Memories of Ana Calderon

Limon's graceful writing and astute observations about the problems of Mexican-American life are often lost in this formulaic immigrant rags-to-riches story, which draws heavily on pop psychology for its suspense. Ana Calderon begins her life in abject poverty in a fishing village in southern Mexico. After her mother dies, her father, Rodolfo, takes the family north to harvest tomatoes. Limon does an excellent job of describing the hardships of migrant life and the driving emotions of the family patriarch, who quickly understands that he is being taken advantage of. The family escapes across the border to the L.A. barrio, where Rodolfo grows resentful of Ana's academic progress, finally forcing her to quit high school and find work in a shoe factory. An affair with her adopted brother, Octavio, leaves Ana pregnant. After Octavio refuses to marry her, a lonely Anglo couple take her in. What has begun as a sensitive exploration of one woman's attempt to come to terms with two cultures now becomes an increasingly chaotic portrait of a dysfunctional family whose lives are fraught with melodrama: attempted murder, a prison term for Ana, the disappearance of her son, and more. Events are unbelievably resolved as the novel closes, in 1975. One wishes that the talented author of In Search of Bernabe had confined her canvas here to the unique aspects of Mexican-American experience, which she portrays so well. (Sept.)