bryanmcconnell

This book could be good. Could. I have to admit, I read it to page 150 and stopped. The main character is a beat-up and bruised 40 year old Chicana living in New York. She is dead broke poor, has been beaten on and mistreated by men numerous times, and disliked herself so much at one point that she beat her 4 year old daughter (whom she saw as part of herself). She was put in a mental institution numerous times; the second time for smashing in the nose of her niece's pimp after he had beat up her niece. In the mental institution, she dreams that she can access a utopian society in the year 2174(?) via a "sender" living in that time, Luciente. There, she sees what a society that has moved beyond hegemonic gender roles, colonialism, and capitalist competition could be like. The book could be good, if the storyline wasn't so long-winded and unbelievable. Plus, the only really positive male character in the novel is one of Consuelo's dead lovers, who was a blind black blues musician. But he got killed in jail while participating in a Hep-C experiment that could have got him released if it didn't kill him. Unbelievable. Is there anything NICE about 1974, when the book was written? Not according to the author.

2023-05-30 10:17