The queen of swords

"Who on earth was Elena Garro?" Mexican writer and publisher Barrera confesses she has fallen in love with her enigmatic subject, Garro (1916-1988), a prolific writer of plays, prose, and poetry who is considered a founder of magical realism. Translated by MacSweeney, Barrera's investigation is no biographical narrative, but rather a collage of "stories, ideas, facts, and cats." The facts include Garro's growing up wealthy in Mexico, meeting Octavio Paz at a ball at her aunt's house, marrying him against her parents' objections (they threatened to send her to a convent), and enduring his womanizing and cruelty. Right after they married, she dropped out of college to accompany him to a writers' congress in Spain, a difficult trip that she turned into an "endearing, charismatic" memoir decades later. A much more difficult fact was Garro's recurring poverty; Barrera chronicles Paz's refusal to support his wife and their daughter, Helenita. At the age of 4, the girl, living with Paz's mother, was raped and infected with gonorrhea by his stepfather. Yet Paz sent her back to live there, and she was raped again. Garro and Paz separated, reunited, and lived in the U.S., Mexico, and Europe. In Paris, Garro's friends included André Breton, Picasso, and Sartre; she had an affair with Argentine writer Bioy Casares (among others), but still she was desperately lonely and attempted suicide several times, once drugging Helenita, too. In the end, her daughter was her only companion, along with as many as 13 cats. Both mother and daughter turned into chronic invalids, suffering from agoraphobia and paranoia. Tarot became a comfort, "almost always corroborating their misfortunes and attributing them to a destiny over which they had no control." Barrera admits that spending more than two years inside Garro's life--even dreaming about her--was exhausting, so why she fell in love with her remains a mystery. A prismatic portrait of an elusive woman. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

A LIFE ON THE RUN The beginning, at least, is clear. In 1916, in the small Asturian town of Cangas de  Onís, a Mexican woman named Esperanza Navarro learned that her Spanish husband,  José Antonio Garro, was having an affair with her cousin. Esperanza was eight  months pregnant and understandably furious. So, she sold her jewels and set out with  her two-year-old daughter, Devaki, for the port of Vigo. There, she boarded a ship  bound for Veracruz, from where she took a train, with the intention of eventually  reaching Mexico City. Losing the race against her biological clock, she went into  labor in Puebla, where her sister Consuelo lived. On December 11, 1916, Elena  Delfina Garro Navarro was born. And thus, while still in the womb, began a life on  the run. Excerpted from The Queen of Swords by Jazmina Barrera All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.