PositiveFull Stop... remarkable ... Slash and Burn’s namelessness...points to the pervasion of fear, suspicion, and what cannot be openly articulated in a country at war ... This law of silence, or fear to speak, is conveyed expertly by Hernández’s sparse prose, its arms-length third person indirect narration, which seems to hold the reader at a distance from events, not quite welcoming them in as a trusted confidante ... the translation requires multiple descriptors to distinguish between the protagonist’s four daughters ... This technique works brilliantly at making visible the connections between characters, highlighting the familial, relational, and political ties that bind any society, and the ripple effects of war’s consequences beyond its immediate protagonists. Yet, as a literary device it also creates an often confusing narrative where it can be difficult for the reader to make out which daughter is the subject at any one time ... This ambiguity though is obviously Hernández’s point. The persistent anonymity of the novel indicates how it refuses to completely fulfill the testimonial impetus or fully endorse the idea of healing through storytelling after conflict ... Rather than simply commenting on what cannot be said during war, Slash and Burn is a commentary on the ongoing silences and continuation of violence even long after the signing of a peace agreement, which was supposed to consign violence to the past and usher in a new era of peace, democracy, and prosperity.
Gabriela Wiener, trans. by Jennifer Adcock and Lucy Greaves
PositiveFull Stop\"What is most powerful about the collection is Wiener’s audacious and immersive style, skilfully captured in English translation by experienced translators Lucy Greaves and Jennifer Adcock. Like the gonzo journalists she is compared to, there is no pretense at objectivity. The author fearlessly throws herself into what the reader would regard as uncomfortable, or even risky situations as part of her quest to provide faithful and honest accounts of personal experience ... Wiener is a good writer. She also knows how to consistently elevate her engaging, chatty style to the higher heights of more literary expression... However, at times Wiener’s personal narrative, her intense desire to document experience and put herself in extreme circumstances to unveil some deeper truth, actually seems to take precedence over that deeper truth itself ... Nonetheless, Sexographies is a promising example of how Latin American cronistas are experimenting with literary journalism.\
