Liliana's Invincible Summer

The language is very haphazard. Not fun to read in English. Probably original language is different and much better

Hadn’t read books in a while and my sisters and I decided to read this book together. We definitely loved it.

RIVERA GARZA, CRISTINA. LILIANA’S INVINCIBLE SUMMER, (EL VERANO INVENSIBLE DE LILIANA) (2023) Por alguna razón, todavía no está en Kindle la versión en español por lo que la leí en inglés, pero el libro físico sí está en español. La autora recientemente ganó el prestigioso Premio Pulitzer por esta crónica del asesinato de su hermana Liliana, estudiante de arquitectura a la que mató, seguramente, un exnovio celoso y controlador. Con mucho amor y dolor nos narra sus intentos de desenterrar la investigación ya que, más de 30 años después, el asesino no ha sido encontrado ni castigado. Nos cuenta la historia de Liliana que va reconstruyendo con las notas, escritos y apuntes que encuentra entre las pocas cosas que de ella quedaron. La historia de una muchacha de 20 años buena, estudiosa, con sus amores, sus inseguridades, sus aspiraciones, en fin, una joven inocente a la que le cortaron la vida porque no se dejó, no se sometió, quiso ser libre e independiente. Muy bueno.

I am deeply impressed about the author’s sensitivity to write about this extremely ugly and sad topic. A must reading for everyone because this kind of things are not unique for Mexico…

This comment does in no way reflect the quality of Ms Garza's work. - This recent title was sent as a print-on-demand copy. Quality looks ok but not what I wanted to buy.

I wanted to love this book. I am a University of Houston grad—albeit many years ago—and I was pleased to see that someone from my alma mater had won a Pulitzer. However, I found much of the book, those pages taken up by Liliana’s writing, indecipherable. While I think I understand the author’s urgent need to preserve her sister’s thoughts, I felt many of those pages, reprinted in a thin, slanted font, just didn’t make sense. (I did wonder if my inability to fully grasp their meaning is due to cultural differences.) Cristina Rivera Garza’s own writing is lyrical and beautiful. I especially admire the first chapter that so eloquently captures the frustration of wading through mindless bureaucracy and paperwork. And the final chapters that so beautifully portray the anguish of grief. But in the middle, I wondered if she didn’t rely too heavily on a single source (Snyder’s book) about abused women. Surely she did other research? All in all, this book was a mixed bag for me.