Gabriella's Reviews > Sabrina & Corina

This book ends with the origin tale of the Navajo people, which is a cool inversion. In Sabrina & Corina, Kali Fajardo-Anstine's debut collection of short stories, this "reorder" seems to be the form that follows function--we wind up at the beginning of time, and enter stories at the end of a character's life, relationship, hometown, or their memory of these things.

This is likely a sign of my own ignorance, but I didn't know much (read: ANYTHING) about the indigenous and Latinx populations of Colorado before reading this book, and so in addition to reorganizing narrative time, Fajardo-Anstine also introduces many readers to Old Denver, its architectural and communal beauty, and its narrative permanence even in the midst of the ongoing gentrification, displacement, and yuppie reinvention of her native city. These stories include really thoughtful discussions of space, family, and belonging, which are some of my favorite issues to see discussed on the page. Even better, unlike some of the other millennial POC stories I've been reading lately, Fajardo-Anstine's characters aren't over-explained for the sake of an assumed white audience: she trusts that her readers are--or want to honestly meet--the people in her family and community.

Like my Goodreads friend Thomas noted , some of these stories tend to linger on the dysfunctional tethers of family, and are a bit too rushed to linger in moments of true intimacy. While there is usually a general inclusion of a well-meaning elder woman (nice to know there are praying grandmothers in Colorado!), by about the sixth story, this begins to feel like not enough. I agree with Hoolia's comment on Thomas' review that Fajardo-Anstine's novel will surely fix this, as we'll have more time than these (very-short) stories allow to see the core of these character's relationships, as well as their understandable dysfunction and apathy.

On that note, I cannot wait to read her novel, Woman of Light, which will be an inter-generational tale about a Colorado family! Kali Fajardo-Anstine has found an early fan in me, and I look forward to her future work.