As soon as I got my hands on this book I gobbled it right up! Sandra's voice in this is so good; reminiscent, regrettable, but contented. The story is short, but there's not much that needs to be said, it's almost like a love poem to the women that helped her in a rough time, while inadvertently touching their lives and helping them in ways she couldn't see.

At first I wasn't a fan of the book's composition (a letter, a long story, letters, ending narrative), but after finishing I think it works, even though it wasn't my absolute favorite.

There are also some really hard-hitting quotes in here that just left me stunned for a moment. I loved it. 4.5 stars. ( )

Reminiscing over a letter, Corina recalls the hopeful, chaotic, intense time she spent in Paris with friends Martita and Paola. This novel in epistolary form, containing both English and Spanish versions, is brief and almost dreamlike. The letters are tender and sweet, almost poetic in their poignancy and simplicity. The book feels reflective of the sense of youth, adventure, and longing of early adulthood, and the wistfulness it evokes is appealing to me. However, I felt the characters lacked depth, and there was a sense of despondency throughout much of the story.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for this honest review ( )

This novella is a nostalgic remembrance of a time three friends spent in Paris. Corina finds a pack of letters from the time when she as a 20-year-old became friends with two other young women looking for the excitement of Paris, but only finding the cold, harsh side of a city when you are living in poverty. Eventually, Corina returns to Chicago, marries, works for the gas company, and becomes a mother while Marta and Paola continue their travels. Cisneros uses her storytelling ability to share the dreams of the youth with the realities of middle age. ( )

Did I enjoy reading Sandra Cisneros' Martita, I Remember You? Yes.

Is it a book I'll read again and again, like Loose Woman or The House on Mango Street? No.

Cisneros knows how to tell a story, to pull readers along on a journey, offering enough scenery and commentary that they never feel bored, never feel that they've wasted a moment of reading time. But, there are the books you read once and the books you read again and again. For me, Martita, I Remember You was a one-read experience.

Martita is an epistolary novella. The central character, Carina (known to the particular friends whose letters she's reading as Puffina) has come across a small bundle of letters from two women she spent time with in Paris years ago, with whom she's lost touch. All three were young then, hoping to be writers, artists, to make or do something that would make them stand out in some way. They were dreaming big. Clearly, those dreams didn't pan out, but I think part of the point here is that smaller things, just keeping going, doing right by loved ones and one's self, is enough. Small isn't the opposite of big. Small is a kind of big that it takes time and maturity to recognize.

I was charmed by this group of young friends, but never really felt I'd gotten to know them. As a reader, I had to fill in parts of their stories myself to get the sort of resonance I was looking for. So, in a way, I felt like I was simultaneously reading Martita while also writing parts of it.

I very much appreciate the format of this novella, with text provided both in English and Spanish. It gives readers with some competence in both languages an opportunity to see how language can affect the feel of a piece of writing, what kinds of ideas come across most clearly in which language.

Martita, I Remember You is definitely worth seeking out and reading. The pleasure may be brief, but it's pleasure nonetheless.

I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley; the opinions are my own. ( )