Family Album

by Claribel Alegría, Amanda Hopkinson (Translator)

These three novellas, by a writer who has earned her place in the forefront of Central American literature, explore three critical stages in a woman's life and are an extraordinary example of Claribel Alegria's ability to weave the magical and the real, the fantastic and the horrific. Karen, a young 'corrupted' Catholic school girl, talks to the walls and forms a strange relationship with an especially prudish nun. Ximena, a Nicaraguan woman living in Paris, finds herself being drawn into the 1979 revolution even though she is thousands of miles away. Marcia moves with her husband to Deya, a small mystical town in Mallorca where everyday life is a bizarre mixture of the supernatural and natural worlds.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories

191 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Clara Isabel Alegría Vides was a Nicaraguan poet, essayist, novelist, and journalist who is a major voice in the literature of contemporary Central America. She writes under the pseudonym Claribel Alegría. She was awarded the 2006 Neustadt International Prize for Literature.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Chinook · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first story was my favourite - I liked how the "ghosts" were integrated with the present day story, slowly adding meaning to it. The ending was a surprise. The second story was fine. It was the third, about New Agey people on the island of Mallorca, was my least favourite and downgraded the book to two stars for me, though I loved that Robert Graves was a character.

[Philippa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three novellas. Great writing! Some disturbing content.

[2TReads · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did not expect to be so intrigued by the subject matters that Alegría explores in these 3 novellas. With snippy prose we see the collision of the manifested, the supenatural, and the mystical versus the physical, rooted reality.

The Talisman follows Karen as she tries to come to terms with her trauma and it's repercussions, the rigidity of her Catholic school and father, and the relationship that she cultivates with a nun which she uses almost lasciviously to terrorize Sister Mary Ann.

Family Album showcases the slow realization of distancing oneself from the political upheaval and social unrest in one's birth country and the unfurling of understanding can come at the realization of the mental suffering of a close family member.

Village of God and the Devil is a roiling portrait of life on a small island where the mystical meets physics, the inhabitants have surreal encounters, and death is sated to be fed every year.

Alegría definitely has drawn from her Latin American background and her interest in where the line between reality and the fantastical lies.

[K Khire · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disturbing. Like this week.