A collection of short stories about the seductive, vibrant, often defiant lives of lovers, not all of them boys. In "La Ronde," women fall for women, for men, for both, and explore the complex extension of this love in their own families. In "Vatolandia," an independent-minded woman creates a critical system in which to classify the men she dates. And in the title story a woman muses at the hypocrisy of life while mourning the departure of her latest boyfriend over drinks in a gay bar. Though the women in these stories have their fair share of heartache, they refuse to be victims. As they face their challenges head-on, they unknowingly shape their own destinies.

From Publishers Weekly
The vitality of Castillo's voice, and the fully engaged lives of her hot-blooded characters, endow her first collection of short stories with earthy eroticism and zesty humor. These 22 tales of love, lust, and Latina tradition showcase bold protagonists while investigating the substance of their lives. Despite the title, however, the lovers here are most often not boys, but experienced women, of Mexican heritage. In the title story, the essence of love's magic is slowly revealed by narrator Carmen, a bisexual would-be writer and proprietor of "the only bookstore in town that deals with the question of the soul." Carmen learns how to experience love from her friends, first as she secludes herself in a primitive adobe in the desert outside of Santa Fe and later from La Miss Rose's pied a terre in Chicago's Barrio. Friendship is vital in these often hilarious, sometimes tragic and always compelling stories about love in its many different permutations, or "multitudes," as one large and sexy character, Sara Santistevan, says in "Vatolandia." And we're not talking about idealized romance or even great physical specimens here. The gamut includes some unattractive, emotionally misguided, pathetic or bizarre social rejects. The white loverboy wearing the Malcolm X T-shirt never laughs, only knows how to smooch gay boys in dark corners; the brawny beer-bellied guy with Pancho Villa charm leaves his wife and kids each night to tend a gay bar, and poor little Mirna sleeps in a tomb to escape the importuning of the man for whom she works. Paco and Rose have no blankets for their beds but bask in the warmth of a 25-inch color TV while they wait to trap another golden cockroach to sell to the pawnbroker. The world of Castillo's literary art resembles the cinematic bohemia depicted by Pedro Almodovar, and her inventive vignettes convey the volatile magic of such a world. Carmen says: "I wish I could talk like my eyes can see." Castillo does. Author tour. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Castillo, a novelist, poet, and critic who has won numerous awards, including the Carl Sandberg Prize, has been described as a first-rate storyteller. But in these terse, fragmentary pieces, her strength would seem to be in capturing character through a well-sketched situation. In the few pages of "Again, Like Before," for instance, missed cues at a disastrous dinner show just how badly matched two women are as lovers. As the narrator finally concludes wearily, "I left you simply because I did not love you," we feel her hard-edged indifference not just to her lover but to the world. Throughout, the prose is hip, street smart, and cutting?"Then his brothers started ragging him about running around with a lesbian?or worse, a bisexual, nothing more shady or untrustworthy (except a liberal)," the settings refreshingly far from suburbia, and the action (such as it is) on the edge. It might be satisfying to see Castillo develop her ideas more fully, but it's probably not on her agenda. For contemporary and gay/lesbian collections.?Barbara Hoffert, "Library Journal"Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

New York Times, Catherine Bush
At its best ... [Castillo's] voice has a vibrancy that compels attention, jamming ribald humor up against pathos and melancholy desire.

From Booklist
Whether Castillo is writing poetry, essays, or fiction, her work sizzles with equal measures of passion and intelligence. Here, in this collection of vital short stories, as in her novel So Far from God (1993), Castillo is defiant, satirically hilarious, sexy, and wise. She is also tirelessly inventive. Although her stories vary greatly in structure, voice, and setting, each exposes some aspect--be it absurd, painful, mysterious, or wonderful--of love. Streetwise and surreal, tender and sarcastic, unnerving and amusing, angry and illuminating, Castillo's potent stories portray quirky families, lesbian couples, and doomed marriages and explore the complications of bisexuality. Issues of culture and race complicate and enrich personal lives, especially the lives of her splendid Latina heroines such as Sara Santistevan, who owns pigs and chickens, teaches chemistry, and, after carefully assessing their pluses and minuses, gives up on men. Castillo's strong women tend to be creative (they paint, write, or own bookstores), well traveled, independent, resourceful, sensual, given to drink and laughter and solitude, and wildly skeptical about the possibility of finding happiness anywhere other than deep within their own vibrant souls. Donna Seaman

From Kirkus Reviews
While explicitly probing the politics of otherness, this debut collection of 26 stories from Chicago writer Castillo (So Far from God, 1993, etc.) also concerns itself with the universal patterns of love. The varied permutations of love and lust--gay, straight, or familial--probed in these tales, most of them told from the viewpoints of Latino men and women, reflect a kaleidoscopic view of life in el Norte. Castillo has an unobtrusive tone, believably capturing the voices of her characters, who range from smooth- talking hustlers to exotic fortune-tellers like the turbaned, one- eyed Miss Rose. The longest and most fully realized piece, ``La Miss Rose,'' follows this hectic woman of magic powders and erratic advice after she adopts two women she believes to be in desperate need of her guidance, dragging them from the desert to Chicago for a steamy summer of adventures. Comic and endearing, it and the ``Christmas Story of the Golden Cockroach'' are the most purely enjoyable stories here. In ``Cockroach,'' contemporary Chicagoans attempt to breed (with explosive results) a very special variety of roach to help ease their winter hardships. Though often amusing, the majority of the stories consider the less magical and blithe aspects of life. The title piece, a powerful narrative of lost love, is narrated by a woman watching two boys make out in a bar while she pines for the lover who has abandoned her. In ``Vatolandia,'' the beautiful and independent Sara Santistevan lists, categorizes, then dismisses all of the crazy, mixed-up men in town, choosing to remain alone. And in ``Maria Who Paints and Who Bore Juan Two Children,'' the title character, who has left her husband, watches in despair as he takes her children to a survivalist retreat. Only occasionally missing the mark (there are some failed narrative experiments), Castillo offers a substantial and noteworthy first collection, both honest and witty in its portrayal of love among the exiled. (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Loverboys is the eagerly awaited new book by Ana Castillo, the acclaimed author of So Far from God: a collection of stories that display her unique perspective on the joys and sorrows of love. Here is the experience of love captured in its wildly varying modes, from rapturous beginnings to melancholy middles to bittersweet ends, and in its equally varying configurations - man and woman, man and man, woman and woman. From the infectious moodiness of "Loverboys" to the high comic spirits of "La Miss Rose" the murderously funny gender-war payback of "Vatolandia," Castillo covers the waterfront of contemporary romance.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

PW gave a starred review to these "23 tales of love, lust and the Latina tradition." (Aug.)

Library Journal

Castillo, a novelist, poet, and critic who has won numerous awards, including the Carl Sandberg Prize, has been described as a first-rate storyteller. But in these terse, fragmentary pieces, her strength would seem to be in capturing character through a well-sketched situation. In the few pages of "Again, Like Before," for instance, missed cues at a disastrous dinner show just how badly matched two women are as lovers. As the narrator finally concludes wearily, "I left you simply because I did not love you," we feel her hard-edged indifference not just to her lover but to the world. Throughout, the prose is hip, street smart, and cutting"Then his brothers started ragging him about running around with a lesbianor worse, a bisexual, nothing more shady or untrustworthy (except a liberal)," the settings refreshingly far from suburbia, and the action (such as it is) on the edge. It might be satisfying to see Castillo develop her ideas more fully, but it's probably not on her agenda. For contemporary and gay/lesbian collections.Barbara Hoffert, "Library Journal"

Kirkus Reviews

While explicitly probing the politics of otherness, this debut collection of 26 stories from Chicago writer Castillo (So Far from God, 1993, etc.) also concerns itself with the universal patterns of love.

The varied permutations of love and lust—gay, straight, or familial—probed in these tales, most of them told from the viewpoints of Latino men and women, reflect a kaleidoscopic view of life in el Norte. Castillo has an unobtrusive tone, believably capturing the voices of her characters, who range from smooth- talking hustlers to exotic fortune-tellers like the turbaned, one- eyed Miss Rose. The longest and most fully realized piece, "La Miss Rose," follows this hectic woman of magic powders and erratic advice after she adopts two women she believes to be in desperate need of her guidance, dragging them from the desert to Chicago for a steamy summer of adventures. Comic and endearing, it and the "Christmas Story of the Golden Cockroach" are the most purely enjoyable stories here. In "Cockroach," contemporary Chicagoans attempt to breed (with explosive results) a very special variety of roach to help ease their winter hardships. Though often amusing, the majority of the stories consider the less magical and blithe aspects of life. The title piece, a powerful narrative of lost love, is narrated by a woman watching two boys make out in a bar while she pines for the lover who has abandoned her. In "Vatolandia," the beautiful and independent Sara Santistevan lists, categorizes, then dismisses all of the crazy, mixed-up men in town, choosing to remain alone. And in "Maria Who Paints and Who Bore Juan Two Children," the title character, who has left her husband, watches in despair as he takes her children to a survivalist retreat.

Only occasionally missing the mark (there are some failed narrative experiments), Castillo offers a substantial and noteworthy first collection, both honest and witty in its portrayal of love among the exiled.