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3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
dark
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
funny
reflective
tense
slow-paced
funny
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
medium-paced
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Intriguing collection! I admit, while I love Coffee House Press publications, I shied away from this title when it first came out, wondering if the violence as premised would be too triggering and freaky. Curiosity got the better of me, and I delved in. Indeed, while the stories do relay the realities and consequences of violence on both an individual and collective scale, particularly to women in Bogotá, the most explicit forms are relatively peripheral. A former guerrilla fighter reintegrates into civilian life while an editor radically changes her manuscript. Another woman is scourged by a flea infestation. Another woman is pregnant and equally financially vulnerable, due to her class and to the domestic situation in which she is situated, a la Roma. I loved the details in these stories and the interiority of these women, who are offbeat and outliers of their society to some extent, as well as the strangeness of some of the scenarios--spying on a convent, amassing a collection in a doll hospital. The stories leave a lot unanswered; they function similarly to poetry in that the meaning lies in what is unspoken versus spoken. As a possible result, a lot of these stories end before the resolution, perhaps a jaunt into realism in that the future in the here-and-now is not yet resolved. As a reader, I didn't feel dissatisfied by this, as Ospina's purpose may be to allow the stories to reside in the infinite potential of "What could be?", but I do feel that the stories may have been more resonant, more memorable, had she expanded a few pages longer, ending some of her short stories a few moments later. I would love to read a novel-length narrative by Maria Ospina someday!
Some unsettling but often relatable emotions in here.