Mundo cruel

by Luis Negrón

Si Mundo cruel no fuese una espléndida colección de relatos sobre las variedades de la experiencia homosexual, este libro podría subtitularse Estudio de la naturaleza humana. Porque esa experiencia no es aquí una identidad cerrada, sino un vivir abierto. Esa experiencia es también la de quien juzga la depravación ajena y la del propio depravado que observa la danza de la rectitud carnal, ese más allá, esa mascarada.
Pero este libro no es un ensayo y, por ello, está escrito desde los sujetos o, mejor dicho, desde múltiples subjetividades complejas, jugosas, contradictorias, exasperantes, únicas. Así es la literatura, que cuando lo es a rajatabla sólo se manifiesta desde el eterno presente de los individuos. Y en este caso desde Puerto Rico, un escenario universal donde los haya.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Queer, LGBT, Gay, Latinx, Spanish Literature

112 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Estudió periodismo en la Universidad del Sagrado Corazón. Ha publicado en la revista Alborada (2001) de la Fundación SIDA de Puerto Rico y se desempeñó como crítico de cine para el periódico La Semana de Boston (1999). Fue miembro fundador de Producciones Mano Santa, colectivo responsable de Muestra de Cine Gay y Lésbico de Puerto Rico (2001) y la Bohemiada de Orgullo Gay (2001-06). Colaboró como antólogo de Los otros cuerpos: Antología de Temática Gay, Lésbica y Queer desde Puerto Rico y su Diáspora (Tiempo Nuevo, 2007) junto a Moisés Agosto Rosario y a David Caleb Acevedo. Mundo cruel es su primer libro de cuentos. Subió a escena en el 2012 en el Teatro Sala Beckett bajo el título Mundo cruel: el play. Es curador, junto a Ricardo Vargas, de CineMAC, el programa de cine del Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico. Ha publicado para los periódicos Claridad y The New York Times. Vive en Santurce.

Reviews

[daph pink ♡ · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not sure if this is a result of the translation or just Negron's writing style, but I found the language to be far too "simple". Admittedly, a few stories caught my attention and presented incredibly fascinating and pertinent scenarios or issues, but the great majority aren't that great.

STORY 1 : The chosen one - ★★★☆☆
A young child who is hated by his father and brothers but adored by his mother falls in love with the men and boys in his church and neighborhood.This was strange but entertaining from the beginning; we were informed that the lad would not be like other males, and he duly demonstrated this.

STORY 2 : The vampire of Moca -★★☆☆☆
A tenant and a landlord's forbidden one-sided lust quickly gave way to jealousy and longing. I enjoyed the way the locations were described, but other than that, I didn't find anything particularly noteworthy about this. It was quite mediocre.

STORY 3 : For Guayama - ★★☆☆☆
a sort of epistolary tale in which a woman writes a friend to beg for money to maintain their dog's life. This was strange, and I was bewildered for the first two of the four pages before realizing that it was a sad and humorous story.

STORY 4 : La Edwin - ★★☆☆☆
This narrative, which centers on a phone conversation between a gossip queen and her buddy, illustrates the impact of bisexuality on homosexual individuals and how their relationships are affected. narrated in the first person, it was a little frightening but illustrates how rumors spread.

STORY 5 : Junito - ★★★☆☆
A man who encounters Junito informs him that he intends to travel to the United States due to the country's greater acceptance of homosexuality. He believes his younger son is gay and will not put up with his kid being teased or tormented. I thought this tale was really accurate because many people who exhibit predatory behavior today excuse their actions on being gay, which is really wrong and put a really bad image about the queer folks.

STORY 6 : Botella - ★★★☆☆
When a married man goes out with men and one of them is unexpectedly killed, he becomes involved. This one was by far my favorite, and I think it would make a fantastic dark comedy script.

STORY 7 : So many - ★★☆☆☆
a conversational tale about two neighbors discussing the need to watch children's behavior to prevent them from being queer. The foolish worry of what their family will say if a child is queer as well as the machoism that parents or relatives instill in youngsters because they do not behave "as they are supposed to behave" is something that needs  to be talked about more.

STORY 8 : The garden - ★★★☆☆
a narrative about a family and a dying individual. a lovely story about how family need not only be biological relatives.

STORY 9 : Mundo cruel - ★☆☆☆☆
Very speculative that I didn't get this; it seems like there was a deeper significance.

[Ariana · Rating 3 out of 5]

The stories in this book can be hit or miss. The ones that are a hit are insightful and so human that they will stick with you. The ones that are a miss may have been too experimental to grasp, like perfectly replicating one side of a phone call. "For Guayama" and "The Garden" stood out to me the most. "For Guayama" is wacky in the best way, and "The Garden" is real, beautiful, and moving.

[Roxanne (The Novel Sanctuary) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sarcastic, vulgar, titillating, real.

[Tanyx · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am so confused.
One story, everything's fun and gay, the next is a satiric take on homophobia.
I picked it up because I'm trying to learn a little about Puerto Rico, but I ended up kinda amused and unsure if I'm wiser for reading this.
Libro cruel.

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cannot praise or recommend to highly these incredibly sharp, sexy, sad, wise, funny, shockingly beautiful, tenderly funny and bitingly transgressive tales of love, lust, sex, death and life. If you enjoy writing from Latin America be sure not to miss this collection from Mr. Negron or anything else he has written.

[Dov Zeller · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started off loving this book. The first story moves in a way that is mischievous and confident--even though not much happens by way of a conventional plot, the narrative goes at a surprising clip and each twist and turn is refreshingly bleak and shiny, repetitive with just a perfect, small salting of surprise. There's a sly humor and defiance that take the tragedy of a gay kid in a religious Christian family in which his father brutally beats him (and on occasion his mother, too) and transform each experience of brutality into a kind of quiet renewal that makes the narrator only more beautiful, more desirable, more indifferent to pain and attuned to pleasure. Everything that happens to him improves his grace and offers a new opening for sexuality. Not that his pleasure is easily understood. He is not emotionally transparent, I don't think. Inscrutable and forceful in the way he absorbs and redefines religiosity and sexuality by simply moving from one moment to the next. There's a matter-of-factness in his voice at all times (close to indifference?), a refusal to dwell on any one moment, or raise it above the rest, which is part of the tragedy and the comedy.

Once I finished the opening story, I jumped right into the next. But I was disappointed by it. I found the stories got less and less compelling and the misogyny, and particularly the contempt for lesbians and transmasculine folks, distracted and alienated me. Disappointing, but I'm still glad I read that first story. And since it's Valentine's Day, here's a little quote from it:

He left both of my eyes swollen and my nose broken. After the swelling went down my face was transformed. It looked like the faces of the saints in those little prayer cards my grandmother, the Catholic, kept in her house. For the other boys it was irresistible. They all wanted to be my boyfriend.

The preacher's son gave me an illustrated Bible for Valentine's Day. I liked to look at the pictures: Adam covered with a big fig leaf, ashamed to notice his private parts for the first time, and me with him...

(From "The Chosen One")

[El Cuaderno de Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mundo Cruel es un libro corto y divertido pero a la vez es un libro que muestra el mundo gay, pero no ese de cuerpos perfectos, hombres adinerados y lujo, su mirada se centra en esas violencia que vienen de la familia, de los ciudadanos y de la propia comunidad. Habla de seres marginados siempre con un tono de humor que pone en evidencia esa realidad aplastante que aún se vive. Este libro tiene ocho cuentos maravillosos que muestran a un Puerto Rico diferente.

El Elegido

bastante extraño y divertido. Se anuncia desde el principio que este niño no será como los otros y estaría más cerca de Jehová. Creo que este cuento habla de la violencia que se vive a diario por ser homosexual y en este caso porque el protagonista es bastante promiscuo y no es un "hombre" de la manera que quieren sus padres y la religión, además, de la hipocresía de los que se creen moralmente superiores.

El Vampiro de Moca

En este cuento aparecen tres personajes habla sobre la violencia interiorizada dentro de la misma comunidad (primero con las inquilinas lesbianas) luego por la forma en que se ríe del chico al final del cuento y por la forma en que se niega cierto personaje a aceptar que le gustan los chicos (todo esto viene dado más por el lenguaje que por una violencia física).

Por Guayama

Este cuento me pareció tan divertido, está escrito de manera epistolar. Naldi le escribe a Sammy para que le pague lo que le debe porque su perro enfermó y necesita el dinero. A partir de este suceso le empiezan a suceder eventos hilarantes al protagonista.

La Edwin

Otro libro gracioso y que me pareció tan real. El uso del lenguaje femenino entre hombres me pareció divertido, sin embargo, a Edwin es algo que no le gusta y que el narrador no deja de usar para referirse a este protagonista. Creo que refleja como la bisexualidad es vista por una parte de la comunidad gay, en la que no es aceptada del todo.

Junito

Este cuento tiene más presente la jerga puertorriqueña. Un hombre se encuentra con Junito y le cuenta que se piensa ir a Estados Unidos porque allí son más abiertos ya que sospecha que su hijo menor es pato y él no soportaría que lo molestaran o se burlaran. Le cuenta que algunos se burlan de Junito por Pato y que lo defendió porque es su amigo y no porque sea pato porque es muy hombre (lo reitera mucho)"

Botella

Un hombre casado que frecuente hombres y uno de ellos termina misteriosamente asesinado pero él se ve implicado."

Muchos

El machismo y la violencia que los padres o familiares generan en los niños porque no se comportan "como se supone que deben comportarse" y ese ridículo miedo, respaldado por las religiones, al que dirán de su familia si un hijo es gay o una hija es lesbiana. De todo eso va este cuento de mujeres chismosas que hablan de los hijos de otras.

El Jardín

Me queda una sensación de tristeza pero a la vez me enternece Nesti, Sharon y Willie. Una historia sobre los estragos del sida y sobre el deseo por un cuerpo en decadencia o a pesar de ella. Me recuerda la canción de Rozalen "Comiéndote a besos".


Mundo Cruel

Este cuento es de lo más divertido pero presenta ese clasismo imperante que se vive en la comunidad LGBTI. A pesar de que el mundo está cambiando para José y Pachi, al primero no le gusta nada poder juntarse con otros y otras que no están a su nivel o en su categoría. Para Pachi, al principio renuente, luego se deja llevar....

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

The pastor looked at me with the prophet-look he knew how to put on. I saw him look at me with anger and then his eyes saw my slutty face. Full of pleasure upon seeing me look at him that way, he revealed his rage to me. I saw his dark thick body through his damp white clothes. I saw the hairs on his wet arms, close to his skin. I saw that he saw that I saw what he saw. I saw through his white pants how inside his white cotton jockey shorts, he grew large. I saw the brothers on the shore fascinated with my beauty, looking at me. I saw Papi’s face in the distance, looking at me look. This boy is a monster, his face said. I saw Mami look at my monstrosity in Papi’s face. I turned my back on my father and my mother and looked again at that thing that was already curving over the preacher’s thigh when he immersed me in the water.

The sound of the water pressed against my ears. Among the rocks there was a beer can. Some river shrimp clung to an old tennis shoe. I saw the preacher’s feet in his blue rubber flip-flops. Then he took me out of the water and held me for a second in his arms. “You are clean,” he said to me, and winked.

***

The nine stories in Luis Negrón’s collection Mundo Cruel are, at first blush, an adroit, often sarcastic grouping of voices and personalities, each another avenue in, another set of eyes on the lives and sexual goings-on occurring in a small community in Puerto Rico—a place where homosexuality, or indeed anything sexually removed from the paint-by-numbers standard, is met with hesitation, fear, revulsion, and in many cases, violence. However, a deeper dive into Negrón’s writing strips clean the darkly comic undertones of many of these lean, economical narratives, revealing a pastiche of negativity brewing in even the most outwardly tepid of exchanges.

In “The Chosen One,” a young boy, beloved by his mother and despised by his brothers and father, falls in love with the boys and men of his church and community. “The Vampire of Moca” is a story of an at first forbidden, then unfortunately lost connection as a landlord falls in lust with his new tenant—a man who says he is straight (and is rather concerned with keeping up appearances regarding his perceived masculinity), yet is eventually claimed by the landlord’s competition.

The next three stories—“For Guayama,” “La Edwin,” and “Junito”—break form with the others in this collection. “For Guayama” is an epistolary tale, with the narrator writing letters to a friend and likely former lover regarding the pressing need for money to care for and stuff a beloved dead dog so that it may live on—in a manner of speaking.

“La Edwin” is the first of two one-sided phone conversations. It’s about a friend seemingly unwilling to commit emotionally to their sexuality and getting caught up with a little “Che Guevara” while at university:

Yeah, girl, since they can’t liberate the motherland, they’re just going to liberate themselves sexually.

“Junito” is the second one-sided phone conversation. One friend is preparing to leave the country to find work in America—Boston, specifically—in order to extricate himself from the toxicity of his homeland. Though he is straight and has a wife and kids, his friend—the unheard, unseen voice on the other end of the phone—is gay and works in the government. The first friend urges the second to abandon his current life and join them in America, where he will be less at risk for simply being who he is.

The story “Botella” is the most unexpectedly hilarious of the bunch—not at all because of the comedy of the scenario in which a man is tossed out of his home by his wife for reasons never outright stated (though likely having something to do with him sleeping around on her and getting frequent blow jobs from a number of different men), but because of the perfunctory, deadpan writing:

The bag was on top of the table and he had opened it and asked me about the bleach and I said it was to clean myself afterwards, that it kills the AIDS and he tells me that they killed Paco and that they poured bleach all over him, and he asks me if I knew anything about that and I say no, I don’t, that it was a coincidence.

He looked at me funny and then I strangled him with a cable so he wouldn’t talk.

“So Many: Or On How the Wagging Tongue Sometimes Can Cast a Spell” was unexpectedly the most unsettling story in the collection. It consists entirely of two gossiping mothers, mid-upper crust, discussing the possibility that the son of another mother might be gay, and what a damning thing that must be—and even more damning in their eyes, that the mother in question wasn’t ashamed of her own son’s possible sexuality.

The final two stories in the collection, “The Garden” and “Mundo Cruel”, were also I felt the weakest in the bunch—the former more than the latter. While “The Garden” touched upon a three-way love with a man dying of AIDS, “Mundo Cruel” took a hard surrealist turn and proposed a world where homophobia had come to a sudden end, and how some, without the fear of oppression to drive them to fight, to give them meaning, became suddenly concerned as to their place in the world.

The strength of this collection, which “So Many” expertly drives home, is its ability to reveal larger atrocities and social problems through casual, seemingly banal yet malevolent exchanges. Many of the individuals given life in Negrón’s collection are unobtrusive with their hatred, which makes it all the more uncomfortable; in the author’s portrayal of Puerto Rico, homophobia has seeped so deeply into the social strata that the detestable nature of those who’ve embraced their nascent hatred is commonplace and without remorse.

While the collection itself is a bit on the slight side, that shouldn’t be any indication to the power of the stories contained within. Through brevity of language, choosing to paint his scenes with tone and social politics rather than needless descriptive minutiae, Negrón writes like a man attempting to pull the rug out from beneath the collective feet of a nation. Mundo Cruel is a cold, penetrating read.

[BattlecatReads · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up.

This book is so G.A.Y! It starts with a story that makes that super clear and it goes on like that. Fun fact: I did not know it was gay, I went in blind, just knowing the author was Puerto Rican, so it being so queer was a pleasant surprise. I think if you are a Puerto Rican gay man (in Puerto Rico_?) and you know this particular scene these stories could hit? I am neither of those things and I thought they were mostly ok. They really felt very local and the writing style did not give me much, a lot was very dialogue-y or written as one stream of someone talking and that just doesn’t do it for me. I do appreciate that it is a style that can get you very close to the narrator and the story (which is why I think if you are a queer Puerto Rican this might work really well), but it usually is just not my thing. I bet it is better in the original Spanish, even though the translation was fine, but this style usually works better in its natural state.
The one story I really loved was The Garden about a small three person family unit preparing for one of them to die of AIDS. It was bitter sweet.
Happy to have read it, it absolutely showed me something I didn’t know before, it is objectively a good book and I would generally recommend reading it, but that is it.

[Haksito Flores · Rating 5 out of 5]

🇵🇷 “¡Acho, PR e’ otra cosa!” 🇵🇷

Qué manera más increíble de conocer la literatura de un país que todavía no he explorado. Qué cosa tan maravillosa toparse con un libro que me saque la duda de “Ash, ¿qué hijueputas estoy leyendo? Leo seis libros al mismo tiempo y cinco de ellos son basura. Estoy en mi bloqueo lector, me quemé…”

Pues, al parecer, no. Luis Negrón, hoy escogí tu libro al azar y me enamoré de tu prosa. Gracias, en serio. Es de esas pocas veces en que un lector, que en su mente siempre está jugando con la posibilidad de algún día escribir un libro, dice: “Mi perrito, qué cosa tan áspera la chimbada. ¡El marica literalmente escribe como lo escribiría yo!”. ¿Cómo es posible que un autor, en su debut y con tan solo nueve cuentos tan distintos, logre satisfacerme con su prosa?

Puerto Rico de Luis Negrón es Puerto Rico gay. Todos los cuentos comparten la mariconada o “la patería”, que sería la jerga en el español boricua. Sin embargo, no son típicos cuentos gays: es increíblemente multi-POV en su manera de presentar las cosas. Vemos todo a través de los ojos de homófobos, sacerdotes, culicagaos recién explorando sus gustos, padres que sí apoyan a sus hijos y de los que no; y, por supuesto, de los propios gays, que viven vidas no diría que miserables, pero sí llenas de desamor, traiciones, chismes, muertes de seres queridos y cachos. Todo todito, en nueve cuentos.

Y no, no dejen que el título Mundo cruel les dé ideas equivocadas. Con todo el dolor del mundo, con todos los cuchillos clavados en la espalda, TODOS los cuentos tratan el asunto gay con picor, con sazón, con mucho, mucho humor. La cantidad de veces que me reí leyendo este libro, compae… La cantidad de veces que me identifiqué con los cuentos.

El estilo del autor, aunque simplista, lo clava todo (🫦🫦🫦) desde la primera línea. La única posible barrera serían las jergas gays de Puerto Rico, pero si ya conoces las cubanas, son lo mismo (una vez más, gracias, Reinaldo Arenas). Sí, es simple, pero a veces tan poético, tan Pedro Lemebel, que me quedaba asombrado, releía los pasajes una y otra vez. Creo que es la primera vez que releo cuentos justo después de terminarlos, solo porque me gustaron tanto.

Luis, si estás leyendo esta reseña, primero que nada: gracias por hacerme reír, gracias por hacerme llorar. Segundo: por favor, convierte “Botella”, “El elegido” y “El jardín” en libros independientes, aunque sea de 100 páginas. ¡Qué cuentos tan hermosos, de verdad!

Sé que este libro ganó el Lambda Literary Award y no sé qué mondá, pero me saca la piedra que, entre tanta mediocridad en la literatura LGBT+, la gente siga leyendo basura en vez de libros como Mundo cruel.

Leer y releer x ♾️

[Dr Zorlak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cuenta el evangélico protagonista de "El elegido", que por pato,

"Cogí cachetadas, aguanté golpes de mano abierta, de puño cerrado. Pelas con correa de cuero, con hebillas, con chancletas de goma, con varitas de tamarindo y gandules enviadas por mi abuela desde Arroyo o arrancadas del palo de limón que teníamos en el patio. En cierta ocasión me inventé con mis hermanos que habíamos visto a la virgen aparecerse encima de la copa del limonero. Mami se alteró con la noticia y temiendo que la casa se llenara de católicos lo cortó y no hubo más varitas."

Este pequeño fragmento es un cuento por sí solo. Y una muestra de la energía condensada en Mundo cruel.

Luis Negrón es un gran cuentista y esta una colección maravillosa. Decir que Luis tiene buen ojo y mejor oído es quedarse corto. Luis no tiene ojo ni oído, tiene antenas. Lo cierto es que el autor sabe cómo capturar en el ámbar de su narración precisa, periodística, radiográfica, sobria y económica, una sordidez cruel no exenta de ternura, humanidad y el vértigo de quienes sucumben a la más tremenda de las tentaciones: la patería.

Su mirada es forense y antropológica: evangélicos, católicos, santeros, homosexuales, estreits, migrantes dominicanos, boricuas racistas o xenófobos, doñas que bochinchean en los tendederos de ropa, pastores que se hacen felar por feligreses, buscones de acera, buscones de playa, activistas egocéntricos y social justice warriors convencidos de que hacerse bisexuales les brinda un edge... De muchas maneras, la narrativa de Luis Negrón es la versión bien hecha de lo que intentaron hacer (sin éxito) los escritores de los 60 y 70 (excepto Manuel Ramos Otero). La clave estaba en contarlo sin fuegos artificiales, sin pantomimas, sin sentimentalismos identitarios, fríamente. La clave estaba en ser honestos. Como lo es Luis.

Mis piezas preferidas son el angelical y beato "El elegido"; el pepeliboyesco "Guayama"; y la guinda del pastel, uno de los mejores cuentos de factura puertorriqueña que he leído en los últimos años, el patético "Botella".

Aunque catalogado como literatura "queer", este libro trasciende por mucho esa temática. Los personajes de estos cuentos son homosexuales, pero lo que Luis se preocupa por retratar es la devastación afectiva, la constante deambulación en pos del placer y la identidad, y la incapacitante soledad que lentamente se apodera del espacio isleño.

Corto, de fácil y amena lectura. Altamente recomendado.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Originally Appeared in Lambda Literary


Luis Negón’s debut story collection, Mundo Cruel, is a study in verve, sass, and voice, peppered with a dash of spirituality. Short and sweet, this slim volume delivers its wisdom in one breakneck sprint through the cosmopolitan barrio of Santurce, San Juan, Puerto Rico. Negrón’s work has garnered comparisons to Manuel Puig, the late Argentine pop author best known for his novel Kiss of the Spider Woman. It’s an apt comparison. Like Puig, Negón’s prose crackles with the voice of the street, constructing deep meaning out of absurdity and satire. But Negrón is his own writer.

Presented as a play, two reactionary mothers read a queer neighbor boy (and his kin) for filth, disguising their bigotry as altruism in “So Many, or On How the Wagging Tongue Can Cast a Spell.” “The Vampire of Moca” examines the life-cycle of jealousy through the eyes of an aging queen vying for the affections of an ostensibly straight macho stud. An anointed adolescent “fag” spreads the Good News in unorthodox fashion through an eager congregation in “The Chosen One.” And, taking a somber turn, “The Garden” finds Nestito reflecting on the incarcerating nature of affection as his terminally ill lover, his lover’s sister, and he prepare to ring in the New Year.

Negrón leverages the subversive camp of queerness here, taking every opportunity to lambast bigotry and internalized homophobia in equal measure. These brilliant, tightly constructed stories are peopled with characters meant to represent a sexual polarity: either they’re out-and-proud queens, or they’re staunch heterosexuals, loath to cop to disruptive desires. Those that do trip across the no man’s land of fluid sexuality do so quickly, deliberately, and in ritualized fashion, all the better to facilitate a neat justification. Mundo Cruel is a shrewd celebration of subversion, to be sure, but for all its bravado the broader point here is a quiet reaffirmation that we all possess the innate capacity to subvert the status quo. Queerness is merely one mechanism (perhaps the most fun) by which it can be accomplished.

If you liked this, make sure to follow me on Goodreads for more reviews!

[Brian Bixler · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Goodbye cruel world,” has become a cliche in books and movies when someone is about to leap from a cliff or use some other method to bring about their demise. But readers will want to say hello to Luis Negrón’s “Mundo Cruel,” which has been translated from Spanish into English by Suzanne Jill Levine and won this year’s Lambda Literary Award for general gay fiction.

Set mostly in Santurce, Puerto Rico, Negrón’s stories explore some of the cruelties of life without ever being a downer. In fact, he interjects plenty of humor and sarcasm as he explores what it is like for gays living in the Puerto Rican culture. Not only does he examine the prejudice and bigotry toward gay people on the island, he also shows how homosexuals treat one another, which can also often be cruel.

Negrón starts the book at his most provocative with a short story about “The Chosen One,” a new son of God who lives a promiscuous lifestyle despite his piety. One can only imagine a Christian reader scratching his or her head after reading this seemingly sacrilegious story that drips with irony.

Negrón uses all types of narrative structures to drive his stories. Two women of different socio-economic strata gossip over a fence to create the dialogue for an installment titled “So Many: Or On How the Wagging Tongue Sometimes Can Cast a Spell.” One-sided conversations provide the setup and substance for a few stories, including “La Edwin” and “Junito,” the latter about a man who fears for his son growing up in the homophobic atmosphere that surrounds him.

And there are references to the AIDS crisis in the ’80s, including “The Garden,” a heart-rending, beautiful story about the close bonds created between two people when a mutual loved one is in peril.

There are nine stories in this collection and each has a different viewpoint about the human condition of gays in Puerto Rico. The stuffed dog on the cover is a creepy reminder that cruelty can take many forms, such as the nearly tragic story of an aging gay man who wants to have his beloved pet immortalized by a taxidermist. The goal leads to unexpected consequences that seemly cruelly deserved.

[Manuel Ramos · Rating 5 out of 5]

I reviewed this book for La Bloga - at this link

http://www.labloga.blogspot.com/2013/...

Here's a bit from that review: The nine short stories in this slim volume provide a strong hint that Luis Negrón is the real deal in terms of an authentic voice, a rich talent, and an insightful eye. ... There is sex in the stories, quite a bit, but these are not erotic stories, nor are they about sex. The stories also have laughter, irony, sadness, and beauty. The reader is privy to the longing of marginalized people. We share dark secrets whispered in the warm breeze of a Puerto Rican night. We watch in amazement, or horror, as the characters act out their unique daily lives. They are unaware that they are unique, and their passions, failures and triumphs are revealed only because the author took the time to explore their stories. And that's why we should read this book.

[Sub_zero · Rating 3 out of 5]

Luis Negrón es algo así como el Junot Díaz de Puerto Rico. Sus relatos acogen un luminoso y variopinto registro de voces que palpitan frescura, autenticidad y emoción carente de sentimentalismo. En concreto, las nueve historias breves aquí reunidas dan testimonio sobre la experiencia homosexual en este país de Centroamérica, un territorio salvaje e indómito donde las pasiones se perciben como vibraciones en el aire y la lujuria se antepone casi siempre al amor. Cargadas de sensualidad, exuberancia, humor y jolgorio callejero, las historias de Mundo cruel suponen una refrescante reinterpretación (o desmitificación, en algunos casos) de ciertos tópicos y lugares comunes asociados a la comunidad gay. Una lectura sorprendente y recomendable.

[lol · Rating 3 out of 5]

aunque está escrito en una forma muy simple, me gustó mucho esta colección. fue súper interesante ver una presentación lgbt con puerto rico como su ‘backdrop.’ me encantaría leer más del autor o sobre el tema.

[Lucy Johnston · Rating 4 out of 5]

getting depressed in honor of pride month 😌

[Joseph Schreiber · Rating 4 out of 5]

A striking array of marginalized voices and characters from a marginalized Puerto Rican community pass through the stories in this slender collection. Brutal and beautiful in turns, not every piece worked for me, but the ones that did were excellent. Expanded review here: https://roughghosts.com/2018/07/04/vo...

[Aaron (Typographical Era) · Rating 4 out of 5]

The nine stories that make up Luis Negron’s debut short story collection Mundo Cruel are each immediate and intense. Exploring the lives of subjects who all live in or around the barrio of Santurce, San Juan, Puerto Rico, each tale plunges the reader head first into a life in crisis and offers them a shotgun seat on a ride along to see how things will turn out. Much like real life, the results aren’t always pretty. Happy endings seem few and far between, but the voices here ooze with authenticity and each of the stories is hard to shake.

In some ways reading Negron’s Mundo Cruel is comparable to reading the Junot Diaz National Book Award nominated This is How you Lose Her. Both are short stories collections (the most obvious comparison), both present tales involving characters of a specific ethnicity as their subject (for Diaz it’s the Cuban American male) and both feature sex at the core of their stories (Diaz heterosexual, Negron homosexual.) That’s where the similarities end however.

READ MORE:
http://www.typographicalera.com/mundo...

[Joel Nichols · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mundo Cruel is a very slim volume of tiny stories that are funny, vicious and sharp. I loved the voice in these pieces, which is original, iconoclastic, hilariously funny and often sad. One great example is: (and I'm paraphrasing so forgive) when one of the characters briefly breaks the fourth wall and reflects that, like most Puerto Rican literary protagonists, he isn't sure about the role of the US in PR.

The first story ("The Chosen One") is heartbreaking for its depiction of familial homophobic violence and societal hypocrisy. The last story ("Mundo Cruel") is wildly but subtly satirical so you don't even realize you're being hosed until halfway through. And in between there vivid characters and relationships that I think will stick with a reader long after she's done with the book. Definitely read the one called "La Edwin," too, because it was hilarious.

[Ana]

No sé qué rating darle porque pienso que varía mucho de cuento a cuento. Quiero una novela full-length de Botella y El jardín, lo más pronto posible por favor y gracias; no me molestaría La Edwin, El Elegido y Mundo Cruel también. Sin embargo hay algunos de los que no mencioné que los leí y me quedé como que, ¿y?

[Richard Derus · Rating 5 out of 5]

WINNER OF THE 26th Lambda Literary Award—BEST GAY GENERAL FICTION!

[Marianna Defendini Torres · Rating 5 out of 5]

Justamente lo que necesitaba leer. ¡Buenísimo!

[Torimac · Rating 5 out of 5]

These stories may reflect the writers musings on his real every day life. There are details and background color that interests me because i now reside in Puerto Rico most of the year. It is well written and an easy read.

Going into this book, i was aware that accepting homosexuality is part of the books theme. As a heterosexual, I was still surprised and amused by how many males in the stories had hidden 'down low' behaviors. Then I remembered those were the characters he noted, to progress the stories, even if their presence seemed more common than I expected.
I may have had some sort of minor realization about humanity: having been frequently molested by older males during my first 12 years (after 12 i cant say most of them were older), maybe i made a mistake and assumed that meant their sexuality was mostly heterosexual. Maybe those who would molest children only pose as heterosexuals.

[Chilli Power · Rating 2 out of 5]

A collection of short stories about gay identity/experience in a very specific area of Puerto Rico. Some are really funny and clever, others are dull and lack substance. Short stories are hard to do well though. No story was BAD and a couple really stood out. The first story ‘The Chosen One’ is brilliant (and I would absolutely love to read an extended version!) but tbh it goes down hill a bit after that

[Julian Cortes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lo leí por recomendación de una amiga y pensé que era algo completamente distinto. Que risa esos cuentos. Escrito con una despreocupación pero un estilo también súper sólido. Pensaba de nuevo en los espacios que nos damos para el deseo, en la confianza y el cariño que se pierden en él pero lo constante que está en todo.

[Nicole-Anne Keyton (Hint of Library) · Rating 4 out of 5]

For those who've been looking for an alternative to Junot Díaz, I present Luis Negrón. In this collection of short stories, Negrón explores the intersection of machismo & queerness with punctuated satire in a community in Puerto Rico. Favorite story: "The Garden."

[Pedro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dreamlike and illuminating. Each story lingers after reading. Each story can be straight to the point but with a hint of hope. This is a book to reread.

[Ashley Owens · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 / 5 stars! Full of life, emotion, and versatility, and near perfect!

[cande · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. I’m so glad homophobia is over!!!