The Promenade of Desire is an honest, empowering, and raw account of one woman’s journey to freedom and awakening following a repressed upbringing in Spain. This engaging exploration of the heart and soul is told through the lens of the author’s experience coming of age in post-Franco Spain.
I devoured this memoir.

The writing is vivid, and I felt at times that I was involved in this family's life. As someone who grew up Catholic in the United States at the same time as the author was raised Catholic in Spain, I found the differences fascinating. I am grateful to have received an advance review copy and I highly recommend it!

Mencos recounts her growing up in Spain at the cusp of the social revolution in the 1960s and 1970s.
She openly writes about her numerous relationships, fleeting or serious, along with the changes in the landscape of politics.
She comes for a large family, but wasn’t really close to any of her siblings or parents.
It was interesting reading about the loosened social mores in another country during last few decades of the 20th century.

First of all, thank you so much to Isidra Mencos, She Writes Press, and Netgalley to provide me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Wow, this book was quite a journey. Knowing that this is a memoir just makes it all the more intense.
Isidra went through quite a life in so many ways, this is a page-turner.
I loved the reference to Portugal and the dictatorship (because I'm Portuguese) and the book had such good detail about how the social/economic/political context of Spain integrated and messed with her generation and life stability in general.
Her traumas are so visceral and you turn every page wanting everything to resolve itself (but I can't give spoilers). Her relationships, with herself, with her lovers and family, and even with jobs, are so complex and it just makes it all the more human.
The writing is so raw, but well written, that it just feels like you're with an old friend and she's retelling all of her life.