4. Justin Torres
At a time when it’s easy for a newly minted alum from Iowa’s prestigious MFA program to sign a six-figure book deal on graduation day and revel in the spotlight as the hot literary wunderkind, Justin Torres held back. He spent six years working on his first book, “We the Animals,” and when he finally put the book forward this fall, at 31, his sensitive, autobiographical tale won raves. The Washington Post called him “a tremendously gifted writer whose highly personal voice should excite us in much the same way that Raymond Carver’s or Jeffrey Eugenides’s voice did when we first heard it.”
It’s not that he didn’t have the goods for a first book. The son of a Puerto Rican father and an Irish-Italian mother, Torres grew up poor in upstate New York. He tried drugs, ran away and spent time in a mental institution. That history, as well as a turbulent coming-out story, all informs his beautifully lyrical “We the Animals” – a slender 125 pages, told in short, poetic chapters that capture all the exuberance and complications of sibling bonds
The intense, soulful gaze on his author photo, one that had literati across Brooklyn dreaming of meeting those empathetic eyes, earned Torres a second MFA — as our Most Foxy Author of 2011. But we love Torres’ patience, his commitment to the work, even more. Midway through the book, in a chapter called “Heritage,” the three young brothers are dancing in the kitchen when their father interrupts them. “You ain’t white and you ain’t Puerto Rican,” he shouts. “Watch how a purebred dances, watch how we dance in the ghetto.” It’s a beautiful moment — both poignant and joyous, as these children who will always feel the burden of being mixed-race also celebrate what makes them who they are. And that’s what makes Torres’ writing so electric — he brings us into worlds he’s transcended.
