Poor Xiomara Sanchez, the 29-year-old protagonist of My Train Leaves at Three, Natalie Guerrero's sincere debut novel. "When I was a kid, I thought I'd be rich and famous by now," she reflects at the novel's opening. She'd have a stage career, enough money to "airlift [her] mother out of [their] tiny apartment in Washington Heights," and financially help older sister, Nena. Instead, this Afro Latina is still in that apartment, "singing and waiting tables" at a "kitschy '50s-themed restaurant" along with "every other Broadway wannabe." Even worse, Nena is dead, collapsed while walking down the street. Xiomara and her mother have been left to their grief, with Xiomara scrounging up rent money by working at that restaurant and at a print shop with a lecherous boss. Her dream of seeing her name on a marquee seems unattainable.
Guerrero sets up her narrative with breezy confidence. That continues after a childhood friend, who is a Broadway success, tells Xiomara about an open call for a new musical, for which "hot Broadway director" Manny Santos is looking for an unknown. Xiomara forces herself to audition. She and Manny end up in a torrid romance while Xiomara shrugs off the overtures of Santi, a print shop colleague. Greater character depth would have made this a stronger novel, but it's still a trenchant depiction of unsavory, powerful men who take advantage of vulnerable women. It's also a reminder of the importance of not letting scoundrels dissuade a person from pursuing a dream. This is an astute slice of working-class life from a talented writer. --Michael Magras, freelance book reviewer