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The day that book was first published also marks the day his mother died.
This book has a lot of stuff about my life.
Credit: Elisabetta A. Villa/Getty Images
I was lost in this great sadness and I didnt know I was going to react that way.
I thought I was going to take my mothers death very well.
And yet, it just hit me.
Explains Saenz, A lot of people say that I dont write plot, I just write people.
But that really isnt true.
I just dont hit you over the head with the plot.
Sam and Fito, Sals best friends, both have contentious relationships with their respective mothers.
In some ways, Vicente is too good to be true.
I really loved them.
So in a way, Sam is my tribute to them.
And then theres Sal himself.
But Saenz says he doesnt think this is a bad thing.
We cannot rely on nationalisms to give us our identity, he says.
By virtue of the fact that we were born in this country, that makes us virtuous?
Thats ridiculous… We think that because we were taught to think that.
It isnt the nation we belong to that makes us good or decent or smart.
Its not even the family we belong to.
For Saenz, it was to make a point about the discourse of family in the United States.
Shes not a terrible person.
She just wasnt interested in mothering.
So just because youre straight it doesnt necessarily make you a better parent, says Saenz.
Those are old-fashioned words, perhaps, but I dont think they should be dated.
The Inexplicable Logic of My Lifeis available now.
