Published in 2024, this is a collection of stories by an immigrant writer from Brazil now living in the US.
Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil, by Ananda Lima; 179 pages.

An interesting collection. Some of the stories seem likely to have been modeled directly on the writer’s life and experiences as an immigrant during some the United States’s more recent political upheavals – MAGA, Trump, covid. But all filtered through a lens of fiction. Questions of what it means to be an immigrant, a human, a writer, a woman. While other stories carry that same sensation, but with less obvious self-reference.
Now, obviously, it is entirely possible that the writer has actually had none of the described experiences, is crafting fiction from whole cloth, from tales of other folks’s experiences.
Or perhaps there exist a mix within the collection, semi-related as they are.
Whatever the case may be, whatever the source material may be, this question does not inform the quality of the pieces in the collection.
The stories are generally well-crafted. Internally consistent. Consistent in tone and style and content. Some are more fantastical, dreamlike. Some could easily be copied verbatim from a person’s journal. But they all remain consistent. Some are reasonably thought-provoking, while others are lighter fare. Basic entertainment.

But here’s the thing.
I found myself thinking less about the stories themselves than about the writer. How she as a person was reflected in the stories. Part of this is due to the stylistic choice the writer makes to insert into many of the stories a character called “the writer.” Whether this “writer” simply a wholly fictional character, or is a character based on the writer herself, or IS the writer herself? You’d have to track Ms. Lima down and ask her. But the subtext is, like the stories themselves, consistent.
Life as an immigrant in the modern United States is not easy. Can be unpleasant. Can be dangerous. Especially as a woman. And a person of color. But there are also hints that the writer’s life before immigration was…in some ways privileged.
And the acknowledgments at the back of the book reference dozens of people forming a massive support network.
All of which informs and changes how one reads and understands the stories, even after the fact of reading.

So. Yeah. One gigantic pile of meta-fiction contained within a relatively slender volume. I, as a reader, was left in some ways unsatisfied by the lack of resolution that is a consequence of stories crafted on the basis of actual life events. Not disappointed; just..unfulfilled. I wanted more clarity, which is definitely a greater property of fiction than of “real life.”
I don’t know. I feel like I ought, perhaps, to not write this review until my reactions are more settled, more defined. But. This…unsettled reaction. This is the pure reaction.
Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil is a modestly challenging work. Challenges can be rewarding or frustrating. It is up the person experiencing the challenge to determine HOW they experience it. So maybe give this collection a chance, see how it challenges you. And then let me know.