last month, there was a great big hubbub regarding the publication of a novel that tells the story of a mexican family undertaking the journey of emigrating to the united states without papers written by a white woman with seemingly little to no personal experience of such a journey. i don't want to spend much more time rehashing that book. what i will say though is that the discourse surrounding this controversy has spurred me to put my money where my mouth is and support latinx writers. i don't see how effective a twitter rant against the publishing industry would be, but, i know that if i actually go out and buy books by PoC, then that's a solid contribution to keeping those voices heard.
in that vein, i came upon this 2019 work by silvia moreno-garcia, a mexican-canadian author with a few novels under her belt. i'm thrilled that i did! i recently visited mexico city which is not only key to understanding mexican mythology but it's also one of the places visited by the main characters on this travel adventure that starts off very much like a fairy tale: we have a young maiden who is mistreated as the servant of her haughty family who then unlocks a dark family secret which pulls her into the brutal world of ancient gods battling for the future of humanity.
set in the 1920s, we get to travel through out mexico, first starting in the yucatan peninsula then moving to the interior then up to the north along the mexico-u.s. border with the book's climax taking place in the baja california peninsula. the book is beautiful with an incredible storyline that leaps off the pages and vividly portrays itself in the imagination of the reader. the book is fun and enchanting with a thoughtful romance at the heart of it. this, however, is decidedly not a romance novel. much like the indigenous cultures that have lived in mexico, this story has a darkness to it, tainted with a bloody history that will unsettle you.
my one criticism of this book is that i don't think moreno-garcia has really learned yet how to write character dialogue with much verisimilitude. it reads as very expositional and at times the writing feels clunky and unnatural.
No comments
Post a Comment