Status Updates From In the Country

Loved The Kontrabida, Esmeralda, A Contract Overseas.

DNF only because my library loan was due. Will revisit soon!

Fantastic thus far.

A Contract Overseas might be my favorite story here, and I am guessing the most autobiographical. I felt as if I was walking alongside the narrator. She drew a brilliant story of a life, and the lives surrounding hers, in Saudi and in the Philippines, and a chaotic and difficult moment. Moving and edifying and beautifully written,

Esmerelda - The 9/11 story. It has lovely elements, but it doesn't seem to know what it wants to say. 9/11 is shrunken down into a vehicle for self-flagellation and self-abnegation. It all feels too cynical.

The Old Girl - Like the main character in Esmarelda, The Old Girl (that is what she calls herself) seems to have no form. She exists only in relation to her husband and children. I began to find this tedious,

The Virgin of Monte Ramon is the least engrossing of the stories so far for me. So many avenues for cruelty and for lies, to oneself and others. Folklore feels better than truth. And there is so much guilt to go around.

Shadow Families is the second story about Filipinas living with engineer husbands in Bahrain, educated women, mostly raising children who are nothing like them and building community. When a temptress shows up and rocks lives the quiet is interrupted. When the community finally dissolves the women find themselves as outsiders more like that outsider temptress than they could have imagined. .