Symmetries (High Risk Books)
Valenzuela is one of the most highly regarded of the current crop of Latin American writers to appear in the United States, a thoughtful, artistic stylist who explores a variety of themes in her work. In this wonderful collection of mostly brief stories divided into five thematic sections, her main mode is both to tell an edgy story and to show the reader how it was constructed. In "The Charm Against Storms," Valenzuela places her main characters on a beach during a violent storm, as one tells the story of how she came to possess the amulet that hangs around her neck. In "If This Is Life, I'm Red Riding Hood," one of a suite of variations on traditional fairy tales, the wolf is both internal and external ("there is always a wolf"). In the title story, love among humans and apes is interposed, with brilliant results. Highly recommended for literary collections and those strong in Latin American literature.?Harold Augenbraum, Mercantile Lib. of New YorkCopyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.