… the creature who makes this story tick is a woman. She lives in every one of its towns, cities, villages, and imaginations, anywhere there are people who understand and misunderstand women. The orphans were talking about their country’s most famous ghost. In this story, Gurba describes Death as “infinitely, infinitely, infinitely female,” (35) elaborating, In her piece “Some Orphans Have Parents,” the story wanders alongside three orphaned girls, occasionally interrupted by the ghost of a mother who has drowned her babies. What I loved most about Gurba’s stories was the frank and unapologetic way they discuss what it means to be a woman. The book is simultaneously an ode to an older generation and a reinvigoration of old tales through a modern voice, and the juxtaposition of those elements give the collection a self-reflective edge. This story, and all of the stories in Gurba’s collection, strike a sometimes jarring balance between the modern and the ancient, tradition and reality. Myriam Gurba’s stories are short, but her titles are long – her collection’s full title, How Some Abuelitas Keep Their Chicana Granddaughters Still White Painting Their Portraits in Winter, gets its name from the first story in her collection, in which a Mexican grandmother tells her granddaughters terrifying fairy tales about cannibalistic tamale makers and German Shepherds from hell. Painting Their Portraits in Winter by Myriam Gurba (Manic D Press, 2015) Reviewed by Rebecca Valley
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