AMORA

Women in love: the good, the bad, and the still-figuring-it-out.

In her second short story collection and third book, Brazilian writer and translator Borges Polesso explores the depths of amorous relationships between women young and old, married and single, out and closeted, independent and cripplingly co-dependent—but first and foremost, in love. In “Aunties,” a pair of older women, both called “Tia” by the narrator, reveal they’ve been in love for decades and want to marry before they die. A married mother is having an unexpected affair in “Como Te Extraño, Clara” and is suddenly forced to confront her husband about this much-younger woman. In “Catch the Heart Red-Handed,” a young woman has been falling for a friend, and the two finally confront their mutual attraction at a messy college party. Borges Polesso’s characters struggle to move beyond their internalized heteronormativity, such as the soccer player in “Thick Legs” who realizes years later how many of her high school teammates are also lesbian or the woman in “My Cousin’s in Town” who tells her co-workers that her live-in girlfriend is her visiting cousin. Tension results as characters are forced to mask their intentions or to contend with other women who are concealing theirs. Borges Polesso splits the book into two sections: “Big & Juicy,” which includes 22 short stories, and “Short & Tart,” comprising 11 prose poems. After the first few stories the actions and entanglements of Borges Polesso’s characters begin to feel recycled while the poems offer welcome insight into their more abstract thoughts and feelings.

A romp through 33 stories of lesbian love but rather circular and expected.