Cristina Rivera Garza is a celebrated author who grew up on the dividing line of Mexico and the US. Her Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir, LILIANA’S INVINCIBLE SUMMER, documents the life of her sister, Liliana, and Liliana’s murder in 1990 at the hands of a violent ex-boyfriend at the age of 20. She points a sharp stick at the ways in which our private pain intersects with society’s standards and twisted expectations.

Translated by Christina MacSweeney, TERRESTRIAL is a deceptively light set of tales about beings who travel --- by train, car or hitchhiking --- and are trying to live a full life despite the mandates of capitalism, patriarchy and the growing political divides of North America. There are real and surreal moments, all giving testament to Garza’s immensely readable prose and the massive imagination she harbors. She is a magical realist who also is an incisive reporter recording the multifarious emotional handicaps of humankind.

"I may have to read the book again to stay in its spell. TERRESTRIAL is a solid collection that harbors deep thoughts about the world as it exists and as we can make it."

A woman visits what she thinks is the hometown of her former lover. Two majestic herons hitchhike across Mexico. A group of workers build a new residence, which is then destroyed by the powers-that-be. These pieces are filled with wisdom and whimsy in equal measure and fit quite easily in the library of Latin American literature, which is mired in the past traditions of stories and myths mixed with the realities of the world as it has become.

Garza enjoys playing with theme and structure, bending both of them to her will. She lets you hear the sound of footsteps, the rattle of a train on the rails, the screams of birds flying over your head. Her ability to focus on soundscapes, landscapes and the interior yearnings of her cast makes TERRESTRIAL a highly cinematic journey. The travels everyone takes, no matter how exhilarating or soul-numbing, lead back to that inevitable choice: to enjoy life and keep living it with purpose, despite all the ways that the world tries to obscure and upend plans. These stories are a thunderclap, a warning of a storm that is here to be dealt with, no matter what happens. Garza’s outlook is practical and fantastic.

The road --- the hard gravel reality of the characters’ worlds --- finds some light and comfort in the sky, even though they once again will need to succumb to the forces of the earth. In the story “Herons,” Garza writes:

The silence of outer space shook us. We would undoubtedly have to come down sooner or later. We looked each other in the eyes and admitted that fact aloud: We are going to have to return sometime. We weren’t going to be immune to gravity for all eternity. We were in agreement.

But not just yet, we said in unison. 

Not just yet.

Just like I am not ready yet to leave Garza’s stories behind. I may have to read the book again to stay in its spell. TERRESTRIAL is a solid collection that harbors deep thoughts about the world as it exists and as we can make it.