En la feria del libro de Miami y otros viajes astrales
Teresa Dovalpage
|
What do “Cuentos bifrontes,” binaural metaphysical meditations, sadomasochistic fantasies, and the mysterious disappearance of a luxury ocean liner in the middle of the sea have in common? Teresa Dovalpage’s agile and witty pen juggles them all to remind us of the intrinsic connection between the human and the divine.
As in her previous works, the common thread in this short story collection is woven through the human conflicts generated by the Cuban crisis during the so-called “special period” (the 1990s and early 2000s), intertwined with the emigration of the “before,” “during,” and “after” phases. It reminds us that there is no real dividing line between the past and the present, between the physical and the metaphysical, between the “here” and the “beyond.” In this narrative tapestry, nostalgia, misunderstanding, loneliness, lack of communication, forms of abuse, spiritual and sexual dissatisfaction intersect, alongside endless searches for solutions that range from spiritual flights to the enjoyment of “what is not spoken of” (from little plugs and spankings to the lash of a whip). The narrative games in each story remind us of the author’s prose creativity. The first story, for example, which gives the collection its title, allows us to hear, in its three sections, different perspectives on the same events from the contrasting voices of two sisters whose relationship has always been conflictive. In this story, as in others, the present mixes with possible alternatives that give the reader the option of deciding which versions best suit the ending. Mystical journeys, so vivid they make us shake, are intertwined with narrative realism, as they transport us to a past that aims to change the present. This is the case of “Los patafísicos,” which takes us back to a rooftop in Havana 15 years earlier, leaving us there, even as we know that youth is fleeting and that a Kmart in New Mexico is not the same as a Havana rooftop. |
The narrative experimentation is also poetic, as in “La boca desdentada del Riomar,” in which the plot unfolds in the first, second, and third person, passing from one character and one narrated moment to another as if in medias res. A seemingly incomplete sentence connects to another paragraph referring to another character and another time, as if completing the plot without intending to, restarting “in the middle of a scene” an imagined beginning.
As is customary, Dovalpage’s intelligent and witty prose, and the turns of her language, draw smiles and even laughter with their playful Cuban flair. Phrases like nobleza pacotillera, “magic in the time of hunger,” gandinga astral, “the fleeting inheritance of youth,” and “uglier than the bottom of a car,” among many others, remind us that Dovalpage is read not only to think but also, and especially, to enjoy.
As is customary, Dovalpage’s intelligent and witty prose, and the turns of her language, draw smiles and even laughter with their playful Cuban flair. Phrases like nobleza pacotillera, “magic in the time of hunger,” gandinga astral, “the fleeting inheritance of youth,” and “uglier than the bottom of a car,” among many others, remind us that Dovalpage is read not only to think but also, and especially, to enjoy.
Teresa Dovalpage was born in Cuba and now lives in New Mexico, where she is a college professor. She is the author of thirteen novels, four short story collections and three theater plays. Her most recent novel in English is Last Seen in Havana, the fifth in the Havana Mystery series published by Soho Crime. In Spanish, En la Feria del Libro de Miami y otros viajes astrales was published by El Ateje last February.
Comment Box is loading comments...
|
|
