Non-Fiction Book Reviews
Book Review: Island of Bones
By Sandy Amazeen Sep 3, 2012, 18:41 GMT
What is "identity? when you\'re a girl adopted as an infant by a Cuban American family of Jehovah\'s Witnesses? The answer isn\'t easy. You won\'t find it in books. And you certainly won\'t find it in the neighborhood. This is just the beginning of Joy Castro\'s unmoored life of searching and striving that she\'s turned to account with literary alchemy in Island of Bones. In personal essays that plumb the depths ...more
Castro’s collection of twenty touching personal essays explores her experiences growing up in a strict Jehovah’s Witness household where her stepfather’s physical, sexual and mental abuse was tolerated by the Elders and her mother. Adopted as a baby into a Cuban American family, Castro grew up identifying herself as a Latina, finding out about her real heritage later in life. Whether recounting an episode of sexual harassment as a teenager making hip joints at a 3M plant or approaching collage hungry for knowledge, there is honest anger, confusion and triumph in each essay. With each story, Castro gains more depth as her life becomes a rich tapestry of learning, teaching and self-discovery told with prose and deep insight.
