Long Journey Home

This memoir is a recollection of a Mexican-American childhood lived in Huntington Beach, California. The narrative addresses a search for identity, a construction of identity, along with questions of place. This narrative is a coming of age story that follows the young narrator, Marty, inviting the reader to look through his own lens at his family’s household. Marty explores his relationships with his father and grandmother, reflecting on the emotional triumphs and struggles of his family. Marty’s story is also about finding himself through pop-culture, reflection, and questioning of identity and sense of place. This memoir finds Marty navigating his way as a musician, writer, son, grandson, brother, and a Mexican-American. Marty’s trials include his young attempts at love, handling a generation gap between himself and his own generation and mediating his way through his tumultuous, but loving relationships with his father and grandmother. In the accompanying Critical Introduction I talk about the craft of the memoir, authors and influences, and market considerations. I address the process as an author about the search for identity and the construction of complex characters. The Critical Introduction also covers the literary nonfiction genre driven by characterization scene-building with key references in the field of creative writing such as Phillip Lopate, Brenda Miller, and Maxine Hong Kingston.