(Reviewed by JD Jung)
#CommissionsEarned
“Who is the person who makes a life out of our leftovers? And, more specifically, what makes us who we are?”
Griselda, a researcher, studies those who inhabit the Juárez city dump. She balances that with helping to care for her aunt in El Paso who is suffering from dementia. She travels across the border between the two cities to conduct her work with her team.
However, she is just one of the three women who live totally different lives and are featured in this riveting novel. Street-smart Alicia has lived in the Juárez city dump for years, though she still looks quite young. An aging trans matriarch of sex workers known as Reyna Grande, is trying to save enough money to go back to live among her remaining family members in Ecatepec, Mexico.
Each chapter goes back and forth between each of these women’s perspectives. You briefly wonder how each of their lives will tie in but get too caught up in their individual stories to actually care. Then it all comes together in breathtaking fashion, in ways that you would never imagine.
Author Sylvia Aguilar-Zéleny writes with such clarity, that readers will feel that they can actually smell the stench of the dump and the sweetness of the perfume worn by those in the city. However, the differences in people may not be all that they seem.
There are so many aspects of the human condition that are explored here, such as family history, abandonment, survival, gender, aging, power, violence, and love. Add to that, all those who must travel across country borders daily. This may seem like a lot to cover, but it all fits in well to make this an absorbing and heartfelt story.
Trash is a such a mesmeric and unique novel that you won’t be able to put down.
