Lately books speak directly to me. I don't know if it's my selection or good fortune, I don't know if it's my age or my moment, but after reading Piedad again (I cried with her last book, with this one too), I'm surprised to see myself reflected, a little, see my mother, my father, my sister, my daughter, my granddaughter, my husband, my present, my future.
Milly Cohen. Good reads
For almost two years, I have been meeting with my former colleagues from the Master's Degree in Literature and Literary creation in our reading club. Since then, the course has been set correctly by one of our teachers: Carlos Azar. The narrative changes geography, genre and time following a compass that does not allow us to go astray.
This time, he pointed by chance, towards the letters of a territory that does not abandon me: the south of America. For this reason, I once again dedicate this column to that region that now speaks to me in the voice of four women. They are infected with the same impulse to tell as Pablo Neruda, the protagonist of my previous text.
In this happy coincidence, Carlos suggested that we read the following Latin American and contemporary writers: Piedad Bonnett (Colombia 1951. What to do with these pieces); Fernanda Trías (Uruguay, 1976. La Azotea); Karina Sainz Borgo (Venezuela, 1982. The Island of Doctor Schubert) and Carla Guelfenbein (Chile, 1959. The Women's Station). This list makes them temporary participants in our literary adventure; I invite you to start with What to do with these pieces of Piedad Bonnett.
Reading it was for me like the partial image that the mirror returns: sometimes it reveals the bright side, and at other times, reality appears in a new wrinkle or in a tight face. This is how I interacted with her book. Many of the reflections of the protagonist are mine: a woman in her fifties who writes and who maintains an ambiguous relationship with her domestic worker.
The title is very suggestive: What to do with these pieces, and the paths of the difficult answer, Piedad, places them in the remodeling of a kitchen. As if by renewing ourselves on the outside, we were doing it on the inside. But the reality is that internal mutations are due to other processes, even though relief often comes after finishing arranging a white closet. It is these types of reflections that arise when reading Piedad.
Furthermore, it invites us to summon the words not spoken by our parents. The author is convinced that we must question them to finish drawing our identity. It is about enlarging the intimate space with them, and then it will be possible to understand why some bite their nails or suffer from gastritis.
In an interview, Piedad comments that the family is a recurring and old theme in literature, and it is obvious that this is the case, because filial ties are shackles that bind intolerance and selfishness and release solidarity. Therefore, in that arena, limits are at the exit and love is at the entrance. And, men, he maintains, know it. Therefore, the ones who take care, almost always, are them. But the Colombian writer not only addresses the daily lives of women and aging marriages, but she also touches on even more painful and complicated topics such as mental health. That pairing of words that we omit. Even this silence increases when it comes to a loved one because recognizing is scary. Reading the first one on the list helps to reveal who we are… I can tell you about Piedad that she studied philosophy and literature and that she also writes poetry.
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