El conversador y otros relatos. (The Conversationalist and Other Stories)

By staff -- Críticas, 10/15/2007

A well-known author of several books on human sexuality, Mexican psychologist and sexologist Ochoa here reveals her skills as a literary writer and her extraordinary mastery of language in six short stories and a novella. The collection’s unifying theme is human sexual behavior as conditioned or influenced by culture. Other themes explored are sexual diversity, gender identity and inequality, feminine sexuality, and machismo. Human sexuality is not an easy topic to address, but Ochoa succeeds by taking an approach that is at once comic, enlightening, and, above all, entertaining. Each piece depicts real-life situations to which readers can easily relate. The novella, which unfolds the thoughts and emotions of principal characters Rubén—el conversador (“talker”)—and retired psychologist Mario Rotaeta as seen through their dialog, reveals the human passions hidden beneath words. The word games acquire new meaning, catching readers’ interest and making them laugh.—Ketty Rodríguez, Univ. of Puerto Rico