cover image What Is Secret: Stories by Chilean Women

What Is Secret: Stories by Chilean Women

. White Pine Press (NY), $17 (304pp) ISBN 978-1-877727-41-2

""Is, in fact, writing a subversive impulse for women, as opposed to what men rather vaingloriously define as craftsmanship?"" This question is posed by the narrator of a Lucia Guerra story addressing an Argentine writer, but it reverberates throughout this outstanding collection. To compile what is touted as the first-ever collection of Chilean women's writing, Agosin searched ""the great books of literary history"" but, she says, ""the panorama was desolate, so I perused marginal journals and old fashion magazines. It was there...that I heard the voices of these long-lost women."" Given the number of translators, there is an incredible smoothness of tone here. And, perhaps reflecting their sources, female concerns are central. Ana Vasquez's secretary gets invited to an artsy gathering and worries over what to wear and how to act. In a wonderful run-on monologue, Marta Blanco's newly pregnant woman runs the gamut of emotions. Agata Gligo's mother must explain to the police how, although she only has two children, seven bicycles have been stolen from them. Given Agosin's emphasis on each story's reflection of ""the woman who wrote it and of her historical situation."" it is really too bad that the stories aren't dated. Still, this is an important work and it is also a great read. (Mar.)