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.
Press & Praise for Crying In The Bathroom
“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
“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 Awarness
“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
“Her ability to relate to readers on a personal, intellectual, and cultural levels is one of the book’s greatest achievements…An engrossing, accessible, heart-opening recollection of a fascinating life.”
Booklist
“Her writing shines with a deep humility wrought from the hard-won nature of her personal peace. The result is another satisfying addition to Sánchez’s deeply moving body of works.”
Publishers Weekly
“A famous Latino comic told me—quoting either Chaplin or Cantinflas or both—that if you tell a story that makes people laugh, that’s great, but if you make them laugh and cry, that’s genius. Erika Sánchez tells her tale with a ‘deluge of unidentifiable feelings that came out through my eyes.’ It’s only after you’ve laughed that you understand the heartbreak beneath the laughter. I relished especially the stories she shares about being a wanderer savoring her solitude, a rare gift for a woman, but absolutely essential for any writer.”
Sandra Cisneros, New York Times bestselling author of The House on Mango Street
“Erika’s writing grabs a hold and won’t let go. She’s 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
“CRYING IN THE BATHROOM is deeply personal, in the best sense — honest, cutting, hilarious, revelatory. These essays strike deep chords for any of us who came of age in the nineties, or really for anyone who came of age at all.”
Rebecca Makkai, Pulitzer finalist for The Great Believers
“After reading, Crying in the Bathroom, Erika L. Sánchez has undoubtedly cemented herself as not just one of my favorite writers, but also as my best friend… in my mind. Because why wouldn’t I want to be close to someone so intentional, so funny, so proven, and most importantly, so self-aware they could tell a story about their life in a way that makes me take inventory of my own? To put it simply, which I’m not sure is actually possible, this is a whoopie cushion, a gut punch, and an alarm clock of a book.”
Jason Reynolds, New York Times bestselling author of Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks