'Anita de Monte Laughs Last' is a complex dissection of art, gender and marriage
Xochitl Gonzalez's novel looking at relationship power dynamics is a thought-provoking and brilliantly entertaining triumph that surpasses the promise of her popular debut Olga Dies Dreaming.
Anita de Monte Laughs Last is a fantastic riff on a recurring theme in film and life: Anatomy of a Fall. A Star Is Born. Ben and Jen. And of course, the twice married and twice divorced Liz and Dick. The common theme: when one star rises, another falters. And, when it's the woman's star eclipsing her husband's, trouble naturally follows.
This dynamic is terrifically drawn by Xochitl Gonzalez in as it explores relationships doomed by power imbalances. In 1998, Raquel Toro is a Puerto Rican, working class, first generation college student at Brown University, famously the most bohemian and reputationally liberal of Ivies, at least in the abstract. At first, she plans
