In 'Anita de Monte Laughs Last, Gonzalez skillfully constructs a narrative that spans two tumultuous decades, delving into the lives of two extraordinary women, Anita and Raquel. Set against the backdrop of the shifting cultural landscapes of the 1980s and 1990s, the novel explores themes of resilience, ambition, and justice with depth and nuance.

Anita, a spirited Cuban artist, grapples with the stifling control of her domineering husband, Jack, as she strives for artistic recognition. Gonzalez expertly captures the tension between Anita's creative aspirations and the oppressive forces in her life. Tragedy strikes when Anita falls victim to her husband's jealousy, igniting a quest for justice that propels the narrative forward.

In contrast, Raquel, a determined Hispanic student attending a prestigious American college, confronts societal expectations and prejudice in her pursuit of success. Through Raquel's experiences navigating relationships and societal divides, Gonzalez offers a poignant exploration of privilege and cultural identity.

The E-Book could be improved and more user-friendly, such as links to the chapters, no significant gaps between words and a cover for the book would be better. It is very document-like instead of a book. A star has been deducted because of this.

This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and I would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

Gripping and emotional, this book has stayed with me in the days since I finished it. Jumping across timelines, it follows Cuban artist Anita in the 80s and her tumultuous relationship with Jack Martin. It then jumps to the 90s where we follow Raquel, who's considering completing her studies around Martin's work.

From there, we put together the life Anita had as an artist who was kept down and how we eventually lead to her death. This was intense but really fantastic. I'm hoping it finds its audience because it truly deserves it.

Overall I enjoyed this book, I did find the book a bit of a slow start and I kept waiting for the storylines to cross over. It really picked up in the last third and I enjoyed the book a lot more. I did enjoy the magical realism and the element of people who have passed get energy from people talking about them. I would give this 3.75/5. Thank you for net galley for my ARC.

Anita De Monte Laughs Last by Xochitl Gonzalez.

Oh how excited I was to read this! If you’ve been following me here for a while you may remember how obsessed I was with Gonzalez’ first novel, Olga Dies Dreaming. It’s still one of my favourite books to come from the US over the past few years, so I was dying to read Gonzalez’ next work.

In 1985, Anita de Monte is a rising star in the art world, but is unexpectedly found dead in New York City. By 1998 Anita’s name has been all but forgotten until Raquel, a third-year art history student, is preparing her final thesis and learns about De Monte’s tragic death and the circumstances around it. It is told from the perspective of both women and explores women of colour’s position in the elite art world, and the power dynamics at play.

Surprise surprise: I loved this book. I think this novel has cemented Xochitl Gonzalez as an auto-buy author for me. The New York she writes about is full of life, and her characters are multi-layered. The whole oppressed vs the oppressor concept is done really well in this book, particularly the idea of women squeezing themselves into a perfect parcel of what their men want them to be. And most importantly, how they break through that barrier.

It has been pointed out that this story is based on the artist Ana Mendieta, a Cuban artist who died in NYC in 1985 after falling from her 34th-floor apartment, where she lived with her husband of eight months, a sculptor. There’s a podcast about this case (Death of an Artist) which I HAVE to listen to now that I’ve finished Anita.

I did think the start of this book was quite slow to get going, but that’s the only fault I can find. I’m sure if I were to re-read it right now, I wouldn’t find it as slow. Once the story did start to pick up its pace, I was hooked. There is an element of magical realism, in which the dead artist comes back to life as a bat 🦇, so some readers might find this a bit too weird. I however, loved it.

I’m already looking forward to re-reading this in the future. Congrats to @xochitltheg for this wonderful piece of work.

Thank you to @bloomsburypublishing for the chance to read an advanced copy of this book!

Really enjoyed this. I liked the writing style and the different perspectives, although could have done with less of Jack’s! The characters were interesting and had depth. Would like to read more of Gonzalez’s writing in the future.

Anita de Monte is a rising star in the art world, paving out a new path for Latina artists. But her life is cut short when she's found dead in 1985. By 1998 her work has been erased and forgotten until a final year student, Raquel, unearths de Monte's work and finds similar parallels with her own life. This novel has a fascinating premise and asks important questions about race, gender, privilege and whose stories get told. There were aspects that were very well done but I found almost all the characters to be unlikeable and difficult to root for. Personally, I also found the genre shift a little galling at points. Regardless, I found the idea of an artist being erased and rediscovered interesting and thought provoking.

I so so enjoyed Anita de Monte Laughs Last. My first exposure to Gonzalez’s writing, I found her characters engaging and the different timelines and perspectives made for a real page turner.

I have recommended this book to my audience, particularly for those who enjoy books about art, NYC or questioning the status quo.

I was a bit confused by the absence of any mention of Ana Mendieta in the book (the parallels are evident for anyone familiar with Mendiata’s story). Perhaps it is a legal issue, but it does feel strange given the theme of an artist’s agency over their story and their work.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publishers for the eARC.

This book was on every 'most anticipated for 2024' list I read and I can totally see why - it's a really engaging narrative spanning 40 or so years and with an inventive spin I hadn't expected from the blurb. I loved spending time with both of the protagonists across their respective decades and would highly recommend this novel. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Really enjoyed this one!
Anita de Monte is a young, up and coming Cuban artist in 1989s New York, that is until she meets her sudden and untimely death. This is not a spoiler and happens right at the beginning of the novel! Raquel is an art history student at Brown, who years later, discovers Anita’s dynamic work whilst studying Anita’s husband, Jack Martin, who since her death has become a household name.

There are many parallels between the two women and Raquel is drawn to Anita and her work, particularly as both are/were Latina women trying to make it in a heavily male-influenced sector.

I’m not usually a magical realism fan but thought it was really well done and I enjoyed the flow of the story and reading from the different perspectives of Anita, Raquel and Jack.

Raquel felt a pang of guilt. She... realised that she'd been there for five hours; five hours of a deep dive into Anita de Monte's death and she'd never done her the decency of looking at her work.

I liked Xóchitl González's original, genre-bending debut Olga Dies Dreaming, although I had some reservations; in particular, I felt important political tensions were swept under the carpet in favour of prioritising the characters' personal journeys. Her sophomore effort, Anita De Monte Laughs Last, is more straightforwardly right-on and so more coherent, but also less interesting. Anita de Monte is a Cuban-American artist whose 'body art', moulded out of earth, flowers and grass, never got the attention it deserved after she was murdered by her white husband Jack Martin in 1985, a crime which was swept under the carpet by the art world. A decade or so on, Raquel is a Puerto Rican art history student at Brown who's been convinced by her white male advisor to do her senior thesis on Jack, and is entangled in a coercive relationship with yet another elite white man (a trope that pops up in a number of these contemporary novels about women of colour, such as Ela Lee's Jaded and Natasha Brown's Assembly, and is becoming a little tired, as these posh white guys are such an easy target). But as Raquel continues to research, she digs up Anita's 'forgotten' story.

The dual timeline was a big weakness of this novel for me, as Raquel's sections are more richly imagined - González is good on her messy, warm relationships with her mum and sister, and her uncomfortable flitting between the 'Third World' group and the 'Art History Girls' on campus. In contrast, Anita's story is tropey, with Jack a simplistic villain, and the writing noticeably worse (once Anita is dead, she becomes especially fond of using a lot of exclamation marks!!!!). I wondered if it would have been better to root the novel entirely in the late 1990s. But ultimately, what's led me to rate this relatively low is the way in which González draws so heavily on the life of Ana Mendieta and yet leaves her unacknowledged. This review gives important context for the novel and made me question whether González's choices here are ethical, especially given that Mendieta's family have expressed their concern that there is too much attention paid to her death and not enough to her art in a stream of recent depictions: 'How many times does she have to fall?'. González tries to mark out the differences between her novel and Mendieta's life by noting her use of magical realism: 'After Anita falls in the book, she turns into a bat.' But I actually found this made the use of Mendieta's story even more problematic, not less, as the butterfly effect of this decision means that, weirdly, Jack is actually partly absolved of some of his later actions, such as trying to suppress Anita's art, because he's being driven mad by an angry ghost. Uncomfortable reading, but perhaps not for the right reasons.

Hmm... this is a weird one. This novel covers two stories across two timelines. The first is that of Cuban artist Anita de Monte married to a successful white artist set in the last 1970s and early 1980s. In their story we see how Anita initially puts her art on hold to support that of her partner and then husband before realising that there is more to her than that. After her death in the mid 1980s her work disappears from the art scene and she is forgotten about.
Then in the late 1990s we have young student Raquel preparing to go in to her final year of study and who initially picks a thesis topic not because it's what truly interests her but because it's what she thinks will please her tutor. Raquel gets an opportunity to work as an intern before starting as her thesis and during this time, discovers the work of Anita. Whilst all this is going on she is also in a relationship with a white art student from a privileged and wealthy background who isn't quite as talented as he thinks he is.
I found this story slow to get going; the very early days of Anita's story didn't really grasp me. It wasn't until she started tow work on her own art again then I found her more interesting. As for Raquel, where I found her story start to get very compelling was once she discovers Anita de Monte's work. The haunting of Andre by Anita I found loved. How her ability to haunt is driven by how much her work is being seen or talked about in the real world is something I loved.
So what makes this a weird book for me? Well when I finished it I gave it 4 stars as I found that the stories really picked up in the second half. However as it's' now about 3 weeks since I finished this book I still consider a strong 3.5 stars but I have no idea whether it's 3 or 4 in terms of rounding! I think I'll leave it at 4 for now as I really enjoyed the way that Raquel found her strength a she studied Anita's art.
Thanks to Netgalley and Bloomsbury for the advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Didn't really connect with this book. Not sure why. Possibly a slightly confusing time line, I'm not sure. I didn't really care enough about the characters. Shame as when I read the blurb I thought I'd love it.I may go back and read again as it might just grow on me

I have just finished this book, it really crept into my heart. I loved it.

I really enjoyed this author's first book, Olga Diies Dreaming and was delighted to get my hands on Gonzalez new novel.

This one took a little while to fully grab me but trust me, stick with it. Told from two perspectives and a dual timeline, this book is clever, funny and such an entertaining read.

In 1985 Anita was finding fame in the art world until she was found dead. Initially her death was all everyone could talk about until she was forgotten. 13 years later, Raquel , a final year art student comes across the story of Anita begins to draw parallels between her life and Anita's and Anita is no longer forgotten.
Enraging, frustrating, enlightening and strangely beautiful and unexpectedly moving. I love how this author writes so sharply and with wisdom and humour. I cannot wait to read whatever she writes next.

Anita de Monte Laughs Last by Xochitl Gonzalez
Happy Publication Day to this incredible new novel by Xochitl Gonzalez.
I was thrilled to get an ARC of her new novel which appeared on some many most anticipated reads of 2024 lists/

Drawing inspiration from Ana Mendieta’s life and her untimely death falling from the 34th floor of a New York apartment—a mystery involving her spouse Carl Andre.

The books narrative unfolds across two decades. We meet our eponymous hero Anita de Monte, an emerging Cuban artist in the vibrant New York art scene of the '70s and '80s. Her path crosses with Jack Martin, a luminary sculptor, leading to a fiery and volatile relationship . When she falls to her death from an apartment window the question remains was it the act of an “unbalanced” woman or murder?

We then meet Raquel, a young Latinx woman studying art history in Brown in the late 1990s. S truggling to fit into this space and fears that she is just an affirmative action student,her world changes when Nick Fitzsimmons enters her life. However, echoes of Anita’s past quickly surface in Raquel’s relationship with Nick, revealing a pattern of manipulation and coercive control.

Anita may not have been able to help herself in life but in death, manages to avenge those who wronged her and help sothers along the way

I absolutely loved this book – i t s such a brilliant exploration of the white male-dominated art world and sheds light on the oppressive structures within the art community and the way people can close ranks on diverse voices.

The two main female characters were fantastic and the two central, utterly vile, male characters were incredibly well portrayed. Chapters from Jack’s point of view added such a layer of intensity and I could feel my blood starting to boil each time we got his perspective which made Anita’s last laugh all the more satisfying. They say revenge is a dish best served cold and this book certainly highlights that.

Highly recommend!

Thanks so much to Netgalley and publisher Bloomsbury for the advance review copy

Anyone who has followed me on here for a while will know that magical realism isn't really my thing, I find it a struggle in books to feel fully invested where the plot hinges on magical realism. This book started off not so promising for me - some fairly dull dialogue, a dual narrative that was just too similar and more than a touch of magical realism - a third of the way in I considered giving up and putting the book aside. I stuck with it though, and I'm glad I did as I ended up really enjoying it.

Why? The book is imbued with a strong feminist spirit and it's wickedly funny at times in its skewering of the art world and one particular pale male stale artist (Anita's husband Jack Martin). The story of Anita de Monte is inspired by the story of real-life artist Ana Mendieta, a Cuban-born emerging artist in 1980s New York (to whom the book is dedicated) who died prematurely in mysterious circumstances (always intriguing and reinforces that truth is stranger than fiction).

The eponymous Anita de Monte is a Cuban-born artist in New York in 1985, married to renowned artist Jack Martin. As she begins to eclipse his illustrious career, a domestic argument between them results in a tragedy. Fast forward 13 years later, and Raquel, a Cuban-born art student is studying at Brown under the tutelage of one of Jack Martin's biggest fans and scholars. When Raquel begins a relationship with a budding artist (white, male, privileged Nick who shows more than shades of Jack Martin in his controlling personality), she loses her identity and her way a little, until Anita opens Raquel's eyes to the art world's abuses and failings of women, and in particular women of colour.

There are elements of the book that don't fully work - the book's main plot really hinges on being set in a pre-internet era, which is fine except that not much time has elapsed since Anita de Monte lived for things to have really changed. The magical realism I've mentioned might be a sticking point for some readers, but I liked that it was a little wild and comical - Anita de Monte as a bat pecking at heads disturbed and entertained me in equal measure!

This was a book that started slow but gathered pace and carried me along with it, A fun, escapist, literary read that speaks to feminism, art and the importance of speaking truth to power. Anita de Monte does indeed laugh last. 4/5 stars

This was such an interesting premise, however I struggled with the writing! I thought the characters were well fleshed out, and I really got to understand the inner workings of the main characters mind. I also enjoyed the slight thriller element to it, I just wish I connected with the writing a bit more!

Anita de Monte Laughs Last
by Xochitl Gonzalez

Based on the shocking death of a real life Cuban American artist who plunged from a 34th story window in Greenwich Village in 1985, this is a reimagining of her tempestuous marriage and the part her ambitious sculptor husband may have played in her death and the narrative of the unhinged, hysterical Hispanic goes unchallenged.

More than a decade later, Raquel is an art history student in a predominantly white college in Providence. Surrounded by micro-aggressions and exoticised by her love interest, Raquel's life has many similarities to Anita's, and the more research Raquel does on Jack's body of work, the more we learn about Anita's forgotten oeuvre.

As in Gonzalez' breakout success "Olga Dies Dreaming" which I loved, the tone is witty but biting, the voices are distinct and the central theme is of cultural divide. Add to this a strong dose of toxic masculinity, coercive control, female rage and empowerment.

I didn't love this quite as much as Olga. I wish the male characters were written with a bit more nuance to make the marriage of Anita and Jack more believable and to understand what Raquel saw in Nick. It also took me some effort to get into the story after the first explosive chapter. It all kicks off in the last third, which I'm glad I held out for because that title says it all.

I'm looking forward to this author's next book and her fiesty characters with their snarky humour.

Publication Date: 5th March 2024
Thanks to #NetGalley and #bloomsburyuk for the ARC.

Upon reading the blurb for this book, I was instantly captivated, particularly by its focus on art and the shared experience of Anita and Raquel. However, I found myself struggling to engage with the story. While I could appreciate the narrative once I delved into a chapter, I lacked the motivation to continue beyond that. Nonetheless, I believe this book has the potential to be enjoyed by many readers, though personally, it didn't quite achieve that level of enjoyment for me.

On September 8th, 1985, Cuban American artist Ana Mendieta plunged to her death from the window of a 34th floor apartment in Greenwich Village. Alone inside the apartment was her art star husband, minimalist sculptor Carl Andre. Andre was tried and acquitted for Mendieta’s murder, after a brief lull, his career continued to thrive. The narrative spun by Andre – and the white, art establishment who quickly closed ranks against Mendieta – was that his wife was unstable, an “hysterical Hispanic” who likely sacrificed herself because of her bizarre beliefs. Then, and now, successive feminist groups have worked to challenge this image of Mendieta, a pioneering performance and Land artist. And there have been fierce protests against the “not guilty” verdict awarded to Andre.

Xochitl Gonzalez’s novel is a reimagining of the life, and afterlife, of Mendieta, here reframed as Anita de Monte married to older, iconic artist Jack Martin. Gonzalez builds on themes of history, memory, culture and the body that were key to Mendieta’s work. Gonzalez also draws on aspects of her own background through the character of Raquel Toro – who like Gonzalez – leaves her home in Brooklyn to study art history at an upscale, predominantly-white university. Gonzalez story parallels Anita’s experiences in the 1980s with Raquel’s in the late 1990s. A move that provides the space for Gonzalez to tackle broader issues around art, women and ethnicity, and the white men whose work has dominated art history. In addition, Gonzalez explores culture shock, economic and class divides alongside domestic abuse and coercive control. It’s an ambitious, sometimes passionate piece, a work centred on cultural reclamation and cultural resistance, but Gonzalez’s emphasis on immediacy and storytelling manages to make it accessible and relatable.

Raquel is a particularly sympathetic figure, desperately staving off a stream of microaggressions, caught between worlds, no longer sure who she is or what she wants. Initially swayed by her white professor’s obsessive regard for Jack Martin’s work, it’s only when she uncovers Martin’s past and the near-buried work of Anita de Monte that she’s finally able to make sense of her own situation. I loved the ideas, and the barely-suppressed rage, driving Gonzalez’s story but some of her creative choices didn’t entirely convince me. The inclusion of Jack’s voice allowed Gonzalez to recreate the aftermath of Mendieta’s death, as well as the ways in which his position as sole inheritor of her work stifled her legacy – definite echoes of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath here. But I think many of the episodes featuring Jack might’ve been better left to the imagination. He often felt too much like a stock villain which sometimes undermined the overall force of the narrative. I liked too the image of Anita as a spectre haunting Jack and the New York artworld which so callously discarded her and her work. However, Gonzalez’s plot twist involving Anita’s transformation into something akin to a creature of the night was a step too far for me. But, flaws aside, this was a fairly compelling read, frequently moving and thought-provoking.

Rating: 3 to 3.5

DNF on page 140

I've resisted doing this because this is my most anticipated release of the year, but sadly I must have give up. I'm not enjoying reading this and that's a shame. I find the characters to be boring, the art talk to be great for putting me to sleep and the plot? I can't tell you what this is about these many pages in.
I thought surely by the 100 page mark I'd develop some interest but no. I'm more bored now than when I started. For this reason I have to quit because no book is worth this much effort. Even the themes which is what made the author's previous book such a fascinating read are not present. I can't tell you a single thing the book is trying to say.


Maybe you need to care about art to enjoy this one. I'll pick up the author's future works because this is not it.