The Bitch - Colombia 🇨🇴

Set on the Colombian Pacific coast, this short, incisive novel packs a punch in the stomach. The Bitch, by Pilar Quintana, narrates the experiences of Damaris, a lonely, middle-aged black woman who lives in a simple village near Buenaventura, and adopts a small dog.

In an apathetic marriage with Rogelio, Damaris couldn't be a mother and faced the difficulties of a simple and poor life. Motherhood, or the lack of it, is striking in the book. It ends up defining who Damaris is.

With this feeling of absence, Damaris adopts a female puppy from a litter destined not to survive. She showers the puppy with care and pampering. She called her Chirli, the name of the daughter she never had. Despite all her devotion, inside her, she fears people's reactions when they see such love.

Incredibly sensitive, Quintana shows us the reality of Damaris and her painful past as she clings to the bitch. We see Damaris changing like the climate when it changes from good to bad weather or the movement of the tides when it shows the dark sand, full of mud and trash. Nature controls the rhythm of life, and the sea takes on the shape of a monster. She enters 'the age when a woman dries up', and the bitch follows her animal nature.

Disquieting and moving, we are carried away by Damaris' thoughts and feelings. The more the story develops, the more ambiguous the meaning of the book's title becomes. In the original language, in Portuguese (the language I read the text), or in English, we can use The Bitch as an insult to a woman, as if she were a woman of little or no value. So, who would be the bitch in the title? Chirli or Damaris? Would Damaris be less of a woman for not having children and being mistreated by life like a lonely bitch on the street?

Class and race differences are the main part of the story. They are the scenery. We see them in the areas of the town: the paved street area for the rich white people and the sand streets for the poor, black, and indigenous people. They are also part of the violence and guilt in the lives of Damaris and her family.

SPOILER ALERT

Damaris told herself that no one would ever confuse them with the owners. They were a group of poorly dressed black people that used rich stuff. Insolents, that's what people would think, and Damaris wanted to die because, for her, being insolent was something as terrible or inappropriate as incest or a crime.

It is a text with simple and direct language, without frills, and creates an instigating and painful story. It's well-written and difficult to stop reading. In an interview, Quintana said that it was hard for fiction to compete with reality. But she reached very close in this book.

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About the Writer

Pilar Quintana (1972) is known for her short stories with sharp themes and violence. She is an award-winning Colombian writer and it is on the first list of Bogota39. She is a well-known voice in contemporary Latin American Literature. Her book The Bitch was translated into 15 languages.

Other Books: Cosquillas en la lengua (2003), Coleccionistas de polvos raros (2007), Violación (2014), Conspiración Iguana (2009) Caperucita se come al lobo (2010) and Abyss (2023)