Kelly is an instructor of creative writing and literature at several colleges in Illinois. In this essay, Kelly explores the ways in which Magda's gender and social class make her the ideal narrator for the story that she tells.

The triumph of Tessa Bridal's 1997 novel, The Tree of Red Stars, is not that it introduces contemporary American readers to the political upheaval in Uruguay in the 1960s and 1970s. In fact, the political situation surrounding the events of the book is somewhat under-explained, left to function as a frightening shadow and not really examined in much detail. Like much in totalitarian countries, the political dynamic that drives the actions of the characters in this novel is shrouded behind a veil of lies and destroyed evidence. Read as a novel about Uruguayan history, this book can only hope to sensitize readers to the signs of what a government...