Season of the Swamp – Yuri Herrera
Herrera’s novel conjures the past from its hiding spot in plain sight. What appears absent is in fact there, somewhere—only it requires the work of a skilled author to coax it to life.
For Ravn, the pregnant body becomes a microcosmic environment tensely defending itself against the violent onslaught of the global conditions of capitalism.
The caretaker tries to keep the objects in his collection from speaking about the lives they have lived . . . reducing them to mere list of objects. The more he fights the resonance of their voices, the more they resist becoming metaphors of the past.
Natsumi knows she’s bored, but she keeps trying to convince herself that boredom is comfort, safety, and happiness. In actuality, boredom is the closest thing to Natsumi’s identity; it’s what she’s “about.”