The 1993 publication of So Far From God was met with great applause. Castillo had already made her critical and popular reputation with her previously published poetry collections and her novel The Mixquiahuala Letters. The Washington Post Book World and the San Francisco Chronicle claimed it was a novel of great power and worth. While Chicana/o literature, as a whole, has not really penetrated the national reading market, leading intellectuals of the Chicana/o Movement also praised the novel as lyrical, moving, and authentic in tone, voice, and characterization. Scholars such as Theresa Delgadillo, Carmela Delia Lanza, Kamala Platt, and Roland Walter have investigated various aspects of Castillo's novel, mainly focusing on the use of language and family.

Theresa Delgadillo, in her article "Forms of Chicana Feminist Resistance: Hybrid Spirituality in Ana Castillo's So Far From God," argues that Castillo's use of spirituality and feminism are...