By Allen Pierleoni

In 1993, an Argentine single mother living in Buenos Aires was working as a freelance graphics designer when she was offered the chance to draw a weekly comic strip for a leading women's magazine. It became a hit, so Maitena Burundarena graduated to drawing a daily strip for La Nacion, a national daily newspaper. The wider exposure led to still more success - including the strip's worldwide syndication in Spanish- and Italian-language newspapers and magazines - and compilations of her strip were turned into books.

At last, the modern Latin American woman had a feminist voice.

The subject matter of Maitena's insightful, ironic humor transcends culture and language. Her appraising focus is on women, their tribulations and their relationships with men.

Maitena's comic-strip book is now available in English for the first time. "Women on the Edge: Volume 1" (Riverhead Books, $10) is divided into subjects including "Edginess Peculiar to Her Sex", "A Timeless Dilemma: Couples" and "Constant Change: The Family".

Typically, a multipanel strip will cover topics such as "Six Ways To Treat a Husband", "Six Dreadful Moments in a Woman's Life" and "Love Is Dead When ..."

Maitena has been quoted as saying, "My work functions through identification, and even if it's not true that all women are the same (as some men claim), we all have similar experiences. I believe that women get happy or upset about pretty much the same things".

"Volume 2" goes on sale in November, followed by three more volumes in January, March and May.

© Sacramento Bee, September 2, 2004
Book Review
WOMEN ON THE EDGE:1
(Riverhead Trade Paperback Original; September 2004) by Maitena