Unquestionably, one of the most characteristic qualities of Valenzuela's prose is the plurality to which Cortázar has referred [see excerpt above], for her work inevitably offers or even demands a multiplicity of readings and interpretations. At times deceptively simple, always subtly political and/or feminist but never sententious, her prose rarely offers solutions to the problems it posits, for that is not her intent. Instead, her work examines life, reality and sociopolitical structures from different vantage points and in a variety of contexts in order to suggest new definitions or even a plurality of interpretations for situations not necessarily recognized as problematic. Much of the wealth and beauty of her writing resides in the fact that she often touches upon areas and topics which are ostensibly irrefragable, already settled or even taboo.

In this respect her work continually undermines social and political myths, but unlike so many...