Playing on the rich Latin American literary tradition of the Saint's Life, Cuban writer Mireya Robles creates a humorous, ultimately horrifying vision of the nuclear family in HAGIOGRAPHY OF NARCISA THE BEAUTIFUL, a text innovative in its style and even more in its exploration of homosexuality, lesbianism, and the destructive power of traditional gender and family roles. The philandering father, the sensitive yet sadistic older brother, the mother living on radio soap operas, the pretty, empty-headed younger sister, all are seen through the eyes of Narcisa, the relentlessly optimistic and ecstatic ugly duckling of her family. Narcisa's imagination both endows and parodies her surroundings with rich comedy and grotesqueness

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