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3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
dark
reflective
fast-paced
A solid enough collection of stories with no particular standouts. The earlier stories were generally stronger.
i love how this book frustrated me and forced me to use critical thinking skills by figuring out the relation of the body to the story and any hidden meanings throughout. some were more obvious, but most were relatable as a woman.
lighthearted
fast-paced
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
En esta colección de cuentos de María Ospina Pizano destaca una curiosa observación del cuerpo y el silencio de las mujeres. Las protagonistas guardan o se guardan, escriben o dibujan o cuentan picaduras de pulga como una manera de encontrar(se) y habitar(se).
Digamos que las mujeres que habitan este libro guardan secretos.
O son, ellas mismas, secretos.
Encuentro en la autora una búsqueda de nombrar, indagar, poner el dedo en esas heridas resultado de la soledad, el abandono, la fuga, la violencia que pequeña acecha el descuido de toda o de cualquier mujer.
Hay al menos tres cuentos aquí, absolutamente agudos bellos por dolorosos, o al revés. Hay aquí una narradora dispuesta a decirnos que (no) todo es azar.
Digamos que las mujeres que habitan este libro guardan secretos.
O son, ellas mismas, secretos.
Encuentro en la autora una búsqueda de nombrar, indagar, poner el dedo en esas heridas resultado de la soledad, el abandono, la fuga, la violencia que pequeña acecha el descuido de toda o de cualquier mujer.
Hay al menos tres cuentos aquí, absolutamente agudos bellos por dolorosos, o al revés. Hay aquí una narradora dispuesta a decirnos que (no) todo es azar.
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
El cuento de Zenaida es de los mejores que he leído. Un retrato de las intersecciones que se viven en Colombia.
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Weird little stories (compliment)
A melancholy collection of short stories with some beautiful imagery and a good ability to infuse seemingly ordinary things with sadness. The stories feel intensely personal in the sense that they grapple with the resulting fallout of life in Colombia after its tumultuous internal conflicts, and the author clearly holds an acute and nuanced understanding of the conflict and its impacts on the minds and bodies of Colombia’s women. Unfortunately, the pain and trauma and suffering of such a conflict is missing almost entirely for me, which makes the writing of these short stories beautiful but largely empty of the real emotion that underscore them. This is not the author’s fault of course, but simply a fact of an international audience. While I found Policarpa to be an extremely compelling story (with a fair amount of helpful context), some of the other stories, like Collateral Beauty or Fauna of the Ages, failed to capture my attention even though their initial premises were interesting. It felt like the stories wandered sadly through their landscapes, hinting at sadness and trauma but never fully conveying the emotion. I was more unsettled than anything else after reading Saving Young Ladies, and while Occasion was sad, I didn’t feel like Zenaida was developed enough to really understand her situation or her emotions. If the intent was to focus on the blending of trauma and the body’s physical response to it, I may have to do some rereading because the point felt too subtly for me to fully understand.
These stories briefly explore the consequences of womanhood, living in these bodies, for women that live in and at times enact different kinds of violence and try to maintain themselves within these circumstances. Ospina creates stories that are rife for analysis, that invite the reader, in their brevity, to think about the erasure of subjectivity, the dissolution of a self, the voyeuristic gaze.. Saving Young Ladies stood out in particular, posing interesting questions about desire and looking. I look forward to reading what Ospina publishes next.