CRYING IN THE BATHROOM
A Memoir
From the New York Times bestselling author of I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, an utterly original memoir-in-essays that is as deeply moving as it is hilarious
Growing up as the daughter of Mexican immigrants in Chicago in the nineties, Erika Sánchez was a self-described pariah, misfit, and disappointment–a foul-mouthed, melancholic rabble-rouser who painted her nails black but also loved comedy, often laughing so hard with her friends that she had to leave her school classroom. Twenty-five years later, she’s now an award-winning novelist, poet, and essayist, but she’s still got an irrepressible laugh,
From the New York Times bestselling author of I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, an utterly original memoir-in-essays that is as deeply moving as it is hilarious
Growing up as the daughter of Mexican immigrants in Chicago in the nineties, Erika Sánchez was a self-described pariah, misfit, and disappointment–a foul-mouthed, melancholic rabble-rouser who painted her nails black but also loved comedy, often laughing so hard with her friends that she had to leave her school classroom. Twenty-five years later, she’s now an award-winning novelist, poet, and essayist, but she’s still got an irrepressible laugh, an acerbic wit, and singular powers of perception about the world around her.
In these essays, Sánchez writes about everything from sex to white feminism to debilitating depression, revealing an interior life rich with ideas, self-awareness, and perception. Raunchy, insightful, unapologetic, and brutally honest, Crying in the Bathroom is Sánchez at her best–a book that will make you feel that post-confessional high that comes from talking for hours with your best friend.
- Viking
- Hardcover
- July 2022
- 256 Pages
- 9780593296936
Buy the Book
$27.00
About Erika L. Sánchez
Erika L. Sánchez is a Mexican-American poet, novelist, and essayist. Her debut poetry collection, Lessons on Expulsion, was published by Graywolf in July 2017, and was a finalist for the PEN America Open Book Award. Her debut young adult novel, I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, published in October 2017 by Knopf Books for Young Readers, was a New York Times bestseller and a National Book Awards finalist. It is now is being made into a film directed by America Ferrera. Sanchez was a 2017-2019 Princeton Arts Fellow, a 2018 recipient of the 21st Century Award from the Chicago Public Library Foundation, and a 2019 recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship.
Praise
“Equal parts pee-your-pants hilarity and break your heart poignancy- like the perfect brunch date you never want to end!”–America Ferrera, Emmy award-winning actress in Ugly Betty
“Each essay feels like a conversation with a good friend, thanks to Sánchez’s warm and vulnerable writing.”–TIME’s Roundup of “27 Books You Need to Read this Summer”
“The memoir that doesn’t wind its way toward a harsh revelation or the summiting of a mountain, the memoir that merely considers a life, is rare…Crying in the Bathroom…[is] an account of childhood depression, and falling in love with comedy, a ‘fraught’ relationship with her grandmother, suffering through a bad marketing job in the Sears Tower, risking the uneasy life of a writer. It’s also a lesson in nurturing a clear voice.”–Chicago Tribune
“Sánchez is an honest, vulnerable writer who doesn’t hold any of her truths back—from LGBT rights to women’s issues, from sex to love.”–HipLatina
“With animated, often hilarious, vignettes from a multicultural youth spent yearning for the solitude necessary for writing, Crying in the Bathroom finds the author immensely grateful for…a splendid study of her own and the sacrifices her hardworking parents made so their daughter could pursue her literary dreams and lead a life of the mind.”–Shelf Awareness
“To make your readers crack up while also discussing weighty topics like sexism, racism, and depression is no easy task, but it’s one Erika L. Sánchez is well equipped for…she has written a memoir/essay collection that [is] poignant and bold.” —LitHub