Cousins

March 27, 2023
Argentine writer Venturini makes her posthumous English-language debut with a sordid and morbidly funny tale of sexual violence, first published in 2007 when she was 85. Yuna is a gifted art student in La Plata, Argentina, who supports her disabled younger sister, Betina, and their single mother. Under the auspices of her professor José, Yuna becomes a rising star. But despite her reputation and success as an artist, she struggles to protect Betina and their cousins Carina and Petra from sexual predators, including a neighbor and another character whose misdeeds are a surprise. Yuna narrates her family’s tragedies in spiraling and sometimes spectacular run-on sentences, professing that punctuation tires her out. Through keen and quirky observations, she finds humor in the darkness, “The end of everything is dessert. I once thought when looking at a dead gentleman in a coffin enveloped by the big embroidered napkin, or whatever it is, that he looked like a dessert being served up to someone.” Cousin Petra, a sex worker, teaches Yuna that while the men in their orbit commit rape as naturally as breathing, there is always room for revenge while the wronged yet live. Short, sharp, and startling, this will surely have readers eager to see more of Venturini’s special derangement. Agent: Sandra Pareja, Massie & McQuilkin Literary.

Starred review from March 15, 2023
What to do when the grotesque is the norm in your family, your surroundings, your life? Make art out of it. An enigmatic young Argentinian woman with a quirky command of language, Yuna Riglos narrates Venturini's bizarre and mordant tale of misogyny and misunderstanding. She and her sister, Betina, are being raised by a strict schoolteacher mother whose husband left the household years earlier. Yuna and Betina are both considered disabled, although Yuna's difficulties are more subtle and fluid than her sister's multiple physical and emotional disabilities (some of which lead to unfortunate physical manifestations). Yuna's aunt--her mother's sister, Nen�--has two girls as well, one of whom was born with a type of dwarfism. Yuna's challenges (beyond those presented by her distressing environment) involve a lack of facility with language; for example, punctuation exhausts her, and she consults a dictionary constantly (with sometimes-comedic results) in order to record her thoughts on the events of her life. The only factor in Yuna's favor is her extraordinary talent as a painter, which allows her to convey the brutal realities of life around her and also rid herself of the "mess" in her head. Yuna and her cousins suffer a variety of assaults, crimes, and indignities at the hands and genitals of the men in their orbit, with varying degrees of damage done. Yuna's instinctive and underinformed efforts to create a more tolerable life for herself result in what may be considered growth but might not be considered success. Venturini was 85 years old and had produced more than 40 novels by the time she won an Argentinian literary prize for this work in 2007. It's now been translated from Spanish to English, for the first time, by Maude. A brutal, visceral, and vivid story told in an unforgettable voice.

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September 6, 2024
Argentine writer Venturini (1922-2015) was 85 and had written more than 40 books prior to Cousins, which came to be considered her masterpiece when it was published in 2007. Translated into English for the first time, it is a distinctly voiced and darkly humorous coming-of-age story. Yuna and her sister Betina are both considered disabled. But whereas Betina's disabilities are outwardly visible and severe, Yuna's are related to difficulties reading and writing. She consistently relates words she discovers in the dictionary, is exhausted by punctuation, and thinks of herself as stupid and both her and Betina as freaks. Yuna's cousin Petra is another, as she was born with a type of dwarfism. Yuna takes refuge in her art, which grabs the attention of a professor who helps make a name for her. The men in Yuna's life, starting with her absent father and ending with the professor, are horrible misogynists prone to sexual assault. Venturini's writing is singular and memorable, in turn making Yuna singular and memorable. Some readers may be offended by the way Venturini discusses disability, while others may be intrigued to discover something so irreverent and offbeat.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.