Miss Florence's Trunk

by Ana Lydia Vega

98 pages, Unknown Binding

About the author

Recipient of both the Premio Juan Rulfo (1982) and the Premio Casa de las Américas (1981). Vega belongs to a generation of Puerto Rican writers that has integrated into their writing mordant reflections on the ambiguous political status of their island nation. Ana Lydia Vega pursued an academic career as a professor of both French literature and Caribbean studies at the same time that she became an accomplished author.

Reviews

[leni swagger · Rating 3 out of 5]

From now on, I will review all of the books discussed in the lecture with an outrageous quote said by my professors that will never receive any context. As a girl, I liked this book, but I liked my guest lecturer's phrasing better:

"While adventure stories are catered towards male audiences, plantation novels are mainly loved by women"

[Kurt Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this novella in _Masterworks of Latin American Short Fiction_ which according to the introduction, is from a Puerto Rican author, Vega, in the post-boom era / style. While it does deal with Latin America, specifically, Caribbean, I found it had little in common with other material from Latin American, except the shadow of Colonialism and being originally written in Spanish. It's primary social issue is slavery, which is abundant in literature from the United States, although here it is sugar cane, not cotton or tobacco.

Stylistically, I found shades of _Wuthering Heights_ (the estate being a character itself, especially in part II), southern Gothic / Faulkner (the same decaying estate, and slave/master relations). It features a governess at estate ala Jane Austen or Charlotte Bronte (even mentioned) with a hidden toxic love relationship with an incorrigible head of household ala _Jane Eyre_ , or perhaps being in the Caribbean, a nod to Rhys's _Wide Sargasso Sea_ , and a forgotten wife (emotionally) captive in the upper reaches of the estate.

Being in a Latin American anthology, I was expecting it to veer into magic realism or some sort of supernatural or horror tale. It didn't. Still, it all feels very familiar, and would be recommended to those who liked any or all of those books. While it is a very good imitation, it really offers nothing new; just more of the same.

3.5/5 stars bumped to 4 stars to support an underrepresented Puerto Rican voice.