"Now We Will Be Happy"

I wasn’t quite sure what to think about “Now We Will Be Happy” by Amina Gautier. I was thoroughly confused when I read the second chapter and realized it was a whole new story. I didn’t gather that this book was a book of collected stories before I started reading. I found it very interesting when I realized that “Now We Will Be Happy” is a sequel to “Muneca,” but it came first in the book. I think she did a great job at writing a short story and then followed it up with a prequel. So, my first question is “If you were to do something similar, would you put the prequel first in the book or the sequel?” I was also intrigued to find that all of the characters in the stories are Hispanic of some sort. It made for an interesting point of view. I haven’t read very many stories with Hispanic characters so it was really interesting to read and gave me a couple of ideas on what to do in my future stories. All of these characters had different stories with different backgrounds. Gautier really broadened her horizons and didn’t repeat the same idea. My second question is “Do you develop different characters like Gautier or do your characters have similar characteristics?” I keep venturing back to “Now We Will Be Happy” and “Muneca.” I loved the storyline, but I feel like it has been done so many times. The guy hits the girl. The girl is afraid to leave. The girl has feelings for someone else but she feels trapped in her marriage. The guy promises he will never do it again and asks her why she made him do it. It’s a classic domestic violence story. I think that Gautier has a broader imagination than that. I think she could have come up with a story that no one else has ever done before. This leads me to my third question. “As a writer, do you tend to write about subjects that you’re comfortable with and know or do you go above and beyond outside of the box?” In my opinion, we tend to write what we know and about themes that we have read about before. Gautier, in my opinion, does that in these two stories; however, the other stories in this book are like nothing I’ve ever read before. Going back to characters, it was nice to see that all of the characters had some sort of hard background. Her characters worked for what they have and you don’t see that in all the novels and stories today. I think this shows us about herself. Gautier worked hard to get to where she is today and she shows us that through her characters. It’s a very common thing for writers to do when writing a story. We tend to reflect our characters off of ourselves. I’m guilty of it. I’m sure each and every one of us are. It tells people about what kind of people we are. I think that’s what Gautier was doing in these stories. She could have been showing us how strong she is and how much of a hard worker she is. Her stories are truly a work of art. I believe I liked the second half of “Now We Will Be Happy” better than I liked the first half. I do have to say though, I don’t think “The Last Hurricane” worked like Gautier thought it would. I didn’t understand the purpose of the story and it was really hard to follow. It didn’t seem to fit in along with these other stories. I don’t really know what she was trying to accomplish with this story. I just didn’t understand it. My first question is this, “What do you think the purpose of this story is and why do you think she put it where she did?” I finally realized what she was doing when she created a story with several different parts and broke them up throughout the book. She was building suspense. There are several different stories in this book that are parts of the same story. Gautier broke them apart and mixed them in with other stories to surprise the reader. She knew that these stories would be cliff-hangers and she wanted to make sure her readers wanted more. I also noticed how she connected two of the stories. The stories with Rosa and Pedro became one with Esteban and his grandparents. It was a very nice way of doing it. To be able to take two different stories with completely different characters and combine them the way she did, it’s a true talent. Their lives fit in together so well. Before then, I had no idea that these stories could all be happening in the same town. It opened my eyes and really made me see the true picture. The story with the candles, “A Wish, Like a Candle, Burns,” was some story. For a man to make his family leave their mentally challenged daughter, he’s an absolute monster. Then, he cheats on his wife with a lady his sister had talked to. If I were to guess, I would have to say that his sister told to girl that she would be able to fall in love with him. To me, this story spoke to me. It told me that you can’t really trust anyone, not even your family. Anyone will turn on you. I think Gautier really captured the way many people’s lives are in today’s society. “Remembering” has a whole different feel to it. It was all too real. The father snatched his sons out of their mother’s house because he didn’t want them to be confused for as black kids. He also didn’t want them to lose their Spanish. This story just goes to show that a mother never forgets her children, not even their faces. A mother’s love is like no other. The oldest son ended up resenting his father. This story line is all too common in today’s societies. I think that with quite a few of these stories that Gautier was trying to humanize the way today’s world is, especially when it comes to families. She wrote stories on topics that we don’t talk about. When I say “we,” I mean society as a whole. No one talks about domestic violence. No one talks about adultery. No one talks about special needs kids. Gautier wasn’t afraid to talk about these topics and she did so exceptionally well. To make matters even better, she incorporated different races to show that no race is dominant. I think all of these aspects worked really well for her as an author.