What the author gets right

Why do we read books?  Why do we read poetry? or see plays?

 

Reading I am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sanchez, I am thinking about literature. Often it's about 'rightness' -- that the author captures something in a way that rings true.  Maybe they've said something in a way that you've never considered, or maybe they've just said something that you've never put so well.  There are a lot of things that, to me, Sanchez "gets right."  Here are a few.

Being embarrassed about being poor.  Being poor gives her the ability to see the world.  The main character, Julia Reyes, lives in an apartment in Chicago.  She's embarrassed about where she lives when she gets a boyfriend from Evanston.  She is worried that a cockroach will come out when she takes off her shoe... which happened when she's younger.  Being poor, being conscious of it, and embarrassed about it, is the fabric of her life.  This is important in the plot, too.

Casual sexism.  Just about everywhere in the book, there is some male - sometimes older, sometimes younger - is shouting to Julia out of car doors or sidewalks - about her boobs or other degrading.  The fact that it's "casual" for Julia, normal, part of her everyday life, is especially the part that is sad and seems to be accurate.

The therapeutic setting.  Julia is able to get some mental health help in both individual settings and group therapy.  So much of the individual settings seem to ring true to me.  Here's a page spread at the heart of her first session.

Adolescent Sexuality.  Julia is 16.  She's trying to figure out her own sexuality.  She's bombarded with ideas of how young people should be sexual.  Thoughts of sensuality overcome her.  Like literally, she seems to observe her attraction to a boy happening to her, almost as an outsider.

What do I mean about literature that an author "gets right"?  I mean that I find myself nodding my head while reading.  That's how it "really is" from how I've experienced the world.  Sometimes, it's about stuff that I've experienced; sometimes, it's something that I'm not directly experiencing.