La otra mitad de la vida.

• Author: Mujica, Barbara
• Position: Review of story collection by Carmen Cecilia Suarez - Book Review

by Carmen Cecilia Suarez. Bogota: La Serpiente Emplumada, 2002.

The twelve stories that comprise La otra mitad de la vida explore male-female relationships from the perspectives of women of all ages, but in particular, of older women. Delicately poetic, these stories surprise and delight with their unusual angles and unexpected conclusions.

Although the author is Colombian, her protagonists are from a variety of cultures. In "Un hogar de Lagos" (A Household in Lagos) several wives in a polygamous household express the joys and frustrations of sharing a husband and domestic duties with other women. From Fatima, the eldest wife, to Kanchana, the daughter of the youngest wife, these characters articulate the changes in attitudes and expectations of Nigerian women.

Some stories illustrate the mysteries of femininity that link women of different ethnicities or time periods. In "Hay un sitio en tu pais que te espera" (There's a Place in Your Country Waiting for You), a writer visiting Boston is fascinated by stories of sorcery and learns she was once a witch in a previous life. When she visits Europe, she is drawn to the Celtic temples that celebrate female spirituality. Upon returning home, she feels inexplicably at home in ancient Indian ruins imbued with the same sense of sacred female power. In "La chica de la chicheria" (The Chicheria Girl), a nineteenth-century barmaid who works in a kind of saloon where the alcoholic drink called chicha is served reappears in a Bogota inn a century later performing exactly the same duties in exactly the same way. The title story, "La otra mitad de la vida" (The Other Half of Life) is, more than a narrative, a long meditation on female sexuality that embraces the lives of women from diverse social contexts.

Several stories explore the transcendent quality of love. For example, in "Rito" (Rite) a girl who sneaks out at night to meet her lover in the Casa de la Independencia, in La Candelaria, Bogota. Eventually caught and killed by her ultra-traditionalist father, she still haunts...