Margins

This deftly written first novel describes the loneliness and isolation of a closet lesbian in a tight-knit and often suffocating Chicano family. Veronica Melendez, a 22-year-old graduate student in English at UCLA, survives a car accident in which her longtime friend and lover, Joanna, is killed. While tending to her emotional and physical wounds, she meets Siena Benedetti, a beautiful, fiery-haired Italian neighbor, and Rene Talamantes, a passionate Chicana film student. Roni is deeply attracted to Siena and grateful for the diversion from her loss, which she has been trying to assuage by writing stories. Siena, who is recovering from an abortion and a series of bad relationships, falls equally in lust. But when Roni's teenage nephew catches them in bed together, it sets off a chain of events that sends Siena back to the straight life and leads Roni to confront the repudiation of her parents and the Catholic Church. Finally, it is Rene who helps Roni rediscover her Mexican heritage and infuses her with the courage to tell the truth about her sexuality, leaving her ``ready to move beyond societal and cultural boundaries, beyond her stories' well-defined margins.'' (Apr.)