The Colombian magazine "La Raíz Invertida" has just published a review of the book of chronicles Tal Vez Manhattan/Maybe Manhattan (Five Points, 2024) in which it highlights the exercise of rewriting its dazzling lights and the speed of its passage (sic). The review by poet and professor at the City University of New York (CUNY), Juana M. Ramos, highlights another very characteristic aspect of Escalona's literature, which is bringing to light marginality or those spaces or characters that big cities try to hide. She tells us: "In this critical approach, we find, clearly, an "opening of the eyes", that is, a showing of New York reality without any pretenses or clothing. Escalona's gaze is fresh, like a child who faces this great city for the first time, like a child who dares to say that "the emperor is naked." Of the 22 chronicles published in the magazine, the author of the review highlights "Sleeping Cars", "Every Night at Seven", "Conversations of the City" and "My Name Starbucks". Regarding the first, the author highlights that it is a text that shows the other side of the city: homelessness, poverty, mental unhealthiness, inequality, and economic insecurity. The narrator demystifies an entire narrative built based on the land of opportunities (sic). On the contrary, in the chronicles Cada Noche and Conversaciones, the narrative voice, with a positive and enthusiastic attitude, tries to demystify the rude and grumpy image that the world has of the average New Yorker. Finally, in "My Name Starbucks" where through a novel game, Escalona sees New York as a range of opportunities, including the chance to rewrite himself.
Without a doubt, Talú Manhattan / Maybe Manhattan is a narrative exercise that immerses us in a fascinating journey through the New York arteries, exploring themes as current as loneliness and identity, always from the author's assumptions.
To read the full review, click here
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