Latin Satins

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

When four Chicana members of a Santa Monica household perform around town as a lesbian singing group called the Latin Satins, songwriter/singer Jessica finds her job as childcare worker on the line, a victim of the combined homophobia and racism of her charges' mothers. Meanwhile, Chic, the band's aggressive leader, keeps her housemates on edge by sliding from bed to bed, offering her cool brand of sexual comfort to everyone-but especially to Rita, whose neglect of her six-year-old daughter distresses everyone. Costume-maker Rafi suffers from AIDS, and a small girl in Jessica's class also is threatened by that disease. Racism, classism, sexism, economic politics and a beautiful, bird-watching Chicana lover should provide ample material to give a novel life and meaning, but this book is as flat as its pages, as blank as their margins, as formless as pulp. Not even Jessica's saucy, spoofy lyrics can make her story sing. Instead, it stays mired in prose like ``Holding hands, the singers bowed together, enjoying being validated.'' Sledgehammer anti-white rhetoric overwhelms each unreflective scene, while the author's chief thoughts on sexuality seem to hinge on proving that lesbians wear makeup too. (Sept.)

Library Journal

Pride and hopefulness shine through this novel about four Chicana lesbians who live together in Los Angeles and sing in a group called the Latin Satins. Performing mostly at street fairs may be fun, yet it doesn't pay them a dime. Therefore, with the exception of Jessica, they hold paying jobs that are more or less unrewarding. Jessica works at a day-care center, where she combines her love of music and children-that is, until her job is threatened when two mothers complain about Jessica's sexual orientation. All of the major characters in this book are believable and well drawn, particularly Arturo Tamayo, Jessica's loving father. One weakness in the narrative, however, is the occasionally awkward speeches condemning homophobia or racism; a better device would have been to allow the story's plot and dialog to deliver this message. Spanish phrases and words appear with frequency in the text, so some readers may want to keep a Spanish-English dictionary close at hand. A good choice for contemporary fiction collections.-Lisa Nussbaum, Euclid PL, Ohio