Golpes Bajos/Low Blows - Instantaneas/Snapshots (Hardcover)

Argentina-born novelist Borinsky (All Night Movie, 2002, etc.) returns with a collection of arch, opaque stories, ranging from two-and-a-half pages to one line.Presumably set in Buenos Aires, these 88 mini-morality tales caution against trusting either the opposite sex or a country's current ruling junta. In "Love Song," a wife who leaves her husband for a baker is forced to return as her ex's domestic servant when, aided by global economics, the baker goes out of business. Her new husband dies of "the well-known disease . . . after treating an albino canary's infected pimple" - and things only get more obscure from there. In the longest and most conventional story, "The Contest," a woman wins a "Voyage of the Millennium," but kills herself when she learns that she can't take her beloved cats on the trip. The shorter stories are even more overtly puzzling, frequently (but not consistently) disdaining such niceties as capitalization. The narrator of "haven't I seen that face before?" frets over her lover's haste to return home, knowing that his wife will confront him with evidence of the affair, perhaps supplied by the mistress herself. In "a strong hand," the contemptuous description of a man who fails to conform to consumer culture ends with the chilling observation that he'll make an ideal torture victim. "Let's Not Be Selfish" urges older women to dress like teenagers, and vice-versa, in order to take social pressure off both groups. Students of translation will refer frequently to the original Spanish in this dual-language edition to see what interesting liberties have been taken in the facing-page English version. Borinsky (Latin American and Comparative Literature/Boston Univ.), who collaborated on the translation, argues in her preface that a less literal rendering was necessary to preserve her irony in English.For readers who persevere, rewards lurk beneath the metafictional facade. (Kirkus Reviews)

In these short, bilingual stories set in Buenos Aires (with each piece appearing in Spanish and English on facing pages), Alicia Borinsky provides unique glimpses into the lives of the city's inhabitants: its businessmen and tango dancers, politicians and torturers, triumphant divas and discarded children--a gallery of characters from a broad spectrum of contemporary Argentine society. She portrays a world of violence, corruption, love, and betrayal. The brevity of the pieces suggests a breathlessness and ephemeral quality, the fast-paced rhythm of the present. Yet within these small moments flicker the larger forces that shape ordinary lives. Civil wars are fought, shady deals are made, unwanted children are born. And in Borinsky's ironic but life-affirming prose, human foibles are exposed. Best Books for General Audiences, selected by the Public Library Association

General

Imprint:	University of Wisconsin Press
Country of origin:	United States
Series:	The Americas
Release date:	February 2007
First published:	July 2007
Authors:	Alicia Borinsky
Translators:	Cola Franzen
Foreword by:	Michael Wood
Dimensions:	235 x 162 x 18mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Hardcover
Pages:	224
ISBN-13:	978-0-299-21600-9
Categories:	Books > Fiction > Special features > Short stories
LSN:	0-299-21600-4
Barcode:	9780299216009

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