Welcome to Litsy!

This book is not for the faint of heart. I realized early on that I should have grabbed Gurba‘s memoir Mean and read it first but I just got it from the library so it‘s next on my list. My favorite piece from this collection was The White Onion which brilliantly exposed Joan Didion for what she was and I couldn‘t be more pleased.

My lesbian+ book club will be discussing this queer, Mexican American essay collection tonight and there‘s so much to talk about! Myriam Gurba uses fierce words and a sense of humour to dissect the many ways she—and others—have been affected by racism, colonialism, rape culture, misogyny, domestic violence and other societal ills. Invigorating truth-telling. #LGBTQ

I wasn‘t allowed to be funny in front of my wife. She let me know this after I complimented myself on having come up with a joke I thought was funny.
“No!” she said. “You‘re not funny. I‘m the funny one! You‘re the smart one. And the pretty one. You don‘t get to have everything.” Pointing at her chest & then tugging at the collar of her Sesame Street t-shirt, she snarled, “Funny is mine.”

Headlines play language games. The headline “Heir‘s Pistol Kills Wife; He Denies Playing Wm Tell” hides the murderer behind a gun, making it seem that a pistol, and not a man, did the dirty work. […] If I could‘ve written a headline for what happened that night, it would read “To Impress Two Men, One That He Was Sleeping with, Man Plays Russian Roulette with Head of Smart Wife Who Wanted Divorce.

After watching Naked Lunch with Matt, I bought a copy of the book from the used bookstore.
I went through a whole bottle of Advil trying to finish it.
It wasn‘t a novel.
It was chaos.
I didn‘t admit that to anyone. Instead, I told people I loved it. I told people Uncle Bill was a genius. Brilliant. I pretended to get it. This impressed Matt‘s friends. It made me likeable.

I tore off the cover and stuck it to my fridge with fruit-shaped magnets. I felt optimistic. I considered coming out to my parents again. (The first time I‘d told them I was queer, they‘d answered, “No,” and we left it at that.)

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Damn, Myriam Gurba is a force! In these essays, she thoughtfully attacks systems of oppression by relating historical events, public figures, etc to her Mexican-American family / to modern society / to life as a female. Just brilliant. Darkly humorous, but devastating. Academic, yet accessible. It‘s really hard to describe this collection, but I loved it!

(I read her memoir Mean after.)

Gurba writes about her identity as a Mexican-American, her family and romantic relationships and explores the “creep”s through these stories. Horrible people but also racism and other insidious issues. I found it uneven, and wondered how some sections were meaningful to the point she was trying to make, but still pick, because I did enjoy the audio narration and most essays.

“The living expect a lot from dead women.”