This Is Not Miami

pick

This is my first book by Melchor. It's also Melchor's first published book, but the third to be translated into English, & it feels right to start here. Based on her experiences as a journalist in her hometown Veracruz in Mexico, these brief vignettes cast a spell on me for the way it drops the reader immediately into the gritty, dark underbelly of Mexican society. Through it all, the "drug war" is the grim reality that shapes their lives.

batsy I thought Melchor's writing in Sophie Hughes' translation is beautiful & poetic & I am keen to read her novels. Melchor blends crime reportage with horror in an effortless way, but the effect is stark. The casual brutality, the way lives are devalued in the global economy of drugs, the contempt for women & their precarious position, the way state/cartel violence shapes lives & requires citizens to pretend not to see what they see. Chilling & sad. 4mo

Lindy Chilling and sad is also how I would describe the only book I‘ve read by Melchor:

Hurricane Season

4mo

TrishB @batsy @Lindy taken note of this author š‘¨š¸» 4mo

See All 18 Comments

squirrelbrain Great review! I enjoyed this one, and voted for it to be on our ToB, because I hoped we might include more books in translation. 4mo

batsy @Lindy I hope get to that next (and soon!), then Paradais (which does sound especially brutal) 4mo

batsy @squirrelbrain Thanks! Yes, we could always do with more books in translation š™š¸½ I love how we learn about the fluidity of genres in the literary traditions of other cultures. 4mo

batsy @TrishB š‘¨š¸½ 4mo

vivastory I have read just one Melchor (Hurrican Season) but I think about it a lot. Was unaware of this one, but def adding to my TBR. Esp after your wonderful review. 4mo

Lindy @batsy I had forgotten that Melchor was (is?) a journalist. This Is Not Miami sounds really good. 4mo

batsy @vivastory Thanks Scott, Hurricane Season is definitely one I have to read. (Btw I watched The Boy and the Heron and loved it. It was poignant and beautiful and reminded me in some way of Susanna Clarke's Piranesi.) 4mo

batsy @Lindy Yeah, she trained as a journalist and I'm not sure if she still is. But her ability to craft short pieces that blur the line between fact and fiction without having to embellish it with too much information really speaks to her talent. 4mo

Lindy @batsy š‘ 4mo

Hooked_on_books I completely agree. This was really good. 4mo

vivastory That's a good comparison with Piranesi! Which version did you watch? I ended up seeing the original Japanese w/ English subtitles but I have heard fantastic things about the English cast version. 4mo

batsy @Hooked_on_books Happy to hear you liked it, too! 4mo

batsy @vivastory I think we only get the original Japanese version in our cinemas. I prefer watching the original with subtitles so that worked out but yes, I heard that Pattinson did a great job! 4mo

sarahbarnes Fantastic review. I‘ve read Paradais (brutal but very good) and have been curious about this one. Stacking. 4mo

batsy @sarahbarnes Thank you! I feel like perhaps one can't go wrong with Melchor wrt her writing. But it helps to be in the right frame of mind for her uncompromising view. 4mo

85 likes4 stack adds18 comments

Jas16

This Is Not Miami | Fernanda Melchor

so-so

One of the shortest titles in the #tob24 long list, this is a collection of pieces set in Veracruz that aren‘t quite journalism and also aren‘t fiction. Vivid and bleak but propulsive, it is easy to tear through the entire collection in one sitting. However as per usual, considering my difficulties with most short stories, I struggled with the brevity of each piece. I am not the reader for this one.

squirrelbrain Sorry it didn‘t work so well for you - at least it was short! 5mo

Jas16 @squirrelbrain I am still glad that I read it and that there are many more on the list I am sure I will love. 5mo

Chelsea.Poole I don‘t always love short stories either. 5mo

42 likes3 comments

squirrelbrain

This Is Not Miami | Fernanda Melchor

pick

Another interesting read from the #ToB longlist. I can see it making the shortlist, due to the unusual style. These are ā€crónicas‘ a word which apparently has no direct translation into English. The nearest definition would probably be narrative non fiction.

I worried that this would be similar to the Booker-nominated If I Survive You, which I didn‘t really connect with, but this felt a lot warmer, involving and engrossing, with only ā¬‡ļø¸

BkClubCare, Megabooks, Hooked_on_books, Jas16, cariashley, MicheleinPhilly, Larkken, Suet624, Deblovestoread, merelybookish, batsy, Readerann, Chelsea.Poole, rmaclean4, kwmg40, BarbaraBB, RebelReader, jlhammar, Addison_Reads, Ruthiella, sarahbarnes, ImperfectCJ

squirrelbrain ā€¦one or two places where the storytelling felt like it veered into journalistic reportage and it lost me a bit. (edited) 5mo

squirrelbrain I seem to be picking all the short books so far, but just had a copy of Idlewild delivered that is a bit of a chunkster! š 5mo

sarahbarnes Great review. Stacking this one from the list. 5mo

See All 7 Comments

BarbaraBB This sounds like my kind of book! 5mo

Jas16 I think you and I picked up the same books from the long list to get started with! 5mo

squirrelbrain Great minds think alike! @Jas16 5mo

Hooked_on_books I liked this one, too. I found it really intriguing. 5mo

73 likes3 stack adds7 comments

Hooked_on_books

This Is Not Miami | Fernanda Melchor

pick

Falling somewhere between fact and fiction, This is Not Miami paints a picture of Veracruz, Mexico, focusing on the underbelly: a woman accused of murdering her children, a possibly haunted house, the introduction of crack, and more. I found this fully absorbing and thought provoking.

NBA longlist, translated literature

Cinfhen Sounds fabulous!!! 7mo

Hooked_on_books @Cinfhen It is! I‘m so glad it‘s on the longlist, because I didn‘t get along with one of her books before and thus would not have read this otherwise. It‘s a book of short pieces, some more like essays and others more like short stories, which also hangs together really well as a whole. I‘m so glad I read it! 7mo

Cinfhen Definitely on my radar now - thanks for sharing š’ 7mo

43 likes2 stack adds3 comments

Pinta

This Is Not Miami | Fernanda Melchor

so-so

Unflinching shorts on narcoterrorism & violence in her native Veracruz, this time in ā€relatosā€¯ (not fiction, not journalism). When does it become exploitative? Melchior at her best when making readers uncomfortable, but is this telling what‘s best for the subjects? Decries dehumanizing, stock roles projected on certain women, yet she herself sensationalizes some subjects (is the murderous beauty queen now a ghost?). Intentional irony? Trans. 2023

15 likes

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