My thanks to Sara Gregory, who reviewed The Immigrant’s Refrigerator (GenPop Books, 2018) for issue 109 of Sinister Wisdom. Sara describes the collection as a “a multiply-voiced chorus spanning experiences of political upheaval, violence, sex work, death, scholarship, bread-baking, spirituality, physical and psychic hunger.”
Elena Georgiou’s The Immigrant’s Refrigerator arrives at an important sociopolitical moment. Dominant opinion has swung aggressively against immigrants, who, often caught between well-worn and interdependent poles of “immigrants are ruining this country” and the “American Dream,” are denied voice, idiosyncrasy, and personhood. In contrast, Georgiou’s collection is a constellation of twelve short stories which invert, complicate, and ultimately push against such narratives. The Immigrant’s Refrigerator is effective, engaging, and often devastating….. Though The Immigrant’s Refrigerator is not, by and large, a happy read, it is beautiful. With The Immigrant’s Refrigerator, Georgiou has written a book of resistance and of tender storytelling. Important on its own, our current political climate has elevated The Immigrant’s Refrigerator to vital reading.
I hope you’ll read the full review in Issue 109.