'To Melisa Eloisa' is very reminiscent of Nabokov's 'Lolita'. It addresses similar social boundaries between Europe and the Americas and narrated by an obsessive male writer/teacher. Bravo's approach is very different from Nabokov's though. His narrator, Miguel, is at times very self-involved and at other times completely omniscent. His chapters detailing Melisa's feelings about paintings by artists like Turner and Bunuel are both beautiful and haunting. Miguel ponders his love and life with Melisa and the characters at La Residencia in incredible detail. At times, the intertwining characters can make the plot confusing, but it is the poetic reflections that make this book worth reading.