A review by clairevoyants
The Heart and Other Viscera: Stories by Félix J. Palma

3.0

Errggg I’m torn. Three of these stories are fantastic ("Snow Globe," "The Land of the Dolls," "Roses Against the Wind"), and Palma pulled off the unique structure of one story that he had no business to make work, but it totally did ("The Seven [Or So] Lives of Sebastian Mingorance"). Some of the prose was really pretty; some of it was overwrought. But quite a few of the stories fell flat; the cat story was straight-up bad ("Meows"). While the concepts of some were good ("The Man Behind The Curtain," "The Heart and Other Viscera") I found myself scratching my head because something about the execution didn't feel quite right— as if the stories, although magical realism, weren't fully convinced of their own story logic.

Primarily I was disappointed by how the women characters were written and treated throughout; only two of the twelve stories are narrated by a woman or written about a woman protagonist, in addition to just like, Trademark Female Character Treatment of every other woman, which consistently made the collection hard for me to enjoy.

Here's my ranking:
5 stars - Snow Globe, The Land of the Dolls, Roses Against the Wind
4 stars - The Violinist on the Roof, The Heart and Other Viscera, The Seven (Or So) Lives of Sebastian Mingorance
3 stars - The Karenina Syndrome, The Man Behind the Curtain
2 stars - A Fairy-Tale Life, The Brave Anesthetist
1 star - Little Furry Animals, Meows