ABSTRACT
Arrancame la vida was Ángeles Mastretta's first novel and it was interpreted and, to a large extent, marketed as 'popular fiction' for entertainment and not as 'literature'. According to the cover of the first edition, Arrancame la vida belonged to the popular genre of the novela de amor. There are, however, significant differences between the plot of Mastretta's novel and that of the traditional romance novel. While some women authors may be said to experiment with the conventions of the traditional romantic plot, Arrancame la vida goes beyond what could be termed experimentation. The novel focuses on what happens after marriage as the protagonist, Catalina, falls in and out of love with her husband, Andres, and has several adulterous affairs. The chapter brings into question the association of Arrancame la vida with the popular romance genre by producing a private-national reading which enables me to interpret it as a novel of female adultery.
