The University of Arizona Press
May 21, 2020
Chicanx studies professor, writer and visual artist Maceo Montoyarecently penned a review of University of Arizona Press author Daniel Chacón‘s short story collection, Kafka in a Skirt: Stories from the Wall.
The review, published in the New York Journal of Books, captures Chacón’s literary landscape that pushes Chicanx literature to a bigger and ever-evolving universe.
https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/kafka-skirt-storiesYou can read the entire review here.
Chacón has no qualms about identifying as a Chicano writer. In “The Hidden Order of Things,” he offers us a path to contextualize his work: “This is a work of Chicano literature. Most readers will know that before they buy the book or before they open it, and Chicano literature is one of the fibers of the Latinx literary fabric.”
At the same time, Chacón has created a universe all his own. Beginning with Unending Rooms: Stories (Black Lawrence Press, 2008) and Hotel Juarez: Stories, Rooms, and Loops (Arte Público Press, 2013), Chacón has refused any boundaries on what Chicanx fiction should look like. Yes, he’s interested in identity and his stories explore what it means to straddle cultures, nations, languages—all very Chicanx themes—but he pushes these concepts further, beyond the limiting dichotomy of Mexico and the U.S., Spanish and English, brown and white.
