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This was my #FoodAndLit pick for #Mexico

It is a coming of age story, with some magical realism elements, and with a suggestion that the narrator is dead and recalling memories up to that point to the imagined reader. It was strange, lyrical, and I think it probably has lot of layers that I haven‘t picked up on!

While it wasn‘t a pick for me, I will definitely try others by this author in the future.

Looking forward to tomorrow, when scribd finally lets me access my saved books that it locked up for a month because I read eight of them in the first week of my membership. :P I'm going to read the tagged book first.

At first I was a little lost, but then Carmen Boullosa's writing found me, and carried me away. It's a very touching book about the "death"of childhood.

This one's on my TBR list. It's about the poets life growing up combined with ghosts👻. #afterlife

TBR #MayBookFlowers
#mexicanwriters 🤗🤗🤗

This started off bumpily for me but then I got into it. It's anecdotes from a complicated childhood/adolescence with some eerie, supernatural elements that I'm pretty sure have psychological and physiological roots. For those who like their fiction strange.

Giving this one a try, although the opening pages are very strange!

Mexican poet, Boullosa's, second novel, Before, is the tale of a ghost who recounts the hauntings of her childhood in order to conquer fear. It is a unique take on a coming-of-age story, with several comical elements. However, as the narrator's childhood becomes more disturbing and terrifying, the suspense as to how she becomes a ghost builds to thrilling heights.
#allhallowsread #scarybook #translation #halloween

Experimental and unsettling story of a fearful girl's life before womanhood and other major life changes (to put it mildly). Perhaps too experimental for my current tastes, but I'm glad I tried it.

This isn't really representative of this book, but the idea of impatient memories and "fierce and faceless" ones struck me as interesting.

It's taking me a ridiculously long time to get through this brief (but unsettling) book.

You know when you finish a book and you want to reread it, hug it, stare at the cover in silent contemplation, and make literally everyone you know read it ALL AT THE SAME TIME? That's how I felt finishing Before by Carmen Boullosa, trans. Peter Bush (@deepvellum). Exquisite and haunting prose and voice, an absolutely beautiful, dark, compelling, and magical tale.

New to the TBR pile, which is longer than any reasonable expectations of my lifespan. But I'm bumping this one up close to the top.