Crying in the Bathroom: A Memoir

Poet and novelist Sánchez’s (Lessons on Expulsion; I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter) storytelling talents turn inward as she frankly examines the impact of mental health struggles on her life as the daughter of Mexican immigrants growing up in Chicago in the ’90s. Sánchez’s essays weave around many topics, providing listeners with a full sense of her character and the experiences that shaped her resiliency. Her burgeoning career as a poet, author, and essayist is punctuated with a myriad of depressive episodes, suicidal ideation, bipolar disorder, and hospitalizations to treat her mental illnesses. Sánchez is forthright about her romantic relationships and sex life, as well as her abortion in her thirties. Intimately narrating her own story, she brings complete candidness and a bit of the bawdy to a memoir that covers a lot of ground. Her story is bursting with references and influences, and listeners will know what to read, watch, and where to visit next.