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3.88 AVERAGE
3.88 AVERAGE
Clement has dug into life in a village of women outside Acapulco, Mexico where the men have moved away seeking opportunity and the cartels reign supreme.
"Love is not a feeling. It's a sacrifice."
Ladydi (yes named after that Lady Di) carries us through her adolescence. It's a world where the worst thing is to be born a girl, and the second worst is to be born a pretty girl. They chop off their hair and black out their teeth and smear dirt on their faces and hide in holes in the ground to evade being kidnapped and trafficked by the cartel.
This is a hard book where violence proliferates with a Tarantino-esque matter of factness that propels the story without dwelling too long on any one horror. There's always something worse, more extreme, more exacting around the corner and Clement's narrative pushes into very uncomfortable places while somehow maintaining a humorous thread.
It's brilliant.
Because while the subject matter is tough, Clement's writing is delightful. Her characters, reminiscent of early Allende, are outrageous and unique and passionate and enthralling. They endure atrocities and don't run around feeling sorry for themselves. Oh the luxury! They have to keep going.
Luna, whose arm has been amputated, pins the unneeded sleeve from all of her dresses into a shrine to her lost limb above her bed. Need I say more?
"Don't ever pray for love and health, mother said, or money. If God hears what you really want he will not give it to you. Guaranteed."
Said by the woman who won't clean up blood because it's "not her thing," but she will show you how to bury a body.
Also, the audiobook narrator is fantastic.
"Love is not a feeling. It's a sacrifice."
Ladydi (yes named after that Lady Di) carries us through her adolescence. It's a world where the worst thing is to be born a girl, and the second worst is to be born a pretty girl. They chop off their hair and black out their teeth and smear dirt on their faces and hide in holes in the ground to evade being kidnapped and trafficked by the cartel.
This is a hard book where violence proliferates with a Tarantino-esque matter of factness that propels the story without dwelling too long on any one horror. There's always something worse, more extreme, more exacting around the corner and Clement's narrative pushes into very uncomfortable places while somehow maintaining a humorous thread.
It's brilliant.
Because while the subject matter is tough, Clement's writing is delightful. Her characters, reminiscent of early Allende, are outrageous and unique and passionate and enthralling. They endure atrocities and don't run around feeling sorry for themselves. Oh the luxury! They have to keep going.
Luna, whose arm has been amputated, pins the unneeded sleeve from all of her dresses into a shrine to her lost limb above her bed. Need I say more?
"Don't ever pray for love and health, mother said, or money. If God hears what you really want he will not give it to you. Guaranteed."
Said by the woman who won't clean up blood because it's "not her thing," but she will show you how to bury a body.
Also, the audiobook narrator is fantastic.
دلم میخواد فکر کنم همهی همهی همهش تخیلات نویسنده بوده. چون حتی ۱٪ واقعی بودن این همه ظلم علیه زنان در هر نقطهای از جهان دردناکه برام.
“If anyone wanted to create a symbol or a flag for our piece of earth on Earth it should be a plastic flip flop.”
This one knocked the wind right out of me. Picked up sight-unseen based on an interesting cover and a commitment to read more women of color... I feel like I hit the lottery. Clement’s characters come to life and their state of heightened fear is palpable.
This one knocked the wind right out of me. Picked up sight-unseen based on an interesting cover and a commitment to read more women of color... I feel like I hit the lottery. Clement’s characters come to life and their state of heightened fear is palpable.
Wow! Such a sad yet captivating story! Highly recommend it.
Mash-ups rarely do justice, but let me give this a try just for fun: One Hundred Years of Solitude meets American Dirt?
OK, not quite. But there is something about Clement's creation of young Ladydi Garcia Martinez, and her remote mountain village home in Guerrero State, just an hour from Acapulco, that made me think of the rich tropical tales in Solitude. Ladydi's story - one of rural poverty and the injustice and suffering meted against women by men - told with very dark humour that can come across as both fabulist and also intrinsically woven with the jungle landscape, describes horrifying events that occur in contemporary Mexico. And narcotraffickers committing horrific crimes of violence that transform the social fabric, along with the fast-paced narrative, do evoke American Dirt.
Clement writes poetically but with a clear-eyed view of everyday terror and despair. This is a compelling read.
OK, not quite. But there is something about Clement's creation of young Ladydi Garcia Martinez, and her remote mountain village home in Guerrero State, just an hour from Acapulco, that made me think of the rich tropical tales in Solitude. Ladydi's story - one of rural poverty and the injustice and suffering meted against women by men - told with very dark humour that can come across as both fabulist and also intrinsically woven with the jungle landscape, describes horrifying events that occur in contemporary Mexico. And narcotraffickers committing horrific crimes of violence that transform the social fabric, along with the fast-paced narrative, do evoke American Dirt.
Clement writes poetically but with a clear-eyed view of everyday terror and despair. This is a compelling read.
Lyrical, almost stream of consciousness, novella about Ladydi a young girl who grew up in rural Mexico.
Novel based on effects of drug trafficking on women, girls, villages.
This is a really great book. I loved all of the female characters. The male characters were really just side characters in a book that is about resilience, self understanding, perseverance, and recognizing what family means. The fact that this book is written around actual life events is pretty haunting. I highly recommend this read.