Anita de Monte Laughs Last tells the story of the artist Anita de Monte and her fraught marriage to Jack Martin, ultimately ending in her death in 1985, and Raquel, a student of art history studying Jack Martin in 1998, trying to navigate issues of class, race, and gender at Brown. The story is told through the eyes of Anita, Raquel, and Jack, and it is a really interesting look into art history and who gets to make art and tell stories about art. There were times in the beginning where the pacing was a bit off, with conversations seeming to take too long to get to the point, but by the end I thought the pacing was excellent and I was really invested in the character's stories. All of the characters had really unique voices and I particularly enjoyed the portions told from Anita's perspective. The voice actors for the audiobook also did an excellent job. I highly recommend that anyone who enjoyed this book to look into the inspiration for this story and learn more about the artist Ana Mendieta.

Loved the dual timeline and the story lines. It truly is amazing how much things are still so male-centered.

4.25 out of 5. Beautiful exploration of the female, and the colored female at that, role in the art world and in life. The interaction between the two women, Anita and Raquel is quite lovely and how ones downfall mirrors the other's empowerment. I have to say I hated in sight the male characters, so i found it so annoying how much they fall for these idiots, but at least they learn their lessons in the end.

Anita de Monte Laughs Last by Xochitl Gonzalez is a passionate book about the lives of Anita de Monts, an artist from Cuba, Raquel Torro, an art history major in college, and Jack Martin, Anita's husband. The book takes place between 1985 and 1998. Anita de Monte is an upcoming artist that is just begining to get noticed in the art world. Anita and Jack has had a very passionate relationship throughout the history that they have been together. One night when Anita and Jack's arguments get out of control the unthinkable happens. It forever changes their lives. Fast forward to 1998, Raquel is doing her indergrad theis on Jack Martin and his carrer as an artist. Raquel soon finds out about Anita de Monte and wanders why she has not even heard about her in any of her classes. This book has so much passion from Anita that you feel the anger that she has for Jack. Anita is also very passionate about his love for him also. Anita just wants to be recongized for her talent as an artist and not just Jack's wife. Raquel wants to be notice as herself, a yound hispanic girl going to art school in New York and not trying to blend in the other students. Nick, Raquel's boyfriend tries to change her but Raquel soon discovers that she is her own person and doesn't need to be changed. I loved everything about this book from begining to end. A must read for everyone;.

I was excited to receive an ARC copy of Xochitl Gonzalez's new book, after having read Olga Dies Dreaming last year. I enjoyed her new novel much more, as the story felt more cohesive, taking fewer twists and turns that were unexpected. The story does jump time periods between the 80s and 90s, but it wasn't hard to follow -- the weirdest part was trying to remember what times were like in the late 90s before cell phones and things. The story follows an artist, Anita de Monte, in the 80s who is murdered by her husband, and an art history major, Raquel, in the 90s who is uncovering the murder for the first time in her studies, since it, like Latina artists, were omitted from the curriculum. In a journey of finding herself, Raquel must decide for herself if she's willing to repeat the history that Anita suffered through or pave a new rode, where she sees her self-worth in a white, male-dominated field.

I received an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Anita de Monte is a passionate Latina artist, rising in the art world when she dies unexpectedly in 1985, her famous and narcissistic artist husband, Jack is accused, and acquitted of the murder and soon after Anita’s name is forgotten. In present day, there is the parallel life of Raquel, a Latina art history student who is pushed by her advisor to study Jack, as Raquel is simultaneously falling for a well connected artist. While studying Jack and learning about Anita, Raquel begins to see the connections between Anita’s marriage and her own relationship dynamics.

This novel examines love, culture, socio-economic dynamics and who gets to define art and determine who is allowed into the hallowed halls of the elite.

I didn’t love this book until about 40% in and then I ended up absolutely loving it. I do think the audio is an acquired taste however; I generally love audio, but this one for me would have done better as a read and not a listen. There is a lot of yelling and passion and I just didn’t enjoy that personally (but I know someone else who loved it), I’m a quiet person so that’s just a personal preference. However, the messages and story were so well told and the story resonated with me well after I was finished. I know this is based on a real person and I need to look her up. This will probably be a top read for the year for me.

4.5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for the ARC to review

This book!!! I LOVED it! So many highlights and themes I enjoy - dark academia vibes, the mysterious death of a Cuban artist, the erasure of minorities in the art scene, sexism, racism, tokenism, microaggressions, and white privilege. Gonzalez tackles all these topics and executes them brilliantly.

The mystery and Anita’s story mirror the true story of Ana Mendieta. Google Ana’s life story only after you've read the book to avoid spoilers. Fascinating! In the book, I love how Gonzalez draws parallels between Anita and Raquel's stories. Despite 15 years separating them, both characters push against white spaces, proving that their voices hold value. This is one of the best feminine rage stories that I've read in a long time.

I paired the physical book with the audiobook. The narration by Jessica Pimentel, Jonathan Gregg, and Stacy Gonzalez is exceptional and will undoubtedly be in my top five favorite audiobooks by the end of 2024! These three narrators performed like a well-conducted orchestra. I usually listen to audiobooks quietly, but I was so engrossed in Anita and Raquel’s story that I found myself laughing out loud MANY times (Gonzalez’s writing is hilarious) and yelling, “What an a$$hole!” or “You're f😡cking kidding me!” to all the white privilege that tried to limit, change, or prevent Anita and Raquel from shining.

What a story! This twisted tale of art and love and power blew me away. The narration is amazing and really brings Anita's perspective to life. The back and forth in the timelines and narrational shifts at pivotal inflection points builds so much momentum and tension. This story inspired and enraged me in equal parts. The investigation of the ways we subtly change for others and the power we possess when we express our true selves feels so raw as it's show through Raquel and Anita's narratives. The two women are vastly different but also so similar in a way that highlights the universality of the feminine condition.

This also sent me down a rabbit hole reading more about Ana Mendieta, the artist who inspires this story. I had never heard of her and I'm so glad this story introduced me to her art and her life.

Highly recommend this book and the audio in particular.

*Minor spoilers below*

Ana Mendieta was a Cuban-American performance artist in the 1980s. Her career was gaining traction when, in 1985, she fell from the window of her 34th-floor NY apartment. The only other person in the apartment at the time was her husband. He was charged with her murder, but less than a year later, he was acquitted of the charges.

This is the story that inspired Anita de Monte Laughs Last.

PLOT
Anita de Monte is living in America with her celebrated artist husband, Jack Martin. But their marriage is fraught with tension and resentment -- Anita feels Jack does not respect her work as an artist and instead expects her to be the perfect little wife; nothing but a piece of his well cultivated persona. When Anita's work starts getting more notice and acclaim, Jack begins to grow increasingly jealous. (view spoiler)

Fast forward to the year 1998, Anita de Monte is all but forgotten. Enter Raquel, an art history student working on her thesis at a very prestigious university. Raquel often feels like a bit of an outsider, she is a minority at the school and did not come from the same privileged upbringing as most of her classmates.

While attending an art exhibit for a friend, Raquel meets Nick, a fellow student and rising star in the art world. The two become inseparable (view spoiler)

All the while the ghost of Anita is trapped without power and without hope. An artist puts pieces of their soul into their art; when their art is alive, so are they. But Anita's art has not been alive in over a decade, instead hidden away in storage lockers and basements, put their by her husband. She waits for the day when her art (her 'babies' as she calls them) will be seen and appreciated once again.

PEOPLE
In Anita de Monte Laughs Last we follow three separate POVs: Anita, Raquel and Jack

I loved Anita. She was ANRGY -- and who can blame her? I was angry too. I listened to the audio version of this and I thought the narrator who voiced Anita was spot on. I saw some reviews that thought she was a little *intense* but I ATE. IT. UP. Anita was angry. she wanted revenge. she wanted her life back. The way she was narrated reflected that. <-- all that being said, maybe turn down the volume during Anita's POV if you listen to the audio.

I thought Jack's POV was really interesting, and again the narrator was talented, but sometimes Jacks villainy was borderline caricature-ish. He said all the villain like things and thought all the villain like thoughts. the only thing missing was a swivel chair and a dramatic cackle. Still, I liked the hauntings from his perspective. I don't think they would have felt as spooky told from a different POV.

And lastly we have Raquel. The problem I had with Raquel was the number of times she made me want to like shake her and scream "GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR BOYFRIENDS ASS". It was so frustrating to watch her be controlled and belittled CONSTANTLY. But her experience is actually a reality for a lot of women, and that is partly why its so damn frustrating. We see her loosing herself in this relationship, prioritizing him over her, trying to mold herself into *his* perfect woman. AND IT MADE ME SO MAD. And (view spoiler)

FINAL THOUGHTS
This is a great revenge story. Its a great haunting story. But it's also a great story about the struggle to fit into a world that does not accept you, and finding pride within yourself and your roots.

I Recommend this book if you like:
Contemporary Art
Hip Hop
Revenge
Hauntings
Female Rage

TW:
death
murder
eating disorders
domestic abuse
coercive control


Siri play “Little Girl Gone” by Chinchilla

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the arc

I loved this book. The narrators were fantastic. The narrator for Anita used a great amount of passion.

Told in alternating perspectives over two timelines, Anita de Monte Laughs Last was compelling from the start. It covers the way women, particularly ethnic women, are pushed to the side in the art world to make space for men.

I think Raquel could have discovered Anita a bit earlier in the book and lent more to the story of her discovery, but overall it’s well done.

This story follows three perspectives: Anita De Monte: an up and coming Cuban artist in the 1980s; Jack Martin: a famous playboy minimalist artist and sculptor; and Raquel Toro: a grad student in the art history department at Brown University in the late 1990s.

When Raquel starts researching Jack Martin and the same time she starts dating Nick, she thinks she has “made it.” But once she discovers Anita’s mysterious death and her relationship with Jack Martin, she starts to see her relationship in a different light.

This book was extremely entertaining while dealing with some heavy topics. The underlying story of how “history belongs to the victors” shows how voices can be silenced with small (sometimes unintended) actions.

The parallels between Anita and Raquel were purposeful but not overdone. I am proud of the story for going in the direction it did in the end and not allowing cycles of abuse to continue.

I really enjoyed this novel and anyone who appreciates art would love it too!

If you’re interested in getting into audiobooks, I would recommend this one! The actors do a phenomenal job bringing the story and characters to life - the energy makes it hard to drift away from the story!

I really enjoyed Gonzalez’ first book - Olga Dies Dreaming - but this one didn’t work for me. It felt very drawn out, and while I think the audiobook was great, it didn’t work for my personal listening style. I liked the parallel stories but didn’t care for the third POV. Where I really had a hard time was when one of the POVs shifts (it would be a spoiler to say more than that!).

I am grateful that this book led me to discover the late artist Ana Mendieta, whose story inspired the title character of the book’s story. I was disappointed to read (after the fact) that this book was inspired by a real-life artist, Ana Mendieta, and there is only one mention of her first name in the dedication. I am all for pulling inspiration from real events/people, but I think it's necessary to make it extremely clear you’re doing so. If you’re interested in learning more about Ana, I would recommend you do some Googling and also read the recent piece in the NYT (Cuban Artist Ana Mendieta's Family Fights to Tell Her Story) which features commentary from her niece on the sudden uptick in interest in her aunt’s story

The readers were amazing. The characters were just awful. I couldn’t find anyone to root for. I wanted to, but it was just relentless. Gonzalez clearly has skill to make me hate characters, so that is something.

✨ Review ✨ Anita de Monte Laughs Last by Xochitl Gonzalez; Narrated by Jessica Pimentel; Jonathan Gregg; Stacy Gonzalez

Thanks to Flatiron Books, Macmillan Audio and #netgalley for the gifted advanced copy/ies of this book!

WOWOWOWOW! I think I'll be adding this to my all-time favorites list! Gonzalez tackles a lot of really tough topics in this book and executes them beautifully.

The book follow Anita de Monte, an up-and-coming Cuban artist in the 1980s, before her sudden and tragic death. The book also includes her husband Jack's POV (and wow will you hate him) and Raquel, an art history student at Brown in 1998.

Anita and Raquel's stories are set side-by-side, showing how little has actually changed from the late-1970s through 1980s to the late-1990s for Latina artists in the U.S. Spotlighting the irony and injustice of artists, curators, and scholars who insist that work stand on its own merit, disengaged from the context of who produced it, but then celebrating a primarily white male canon. Eschewing identity politics, these gatekeepers choose to celebrate identity only when it works for them.

Anita de Monte Laughs Last TEARS APART this concept showing the value of identity and diversifying the canon, making space for diverse up-and-coming artists and scholars along the way. Gonzalez interweaves what Raquel and Anita learn, showing the ways that they push back at the ways the art world tries to limit them (but in very different ways). While Anita's story is perhaps more memorable, I really appreciated the ways that Anita and Raquel's stories were interwoven, taking meaning from the other.

I also loved that this was based in the true story of Ana Mendieta, but I recommend holding off on researching her until you read this book to avoid spoilers! Kudos to Gonzalez for bringing this story to the spotlight with this incredible book.

I also loved the wealth of late-90s music and culture unleashed through Raquel and her friends. Listening to songs as I went like Aaliyah's Are You That Somebody amplified this story for me.

I was enjoying the print copy of this SO MUCH that I was reluctant to pick up the audio, but when I did about 1/3 in -- WOW, what incredible narration! The narrators for Anita most of all but also Raquel add so much extra emotion and feeling to their characters that you'll wish you had started with audio all along. NOTE: starting with audio could be tricky because there are three POVs and Anita and Jack's chapters jump around in time.

Overall, I adored this book and could write pages about it, but I'll leave it here so you can enjoy experiencing it on your own.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: historical fiction, literary fiction
Setting: Providence, Rhode Island and all around
Pub Date: March 5, 2024

In the 1980s, Anita de Monte is a spirited Cuban-American artist whose life is taken too early by an abusive and controlling husband. Her art has all but disappeared until the late 1990s, when Raquel, an art student at Brown struggling with her thesis, discovers de Monte’s bold and brilliant work.

Told in dual timelines, Xochitl Gonzalez expertly weaves the stories of these two women and their struggle with identities as outsiders in the predominantly white, male-centered art world of the 80s and ‘90s. There are strong elements of magical realism throughout, and the result is a captivating, smart, and funny book that kept me on my toes.

I listened to this novel on audio and will warn you that the narrator can get a little loud —it works with the content but can be off-putting depending on your mood, so I recommend reading if you have any sensory difficulties.

As with her first novel, Olga Dies Dreaming, I learned a ton reading this book and am better for it. Isn’t that what reading is all about? I highly recommend both.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

The pace of this book is similar to that of Gonzalez's Olga Dies Dreaming. Both books draw you in and are fast paced. Anita de Monte Laughs Last has a two stories to tell: one of a nearly forgotten artist, and another of redemption and growth. I thoroughly enjoyed Anita de Monte Laughs Last.

I truly loved this book. I love what it was saying about the art world, the exhibition world and the conversation on gender. Too many times are people made small due to an unhealthy relationship.
The two parallel timelines were fantastic. The audiobook narrators did an amazing job. They truly brought the novel to another level.
I will be thinking of Anita de Monte for a while.

Thank you to the publisher and netgallery for the ARC of Anita de Monte Laughs Last! Xochitl Gonzalez is a wordsmith! Her books are so entertaining. I had no idea this story was based off true events. I want to learn more. This book took a minute for me but once I got into it I was laughing out loud and screaming at the phone. This book was about strong woman which I’m all about. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ almost 5 but again took me a bit to get into the story.

Anita de Monte Laughs Last was my first read from author Xochitl Gonzalez and it won’t be the last, her story telling is absolutely remarkable. This novel takes you through parallel storylines between two women thirteen years apart and discusses powerful themes about feminism, race and class in the art world. There is also a touch of magic realism.

The full cast of narrators was fantastic, especially Jessica Pimental as Anita, she brought out such huge emotions and was very entertaining to listen to.

I would recommend anyone interested in reading Anita de Monte Laughs Last give the audiobook a listen, you will not be disappointed.

Thank you Macmillan Audio, author Xochitl Gonzalez, and NetGalley for this Advanced Listening Copy.