Welcome to Bookmarked, a weekly newsletter following my journey as I read one book from every country. If you like the sound of my project, Iโd love it if you shared Bookmarked with a friend.
Chilean writer Ivรกn Monalisa Ojedaโs Las Biuty Queens is a collection of thirteen short stories that follow a community of Latinx, transgender, and undocumented people living in New York City in the nineties. The stories are all written in the first person and most of them centre around a protagonist called Monalisa, who is a sort of alter ego for the author.
For the most part, Ojedaโs stories donโt follow any particular narrative arc. Instead, they simply describe events that happen. One of my favourite stories in the collection is In the Bote, which centres around a sex worker called Ivรกn. The story goes like this: Ivรกn is arrested for prostitution; gives the police a fake Puerto Rican name; befriends a fellow Chilean inmate; gets released once their friends manage to raise sufficient bail money. In Ortiz Funeral Home, a performer called Monalisa attends a friendโs wake, where they learn that one of the guests has stolen a bag of cocaine from the dead womanโs hands. In Emergency Room, an unnamed protagonist winds up in A&E after suffering hallucinations, the result of smoking weed laced with PCP. Ultimately they are released.
The only thing I could think of to say was thank you. In less than twenty minutes, I was out. In the street. Walking the two blocks in the shadow of the same trees that had frightened me so much the night before. I carried my shoes in my hands. I went straight to bed to sleep all the hours I hadnโt slept, and while I walked, I thought about the grave mistake the doctors had made when, once again, they let me go.
The majority of Ojedaโs stories neither build nor resolve tension. Instead, they paint a series of connected portraits of fictional members of New York Cityโs Latinx, trans, undocumented community. Lots of Ojedaโs characters smoke crystal meth and compete in beauty contests. The majority of them of them face extraordinary injustice at the hands of law enforcement.
In these stories, Ojeda paints a vivid picture of a group of friends who share a common set of experiences and repeatedly enact unquestioning loyalty towards one another. Though the topics he/she writes about are often harrowing, Ojedaโs writing is filled with dark humour. In Jenniferโs Carnationsโwhich explores how the murders of trans women are rarely properly investigatedโthe narrator describes Jennifer as โthe kind of beautiful that only a castrated trans woman in her twenties could be.โ
At just 163-pages long, Las Biuty Queens is a quick, engaging read that offers an interesting glimpse into a community we donโt hear from enough in published writing. Ojedaโs prose is sharp, uncluttered, and thought-provoking. Though the pieces in this collection are really more like vignettes than stories, I really enjoyed this book. I also thoroughly recommend this Words Without Borders interview with Hannah C. Kauders, the bookโs English translator. In it, she discusses the challenges of translating a book which is intentionally written in lots of โdifferent Spanishesโ. For anyone who is even passingly interested in the art of translation, itโs truly illuminating.
Las Biuty Queens by Ivรกn Monalisa Ojeda, translated by Hannah C. Kauders (Astra House, 2021, Alfaguara 2019)
More books by Chilean authors:
Hereโs a list of other books by Chilean authors:
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, tr. Magda Bogin
Never the Fire by Diamela Eltit, tr. Daniel Hahn
The Twilight Zone by Nona Fernรกndez, tr Natasha Wimmer
One in Me I Never Loved by Carla Guelfenbein, tr. Neil Davidson
Theatre of War by Andrea Jeftanovic, tr. Frances Riddle
Seeing Red by Lina Meruane, tr. Megan McDowell
Ten Women by Marcela Serrano, tr. Beth Fowler
The Remainder by Alia Trabucco Zerรกn, tr. Sophie Hughes
What have you read recently?
If youโve read a brilliant book in translation or youโd like to pass on a recommendation, Iโd love to hear about it! For this project, Iโm focussing on contemporary fiction and short stories, with a preference for female authorsโbut Iโm always happy to venture further afield for a good recommendation.
You can get in touch by replying to this email or leaving a comment. Iโll be featuring your recommendations in upcoming newsletters, and Iโll keep a growing listย here.
Bookmarked is written by Tabatha Leggett. Thank you to Laura Kaposi, Katie Brown, and Carolina Orloff from Charco Press for their recommendations for this weekโs issue. If you know someone who would enjoy this newsletter, please forward it to them!