may ana mendieta's memory live forever.

i just wish i could find her real name in this book.

(review to come / thanks to the publisher for the e-arc)3-and-a-half-stars arc authors-of-color ...more123 s7 comments Dee - Delighting in the Desert!349 47

3.5 stars rounded down - After reading and loving the author’s “Olga Dies Dreaming”, I was really, really looking forward to “Anita De Monte Laughs Last” but I felt rather let down by it and overall just pretty “blah” and “meh” about this book. The concept was great here but the execution just didn’t work for me, way too wordy & sort of pretentious, so after several days of struggling to make real headway on it I just skimmed to get to an ending on these very complex characters. There’s a lot of (intended) misogyny and racism on display here - both the art world & Ivy League are on notice, but some of the scenes were really a bit OTT, as was the whole supernatural angle so for me this one’s sadly a miss. Many, many other reviewers have loved it though, so do check out their to decide if it’s for you.
2024 bookclub67 s4 comments Alwynne722 926

On September 8th, 1985, Cuban American artist Ana Mendieta plunged to her death from the window of a 34th floor apartment in Greenwich Village. Alone inside the apartment was her art star husband, minimalist sculptor Carl Andre. Andre was tried and acquitted for Mendieta’s murder, after a brief lull, his career continued to thrive. The narrative spun by Andre – and the white, art establishment who quickly closed ranks against Mendieta – was that his wife was unstable, an “hysterical Hispanic” who ly sacrificed herself because of her bizarre beliefs. Then, and now, successive feminist groups have worked to challenge this image of Mendieta, a pioneering performance and Land artist. And there have been fierce protests against the “not guilty” verdict awarded to Andre.

Xochitl Gonzalez’s novel is a reimagining of the life, and afterlife, of Mendieta, here reframed as Anita de Monte married to older, iconic artist Jack Martin. Gonzalez builds on themes of history, memory, culture and the body that were key to Mendieta’s work. Gonzalez also draws on aspects of her own background through the character of Raquel Toro – who Gonzalez – leaves her home in Brooklyn to study art history at an upscale, predominantly-white university. Gonzalez's story parallels Anita’s experiences in the 1980s with Raquel’s in the late 1990s. A move that provides the space for Gonzalez to tackle broader issues around art, women and ethnicity, and the white men whose work has dominated art history. In addition, Gonzalez explores culture shock, economic and class divides alongside domestic abuse and coercive control. It’s an ambitious, sometimes passionate piece, a work centred on cultural reclamation and cultural resistance, but Gonzalez’s emphasis on immediacy and storytelling manages to make it accessible and relatable.

Raquel is a particularly sympathetic figure, desperately staving off a stream of microaggressions, caught between worlds, no longer sure who she is or what she wants. Initially swayed by her white professor’s obsessive regard for Jack Martin’s work, it’s only when she uncovers Martin’s past and the near-buried work of Anita de Monte that she’s finally able to make sense of her own situation. I loved the ideas, and the barely-suppressed rage, driving Gonzalez’s story but some of her creative choices didn’t entirely convince me. The inclusion of Jack’s voice allowed Gonzalez to recreate the aftermath of Mendieta’s death, as well as the ways in which his position as sole inheritor of her work stifled her legacy – definite echoes of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath here. But I think many of the episodes featuring Jack might’ve been better left to the imagination. He often felt too much a stock villain which sometimes undermined the overall force of the narrative. I d too the image of Anita as a spectre haunting Jack and the New York artworld which so callously discarded her and her work. However, Gonzalez’s plot twist involving Anita’s transformation into something akin to a creature of the night was a step too far for me. But, flaws aside, this was a fairly compelling read, frequently moving and thought-provoking.

Thanks to Netgalley and publisher Bloomsbury for an ARC

Rating: 3 to 3.5contemporary-fiction netgalley-arc56 s2 comments Su Kim62

I loved this one even more than I did Olga Dies Dreaming. This author is so incredibly adept at weaving stories from different perspectives, and epitomizes the fact that the oppressed always know the oppressor best (I was pacing to gear up for any chapter of Jack’s). This absolutely cements Xochitl Gonzalez as an auto-buy author for me.30 s Mai313 403

The Diverse Baseline

February Prompt B: An Historical Fiction book by a BIPOC author

I spent most of this book horrified at the mirrored stories of white men with their Latina partners who they treated unfairly and unequally. In 1985, artist Anita de Monte is found dead from a "fall" in New York. She is with her husband, Jack Martin, another famous artist, at the time.

Later, in 1998, Raquel walks these same streets in her own unequal relationship, studying Jack's work for her thesis. Jack is taught and revered at university as a living legend. No mention is made of his being on trial for his wife's death.

The last twenty minutes were gripping. Raquel finally, for lack of a better phrase, gets her shit together, and pivots her thesis to include and focus on Anita. While I enjoy a tale of BIPOC women redemption, at times, it felt too little too late, as we spend the majority of the novel drowning in the story of these women's relationships with men who don't value them.


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