Michael
María Fernanda Ampuero is a writer from Ecuador who I believe is currently living in Spain.
This is a collection of 13 short stories, none longer than 12 pages and many much shorter. What to say about them other than they are brutal and ugly. Ampuero addresses issues such as racism, classism, sexism, and sexual abuse in the most direct way possible. Her gaze is unflinching. This is a fast read, but a very hard one to stomach. It is also an important book.
Her style is simple and direct, a perfect fit for the subjects she covers.
Why a 3.25 rating? It seemed to me that in some of the stories the author was so intent on describing the abuse, usually but not always sexual, that she lost sight of the sufferer. Perhaps because the stories are so short, the person suffering the abuse can't be fleshed out, they are simply an object. The abuse, sexual and otherwise, becomes the object of the story. It is almost voyeuristic.
So why not a 1 star review? Because I have never read a short story collection in which I had so many different reactions to the stories. Some were 1 star reads. Some were 5 star. What I ended up doing was rating each story and averaging the ratings to come up with a rating for the book as a whole. Pasión was my favorite, with Nam close behind. I also liked Monstruos, and Ali. Otra was the last story in the book and it gave a small—very small—ray of hope.
Trigger warnings for just about everything. Really. Don't read it if you would be triggered by sexual abuse, extreme sexism, etc. Just about anything having to do with human cruelty.
Loved the two epigrams that open the book: one by Fabián Casas and the other by Clarice Lipsector.
María Fernanda Ampuero is a writer from Ecuador who I believe is currently living in Spain.
This is a collection of 13 short stories, none longer than 12 pages and many much shorter. What to say about them other than they are brutal and ugly. Ampuero addresses issues such as racism, classism, sexism, and sexual abuse in the most direct way possible. Her gaze is unflinching. This is a fast read, but a very hard one to stomach. It is also an important book.
Her style is simple and direct, a perfect fit for the subjects she covers.
Why a 3.25 rating? It seemed to me that in some of the stories the author was so intent on describing the abuse, usually but not always sexual, that she lost sight of the sufferer. Perhaps because the stories are so short, the person suffering the abuse can't be fleshed out, they are simply an object. The abuse, sexual and otherwise, becomes the object of the story. It is almost voyeuristic.
So why not a 1 star review? Because I have never read a short story collection in which I had so many different reactions to the stories. Some were 1 star reads. Some were 5 star. What I ended up doing was rating each story and averaging the ratings to come up with a rating for the book as a whole. Pasión was my favorite, with Nam close behind. I also liked Monstruos, and Ali. Otra was the last story in the book and it gave a small—very small—ray of hope.
Trigger warnings for just about everything. Really. Don't read it if you would be triggered by sexual abuse, extreme sexism, etc. Just about anything having to do with human cruelty.
Loved the two epigrams that open the book: one by Fabián Casas and the other by Clarice Lipsector.