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A review by sweddy65
Mean by Myriam Gurba
5.0
Out of all the books I've read in 2018, this one is my favorite which is especially sweet because it came toward the end. (Please note: I've read other fantastic books this year.)
Among other things, Myriam Gurba does spoken word, and that comes across the page in the best way. I read a good deal of this book out loud to my wife, even when she probably didn't want me to because she was doing something else.
But, listen! - I'd say.
The first of these came from an early chapter called, "The Whites," about white neighbors with whom Myriam stayed when her parents were in the hospital for the complicated birth of her twin. They eat dinner. The white mother claims to have made a Mexican casserole, which she served with brussels sprouts.
"The brussels sprouts were a different story. I scooped one into my moutha nd realized its flavor: eternal damnation."
And when Myriam goes to Cal: "Dr. Brown couldn't help sucking. Her voice cracked when she lectured, and her syllabus said that it was her first year being a professor. The first year doing anything new usually sucks, but Dr. Brown had the clothes part down--she dressed like an English professor." (Even though Gurba is brutal about her professors and I recognize my own mediocrity in some of her descriptions, I don't even mind because her writing is so good.)
So, it's funny, but it's also hard because it is also about rape and about PTSD. It's one story, one possible story of all the possible stories Gurba could probably tell, about being Mexican American, lesbian, being raped, being marred and scarred because of that, but continuing.
I have been telling everyone to read this book. If I were independently wealthy, I would buy copies for everyone. As it is, I am not independently wealthy, so I will buy a copy for the first woman I ever loved and mail it to her and hope she loves the book as much as I did.
Among other things, Myriam Gurba does spoken word, and that comes across the page in the best way. I read a good deal of this book out loud to my wife, even when she probably didn't want me to because she was doing something else.
But, listen! - I'd say.
The first of these came from an early chapter called, "The Whites," about white neighbors with whom Myriam stayed when her parents were in the hospital for the complicated birth of her twin. They eat dinner. The white mother claims to have made a Mexican casserole, which she served with brussels sprouts.
"The brussels sprouts were a different story. I scooped one into my moutha nd realized its flavor: eternal damnation."
And when Myriam goes to Cal: "Dr. Brown couldn't help sucking. Her voice cracked when she lectured, and her syllabus said that it was her first year being a professor. The first year doing anything new usually sucks, but Dr. Brown had the clothes part down--she dressed like an English professor." (Even though Gurba is brutal about her professors and I recognize my own mediocrity in some of her descriptions, I don't even mind because her writing is so good.)
So, it's funny, but it's also hard because it is also about rape and about PTSD. It's one story, one possible story of all the possible stories Gurba could probably tell, about being Mexican American, lesbian, being raped, being marred and scarred because of that, but continuing.
I have been telling everyone to read this book. If I were independently wealthy, I would buy copies for everyone. As it is, I am not independently wealthy, so I will buy a copy for the first woman I ever loved and mail it to her and hope she loves the book as much as I did.