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Tax-exempt? | Sky over El Nido "Mother rescued the three zebras that escaped from the London zoo"-so begins the first story in this whirlwind collection by C. M. Mayo. Though Mayo's characters ricochet around the globe in search of diversion, money, enlightenment, cachet, and escape, she sets many of the stories in Sky Over El Nido in Mexico. This is not the gringo's Mexico of margaritas, mariachis, and inscrutable house servants, but a fin-de-siècle world where a Mexican boy who guards tourists' cars for small change wears a T-shirt that says "Six Flags Over Georgia." Mayo's strangely beautiful yet disturbing stories reveal characters who envision the solutions to their lives in a world where nothing is stable, nothing can be nailed down, and we are all suddenly, dizzyingly faced with sharing the same pitiless sky. A native of Texas, C. M. Mayo now lives in Mexico City. She has published stories in the Paris Review, the Southwest Review, the Northwest Review, and the Quarterly. ISBN 0820321192 paper • $18.95 176 pp. • 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 in.A volume in the seriesThe Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction "C.M. Mayo writes some of the most exquisitely fashioned, perfectly measured prose alive in the world today. Her stories glitter with delicious odd details. They feel electrically charged, richly mysterious, and rhythmic. I love her layering of cultures, her offbeat humor, her potent instinct for voices. Bravo! Captivating! Yes, yes, yes!" —Commonweal"A remarkable literary debut." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)"Will keep many readers eagerly turning pages. . . . A very promising debut." —Los Angeles TimesThis first collection of Mayo's stories, which won the Flannery O'Connor award for short fiction, is characterized by a fine eye for detail. The author sets the pieces in Mexico and in cosmopolitan areas throughout the world. From the opening story, in which a jaded upper-class Mexican matron muses episodically on her ambivalent relationship with her recently deceased mother (revealing telling aspects of both women's characters), to the riveting hallucinations of a young woman freezing to death in a snowstorm to the perceptions of a political prisoner, Mayo demonstrates mastery of a range of settings and characters. Her primary theme is the ironic juxtaposition of extreme poverty and affluence, occasionally presented a bit heavy-handedly, as in "Davy Whittlespoon Rex." She narrates lives of quiet, but more often defiant, desperation. This is a promising debut, suitable for general and undergraduate collections.-- B. H. Leeds, Central Connecticut State University. © American Library Association. CHOICE, 04/01/1996The stories are somewhat fantastic and can startle the reader with their occasional macabre details. The first story, "Chabela del Rio y de la Fuente Contreras, Thrice Married (Once Divorced), Reflects on Her Relationship with Her Mother While Lying on Her Bed, Mexico City, 1990," introduces that aspect with Chabela contemplating a woman who once rescued three zebras that had escaped from the London zoo. In that regard, and in the offbeat humor, her work is reminiscent of Flannery O'Connor's. And like that old master, Mayo is addictive and her collection has a unity that is very satisfying. (Reviewed Oct. 15, 1995) -- Bonnie Smothers. Booklist, published by the American Library Association. |
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