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Cristina Rivera Garza is a celebrated author who grew up on the dividing line of Mexico and the US. Her Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir, LILIANA’S INVINCIBLE SUMMER, documents the life of her sister, Liliana, and Liliana’s murder in 1990 at the hands of a violent ex-boyfriend at the age of 20. She points a sharp stick at the ways in which our private pain intersects with society’s standards and twisted expectations.
Translated by Christina MacSweeney, TERRESTRIAL is a deceptively light set of tales about beings who travel --- by train, car or hitchhiking --- and are trying to live a full life despite the mandates of capitalism, patriarchy and the growing political divides of North America. There are real and surreal moments, all giving testament to Garza’s immensely readable prose and the massive imagination she harbors. She is a magical realist who also is an incisive reporter recording the multifarious emotional handicaps of humankind.
"I may have to read the book again to stay in its spell. TERRESTRIAL is a solid collection that harbors deep thoughts about the world as it exists and as we can make it."
A woman visits what she thinks is the hometown of her former lover. Two majestic herons hitchhike across Mexico. A group of workers build a new residence, which is then destroyed by the powers-that-be. These pieces are filled with wisdom and whimsy in equal measure and fit quite easily in the library of Latin American literature, which is mired in the past traditions of stories and myths mixed with the realities of the world as it has become.
Garza enjoys playing with theme and structure, bending both of them to her will. She lets you hear the sound of footsteps, the rattle of a train on the rails, the screams of birds flying over your head. Her ability to focus on soundscapes, landscapes and the interior yearnings of her cast makes TERRESTRIAL a highly cinematic journey. The travels everyone takes, no matter how exhilarating or soul-numbing, lead back to that inevitable choice: to enjoy life and keep living it with purpose, despite all the ways that the world tries to obscure and upend plans. These stories are a thunderclap, a warning of a storm that is here to be dealt with, no matter what happens. Garza’s outlook is practical and fantastic.
The road --- the hard gravel reality of the characters’ worlds --- finds some light and comfort in the sky, even though they once again will need to succumb to the forces of the earth. In the story “Herons,” Garza writes:
The silence of outer space shook us. We would undoubtedly have to come down sooner or later. We looked each other in the eyes and admitted that fact aloud: We are going to have to return sometime. We weren’t going to be immune to gravity for all eternity. We were in agreement.
But not just yet, we said in unison.
Not just yet.
Just like I am not ready yet to leave Garza’s stories behind. I may have to read the book again to stay in its spell. TERRESTRIAL is a solid collection that harbors deep thoughts about the world as it exists and as we can make it.
Teaser
In this new collection of genre-defying stories by Cristina Rivera Garza, a woman visits what she thinks could be her old lover's hometown after being abandoned by her years earlier. Two herons hitchhike across Mexico. A group of workers build a new home, only to see it destroyed by the state. With little baggage and much bravado, the characters in TERRESTRIAL hitchhike, migrate, take trains, wander or, at times, fly to survive the mandates of patriarchy and capitalism. On dusty roads or by a lake turned suddenly ominous, they remain in close contact with the earth's surface, sensing its wild promise and capacity for violence, its degradation and enduring beauty.
Promo
In this new collection of genre-defying stories by Cristina Rivera Garza, a woman visits what she thinks could be her old lover's hometown after being abandoned by her years earlier. Two herons hitchhike across Mexico. A group of workers build a new home, only to see it destroyed by the state. With little baggage and much bravado, the characters in TERRESTRIAL hitchhike, migrate, take trains, wander or, at times, fly to survive the mandates of patriarchy and capitalism. On dusty roads or by a lake turned suddenly ominous, they remain in close contact with the earth's surface, sensing its wild promise and capacity for violence, its degradation and enduring beauty.
About the Book
A fiercely poetic, tenderly observed portrait of young women’s travels on the fringes of Mexico and the United States, by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of LILIANA'S INVINCIBLE SUMMER.
In this new collection of genre-defying stories by Cristina Rivera Garza, a woman visits what she thinks could be her old lover's hometown after being abandoned by her years earlier. Two herons hitchhike across Mexico. A group of workers build a new home, only to see it destroyed by the state.
With little baggage and much bravado, the characters in TERRESTRIAL hitchhike, migrate, take trains, wander or, at times, fly to survive the mandates of patriarchy and capitalism. On dusty roads or by a lake turned suddenly ominous, they remain in close contact with the earth's surface, sensing its wild promise and capacity for violence, its degradation and enduring beauty.
As she did in her Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir, LILIANA'S INVINCIBLE SUMMER, Rivera Garza forges new forms, experimenting with structure and time as she tails the intrepid travelers with shimmering and honest prose. Combining journalism, novelistic writing, and themes of female freedom, gore capitalism and class struggle, TERRESTRIAL is a meditation on travel and distance, and our ties to the earth we tread on.
Audiobook available, read by Victoria Villarreal
