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A review by rettaroo
Bruja by Wendy C. Ortiz
I am often unsatisfied or disappointed with memoirs. This is because I usually can't help but notice, then fixate, on what is missing or left out of the narrative. I find myself constantly trying to peek around the edges of the narrative for what is not there.
Perhaps this is why I enjoyed Bruja so much. In this dreamoir, Ortiz seems to begin by pulling back the edges of "veracity" and "narrative" and gives the reader all that is so frequently left out of memoir. As if in a dream, I was transported and drifted into the passages - deeply moved even as I was simultaneously and paradoxically disoriented. The internal logic then, for me, came from the juxtaposition of the vignettes and what I started calling dream-Wendy's reoccurring interactions with objects, animals, and people.
Perhaps this is why I enjoyed Bruja so much. In this dreamoir, Ortiz seems to begin by pulling back the edges of "veracity" and "narrative" and gives the reader all that is so frequently left out of memoir. As if in a dream, I was transported and drifted into the passages - deeply moved even as I was simultaneously and paradoxically disoriented. The internal logic then, for me, came from the juxtaposition of the vignettes and what I started calling dream-Wendy's reoccurring interactions with objects, animals, and people.