OUT OF THE MIRRORED GARDEN: New Fiction by Latin American Women

A companion volume to Iguana Dreams (1992), the anthology of Latino fiction that Poey edited with her husband, novelist Virgil Suarez. The 17 stories here display a commendable range of tones and styles--though only two (Christina Peri Rossi's ""The Annunciation"" and Angeles Mastretta's ""Aunt Elvira"") connect significantly with a world outside their characters' interior lives. Of several pieces concerned with women preoccupied or brutalized by men and families, the best are Mirta Y€ez's amusing ""Go Figure"" and Elena Poniatowska's sensuous magical-realist ""The Rupture."" The other standouts include two precisely observed and emotionally resonant character portrayals, Rosario Ferr‚'s ""Amalia"" and Barbara Jacob's ""Aunt Luisita,"" and Diamela Eltit's haunting ""Even if Bathed in the Purest Waters,"" an affectingly plainspoken departure from her trademark feminist surrealism. Many of the other writers represented here will be new to most English-language readers--and they comprise, on balance, an accomplished and welcome company.