Anita De Monte Laughs Last

1985. Anita de Monte, a rising star in the art world, is found dead in New York City; her tragic death is the talk of the town. Until it isn't. By 1998 Anita's name has been all but forgotten-certainly by the time Raquel, a third-year art history student is preparing her final thesis. On College Hill, surrounded by privileged students whose futures are already paved out for them, Raquel feels like an outsider. Students of color, like her, are the minority there, and the pressure to work twice as hard for the same opportunities is no secret.

But when Raquel becomes romantically involved with a well-connected older art student, she finds herself unexpectedly rising up the social ranks. As she attempts to straddle both worlds, she stumbles upon Anita's story, raising questions about the dynamics of her own relationship, which eerily mirrors that of the forgotten artist.

Moving back and forth through time and told from the perspectives of both women, Anita de Monte Laughs Last is a propulsive, witty examination of power, love, and art, daring to ask who gets to be remembered and who is left behind in the rarefied world of the elite.

1. Because Anita de Monte is Cuban and has a bright personality, people in the New York art world have unfair ideas about her. Can she be herself and stick to her Cuban ways when everyone wants her to be like them? Or does she need to blend in to be successful?

2. How do you think the experiences of artists of color then compare to today?

3. Raquel feels pressure to change herself to fit into Nick's wealthy, white world. People often make many sacrifices to be accepted in new situations. Are these sacrifices ever really worth it?

4. What are some real actions that society can take to make sure artists of color have a fair chance in the art world, just like everyone else?

5. Jack and Nick show some bad ways that guys are sometimes expected to act. Can society change things so that fewer people act like this? Or is it just something that will always happen because of what's seen as normal?

6. Anita lived in the art world in the 1980s, and Raquel lived there later in the 1990s. What are some things that felt the same for both of them in that world? Were there unfair things that they both had to deal with?

7. Raquel's relationship with Nick shows how some people have more advantages and how people look at each other. Did their story help you think about what a real friendship or love is? What did you think about how Raquel grew to understand herself and become strong on her own?

8. Why are women artists, particularly women of color, often overlooked and forgotten in the art world, as seen in Anita's story?

9. How do economic privilege and class affect which art is valued and celebrated? How do these factors impact Anita and Raquel in different ways?

10. Raquel grew up working class. How did this make her experience being around the richer students and culture at Brown University? How did this change who she is and how she sees things?

REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK - New York Times bestselling author Xochitl Gonzalez delivers a mesmerizing novel about a first-generation Ivy League student who uncovers the genius work of a female artist decades after her suspicious death

A Best Book of 2024: Kirkus, TIME, NPR, Goodreads, Electric Lit and more!

"The novel is the best, most elusive combination: a thought-provoking and a brilliantly entertaining triumph." -NPR

"Anita de Monte Laughs Last is a cry for justice. Writing with urgency and rage, Gonzalez speaks up for those who have been othered and deemed unworthy, robbed of their legacy." -The Washington Post

"Admirers of Xochitl Gonzalez's debut, Olga Dies Dreaming, will be pleased to encounter in Gonzalez's follow-up novel, Anita de Monte Laughs Last, not one but two protagonists who echo the titular Olga's best qualities. Like Olga, they are Latina women of vision and will, who emphatically refuse to be put in a corner." -New York Times Book Review

"Unflinching and thought-provoking." -People

"This rollicking page-turner from the bestselling author of Olga Dies Dreaming includes of-the-moment commentary about who succeeds and why." -Real Simple

"Incandescent." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"The writing is absolutely fabulous, the story is gripping, and the characters are memorable. Outstanding." —Library Journal (starred review)

"Gonzalez's sophomore outing deserves a mouse on her doorstep in gratitude... This is a brutal but ultimately heartwarming and certainly thought-provoking novel of Latinx magic, family, and feminine power." -Booklist (starred review)

"Part campus novel, part ghost story, Xochitl Gonzalez's second novel fearlessly takes on racism and misogyny in the rarefied world of fine art and art history... Anita de Monte Laughs Last boldly questions the choices behind what we are taught and demands that the complete story be disclosed." -BookPage (starred review)

"Gonzalez has that particular penchant for navigating perspectives in a voice that's at once delightfully humorous and sobering." -Elle

"An uncompromising message, delivered via a gripping story with two engaging heroines." -Kirkus (starred review)

"Gonzalez's newest novel is a dynamic exploration of love, art, and power." -LitHub

"A new captivating novel that explores othering, erasure, power, and legacy through the lens of two women of color navigating the art scene years apart." -TODAY.com

"Gonzalez crafts excoriating and whip-smart commentary on the art world's Eurocentric conceptions of beauty and the racism faced by first-generation students of color. This is incandescent." -Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Funny, piercing, and full of moxie, Anita de Monte Laughs Last is unsparing in its assessment of what goes on behind the castle walls, the price people pay to be accepted into those hallowed halls, and what it takes to liberate oneself from the dangers that lurk within. Really, what Xochitl Gonzalez has written is an affirmation for anyone who's ever had to 'work twice as hard to get half as much.' Anita de Monte Laughs Last is rollicking, melodic, tender, and true. And oh so very wise." -Robert Jones, Jr., author of The Prophets, a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction