BookBrowse Reviews Cantoras by Caro De Robertis

BookBrowse:

A sobering exploration of life under authoritarian rule, an unabashed celebration of queer sexuality and a generous work of historical fiction.

Cantoras by Carolina De Robertis follows five characters who share a house, troubles, joys and parts of their lives over the course of three decades. They also share the secret of being "cantoras," women who are attracted to women. The Spanish word "cantora" refers to a woman singer or, as one of the characters suggestively puts it, "a woman who sings."

The novel opens under the Uruguayan military dictatorship in the late 1970s (see Beyond the Book), as four young women and one teenage girl make their way to Cabo Polonio, a remote area on the country's eastern coast. The gathering has been orchestrated by Flaca and Romina, former lovers who have remained friends. Flaca has brought her new girlfriend Anita, a woman trapped in a miserable marriage who the others soon dub "La Venus" due to her stunning beauty, and Paz, a 15-year-old Flaca met at her parents butcher shop who reminded her of her younger self. Romina has invited Malena, a taciturn and mysterious office worker who Romina assures Flaca is "one of us."

This first Cabo Polonio meeting proves to be one of many. The women are painfully aware of the potential consequences of both homosexuality and unauthorized gatherings under the dictatorship, including torture and indefinite imprisonment. Nevertheless, after tasting the freedom of the isolated coastline, where they bask in a sense of community away from the heavily surveilled streets of Montevideo, they decide to buy and fix up an old house in the area to share as a refuge between the five of them. In the following years, as they all struggle with life under authoritarianism, their meetings in Cabo Polonio are irregular and their makeshift paradise often seems like more trouble than it's worth. Still, the women maintain their shared space both literally and figuratively.

While the novel contains disturbing subject matter that some prospective readers may wish to avoid altogether (chiefly rape and conversion therapy), it delivers pleasure in equal measures. Along with tender and often intense sex scenes, it revels in the good humor and genuine delight the women find in one another's company. Surrounding both pleasure and pain, however, is the grim monotony of their everyday lives in a military state, which challenges each character in her attempts to preserve a sense of self. By focusing on the everyday while also stretching the novel out over a longer period, De Robertis is able to show the persistent and complex psychological processes that trauma, grief and love put into action.

The passage of time is a general theme in the book, and De Robertis also includes subtle and direct nods to another novel in the queer canon that does the same: Virginia Woolf's To The Lighthouse. La Venus at one point proclaims the classic work to be her "Bible" and Woolf's character Lily Briscoe "the only Jesus I need," a playful declaration that marks a moment of happiness and stability for La Venus. Not every character finds the same degree of peace and resilience. For all, however, time remains a palpable presence in the book, one that enables them to process their experiences for better or worse.

Cantoras is a self-assured masterpiece that despite its anxious moments proceeds at the unworried pace of a leisurely seaside stroll. At times the complicated multi-character plot feels fragmented, like several broken pieces piled on top of one another, but this fragmentation eventually resolves into a whole, resulting in a sensation like waves moving over one another. Reading it, you may become invested in a particular love story before it ends. You may take for granted the dictatorship and its role in the book before it, too, begins to undergo shifts and changes. But what most significantly endures is the small pocket of humanity, however imperfect, that the women have created for themselves.

This review was originally published in The BookBrowse Review in October 2019, and has been updated for the June 2020 edition. Click here to go to this issue.