One down, one to go.

At a friend's recommendation I got a copy of Vida from my local library. Short stories and pulp fiction are right up my attention-shorted alley these days, and I finished half of these in a 45 minute sitting and the rest in brief stints over the next 2 days. (See 1Q11 goals - score!)

I was quite impressed with her style and the approach of having a novel of short stories featuring the same character at different points in her young life. It seemed to go in chronological order and then it didn't. The character seemed to sort of have it together and then she didn't. (But then she did.) (But then she didn't.) (But then she was 7... and who has it together when you're 7?)

The character was all over the map (literally) but in every story, you felt the pulse of the locale, you could envision the people there, you could even sense the temperature and humidity of the air. She threw in Spanish words and Spanish jargon that would've driven those PDX soccer mom book club people nuts.* But I loved it and drank up every word.

Oh - Junot Dίaz loves it too, if that's any incentive.

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* It's a long story.