Gringa: A Contradictory Girlhood

by Melissa Hart

Book Overview

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...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1580052940
• ISBN13: 9781580052948
• Release Date: September 2009
• Publisher: Seal Press (CA)
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.6" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

One of my favorite books

Gringa: A Contradictory Girlhood Coming of age is probably the most difficult, angst ridden time of our little lives (not to mention how fashion ridiculous we were) but for Melissa Hart, her girlhood went from ideal, to all of the above, including her parents divorce thrown into the mix but a divorce made all the more difficult by her mother leaving her father for another woman. In the 1970's, where a gay parent was even more taboo, Melissa and her siblings could only see their mother on weekends, courtesy of her father who thundered, "You can't be parented by two women. It's unnatural." To make things even more interesting, the physical topography go from Manhattan Beach with her overbearing father, to Oxnard, California where her bohemian mother has establishes herself in a Latino neighborhood. Miss Hart's world of perfection and propriety with her loving but subservient step mother and tyrant of a father, chafes at every turn, for with her mother, she is encouraged to be herself and she learns to embrace the easy and genial Latino community. In turn this sparks her need to belong to a "culture" and the results are funny, heartrending and will strike an all too familiar chord in all of us. No matter what era we came of age, no matter the circumstances, we all want to be accepted and belong, somewhere, somehow. With Miss Hart, the usual phases were complicated by not knowing which world she belonged. Moreover, if we doubted our sexuality, Melissa's doubt were exacerbated by wondering if she should be like her mom. Again the results of exploring those avenues are poignant, sometimes hilarious and always leaving her wondering if she will ever belong. The best part of this book is traveling with Miss Hart and the cast of characters that populate her world. She evokes images so real that you can feel the tension and smell the clean in her father's house. You can drift away on the Latino music and smell the food cooking in the backyard of her mother's neighborhood. You can relate to and really squirm on many levels as Miss Hart describes the fashion of the day and when the music of the 70's and 80's become part of the backdrop of a story she relates, you WILL remember and the songs just may get stuck in your head! What I enjoyed the most about this book, was the emotions conveyed without varnish, the humor readily available even in bad times and most of all, something unique to this book: recipes. Through all the turmoil and telling of her story, Miss Hart ends each chapter with a recipe. Not just any recipe but one that has meaning and relevance to it's preceding chapter. Recipes like Frito Boats, Annie's Special Chili and WASP milkshakes, all with appropriate ingredients and a few unexpected ones as well and all with a huge dose of emotion. They are well worth trying and you will remember the reason why and how they came into being every time you make them. Someone said this is a story written from the new America. Indeed, but living through

absolutely loved this one!!

I love this book! Buy it; read it, I'm sure you will love it too. If I haven't convinced you yet, keep reading... First they were a normal family in the 1970's, living happily in Southern California. And then they become fractured and multiplied and Melissa Hart has to flip flop herself between her father's lavish lifestyle with his new wife, her stepmother, and her mother's bohemian lifestyle in a Hispanic neighborhood. These influences shape her as she grows, but during that shaping and molding there is a push and pull within her to learn and determine where she fits in the world. And isn't that always largely based on how you were raised and your cultural influences. During her parents divorce a judge determines that her lesbian mother and her lover are not good influences on Melissa and her siblings and therefore Melissa, to her chagrin, ends up living with her father and wishing desperately she was with her mother, who she can closer relate to throughout the years. Melissa's frank language, honest re-telling, and innate comical mind make this book so much more than the above two paragraphs can parlay. I picked this book up and did not put it down. I devoured it in one sitting, staying up into the wee morning hours doing so. I cheered Melissa on, and frowned at the judge's determination and remembered fondly things from my own childhood. Melissa's penchant for recall of time and place and her ability to put you there made this book a trip to a different time and place. This memoir reads like fiction, not because the authenticity is not there, but rather because Melissa's retelling is not a factual list you must read but rather a story you become a part of. This book was enchanting, engrossing and more so happily entertaining. There are lessons to be garnered here as Melissa finds her way, but the real joy in this story is the value of family, the realization that we all belong...somewhere. In this memoir there exists a strong confident female voice. This would be an especially fantastic gift to give a college aged girl to read as she navigates through her newly found freedom and realizes she has many choices in life.

Couldn't put this book down!

Absorbing and unique, this memoir kept pulling me back in over a three day reading-fest. Well-paced, evocative writing. A winner!

Gringa is a book you can't put down!

Gringa is a memoir rich with sensory detail that takes the reader into the author's very private life from the time she was young until she finished college and set out on her own. Her love of the Mexican/Spanish culture and desire to be part of it drives the story line. With each chapter she includes `dressed up' recipes for Mexican dishes. Anyone interested in the struggle of children shuffled between divorced parents, children of gay/lesbian partners, Mexican/Spanish culture, and/or the difficulty of choosing and following a path in life will find the book a worthwhile and interesting read.

You won't be able to put it down!

I loved it! In a nutshell, Gringa is the vivid retelling of a girlhood/young womanhood spent searching for a sense of place -- both internal and external. Lush, gorgeous images and tart, enjoyable dialogue keep us hooked until the end. This book is an intense, fast-paced and full-circle tale of a girl coming to terms with self-identity in the midst of complicated family dynamics. Every reader will enjoy Gringa, but women (mothers, daughters, young women struggling to solidify a sense of self) will feel an intense solidarity with the author and her shockingly honest depiction of the small daily traumas involved in growing up in the velvet vise of conflicting female role models and societal expectations. This is how memoir is supposed to be done! Hart keeps us hooked until the very end, and shows us through sometimes cringe-worthy scenes and careful shadow and light exactly what we need to reach the understandings that she does throughout her journey. I very much look forward to future books from this exciting author.