Anita de Monte Laughs Last | Xochitl Gonzalez

It's about art. It's about power dynamics in the art world It's about women finding their voices and using their power. It's about academia. And it's also magical realism.

I'd read Olga Dies Dreaming (love the alliteration thing going on with the titles) and really liked it. And I think I like this one even better.

The title character is Anita de Monte but the story is drive by Raquel, an art history student at Brown who uncovers the buried and forgotten work of Anita while exploring her thesis on Anita's husband, world-famous artist Jack Martin. The novel is told with these parallel stories of two talented Latina women who are suppressed by the dominant white male power structure in the art world and in academia. It's pretty clear from the title what happens, but how it happens is beautifully rendered in this novel. I found the story empowering and I hope young women agree. There's so much great magical realism written by Latina women authors and I love that Gonzalez works that into this story in a really creative way.