Original Language: Español
Year of publication: 2022
Valoración: Highly recommended
Life is a dog, adopt it. Bizor.
Direct style: without rodeos, without ornaments and without apparent literary pretensions. Is this good or bad? Effective, yes. It is like seeing an accident recorded by someone with their cell phone, in contrast to a Scorsese movie. I do not mean the quality or what happens on the screen, but to the aesthetic intention. (“I sat in the bath cup, urinated on the pregnancy test and waited for the longest minute of my life.”).
The themes of the stories are varied: a girl who aborts as if nothing; a training story about a junior narco; the aspirations of an illiterate immigrant. The political intention is clear: feminist, anti-academicist and focused on the visibility of the marginalized. However, he never presents his characters as victims, but as free agents, with will and desires, who must face misfortune or simply the consequences of their bad decisions.
Some stories are almost minification, with an interesting premise and an effective punchline. However, by focusing mainly on the characters, their development sometimes feels hurried. In addition, the voices of the narrators in each story come to sound forced or artificial. The same thing happens to me as when I read false hare, by Fernanda Melchor. It is intended to simulate the speech of a certain group, but it clashes too much with the way of articulating and with the ideas they express. The tone of most characters would be better with an endless exhibition of common places, in the style of:
“It would be a hypocritical of me to tell you that you deserve something better, if you had everything with me. And, just as you asked me to stop bothering you, I’m going to ask you for three favors: first, look for the truth among all lies; second, have fun and be happy; And third, don’t mark me again, please. Okay? Take care of yourself. No, Maaaames, Wey, I already cried, Wey. ” (1)
In addition, if Corrido stories are read, it gives the impression that the impulse runs out. When the shock value Of the first stories, the life of the protagonists is somewhat bland, and the use of slang It may seem repetitive and annoying, especially for those who are not familiar with him (readers outside of Mexico).
Despite those details, most of the stories are overwhelming and can challenge certain preconceptions that we have about the marginalized of a country that, by itself, is screwed.
(1) Recording View on YouTube of a young man ending with his girlfriend who, apparently, had been unfaithful.
Source: https://unlibroaldia.blogspot.com/2025/03/dahlia-de-la-cerda-perras-de-reserva.html
