I’ve been on a short story kick lately, so when I saw that Patricia Engel had a new collection out I thought I’d give it a try. She’s truly an exceptional writer, but these stories are really bleak at times.
Of the 10 stories, my favorites were “Aida,” about a teenage girl whose twin sister goes missing, and she loses both her best friend and her ally in saving their parents’ marriage; “Fausto,” in which a young Colombian woman finds out her boyfriend isn’t quite what she thought; “The Book of Saints,” narrated both by a Colombian woman hoping an American man will marry her, and the man; and “Guapa,” about a formerly obese woman who thinks she’s found happiness in her new body.
Where I struggled with this collection is that very few if any of the characters were sympathetic, and after a while the stories seemed a bit repetitive. But they definitely made me think!!
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