"Women in the Judgment Hall" serves up a rich, unpretentious tale of a broken-down South American country, with no attempts of white-washing the fears and frailties of the marginalized. *** Ana is a brazen, idealistic teenager intent on carving her own destiny beyond the unspeakable poverty of the Tenement yard, while Reeda, her more subdued Indian friend, struggles to find her inner strength and contend with the life of subjugation imposed upon her by her family. *** The novel, told with brutal honesty, brings to light the poignant story of their journey into womanhood, and quest to reclaim their voices within a society ready to judge them at every turn. *** In a backward country where wayward men are exalted, and where flogging is seen as a mechanism to "'set yuh woman straight'... "can these women flee the wicked sentencing within their 'Judgment Hall'?
Excerpt from Women in the Judgment Hall Intent on not feeling the pain, my other senses took over, and I started to notice other things that were not so obvious before, like the frumpy smell that oozed out from under MaTine's skirt and those almost raised stretch-marks that ran over her lumpy thighs from as far as my strained eyes could see until they disappeared in the area beneath my face, and I shuddered at the thought of those disgusting marks being contagious, and suddenly my facial skin in the area that pressed up against her sweaty thighs was scratching, but I dare not move.