Chula

Chula is the novel’s central character, its protagonist and primary narrator. As the novel begins, Chula is seven: her older sister Cassandra is nine; and Petrona is 13. Chula’s mother is simultaneously, and perhaps paradoxically, both flamboyant and secretive; her father is mostly absent, away from the family home for work. All this makes the imaginative Chula very much the baby of the family, at times fussed over affectionately; at times dominated protectively; and at times belittled, particularly by her older sister.

At times, Chula narrates the story of her childhood and youth from an adult perspective – that is, a mature Chula tells her story with insight gained by the passage of time, and after what seems to have been a degree of contemplation. At other times, narrator Chula is careful to describe experiences as youthful Chula experienced them, such as those times when Chula sees only...