Vida

Told almost exclusively in a colloquial first-person voice, Vida, the debut short story collection by New Jersey native and first-generation Colombian-American Patricia Engel centers around Sabina, her family, and her complex, disappointing relationships. An endless parade of characters streams through Vida—visiting relatives, old classmates, quirky outsiders, first or latest loves—and though the prose can be sharp and quick, Sabina's stoic, studied posture nearly squelches the life from the stories. Vida is most successful when Engel narrows her focus. The first story, Lucho, is a tale of unrequited teenage love between Sabina and Lucho, another Latino outsider in a white suburban neighborhood. Fast-moving, funny, and captured in Engel's shorthand, observational style, it takes in a whole community—its problems and prejudices—in a few deft strokes, while providing the backdrop for a sweet and tragic romance. The title story about a woman sold into and rescued from prostitution whom Sabina befriends and rescues one more time, is surprising and suspenseful; it's also imbued with a compassion that's otherwise missing from too many of the stories. By turns stylistically singular and then emotionally banal, Vida holds promise but, frustratingly, Engel's prose seems more concerned with maintaining its cool than taking risks.