From Publishers Weekly
Argentinean poet Shua is a master of the bon mot. Each of these concise, lyrical pieces—somewhere between aphorism, anecdote and poem, and rarely longer than a paragraph—contains a fluid, perplexing, and (often) highly amusing thought. Shua creates a fantastically interconnected web with such strands as Dreams, Magic, Literature and Men and Women, wherein everyday objects take on a frightening life of their own: I vigilantly open my bedroom door trying to catch my dolls talking to each other, begins Dolls, while the narrator of Objects declares, The nightstand brings me breakfast in bed. Relations between men and women assume a primal urgency, such as in Flattery: This isn't the work of a human being, says a man staring at the bloody marks left in his flesh. Come on, what a flatterer, replies the sharp-clawed narrator. Shua gives some of the well-known myths of literature her own gleeful spin, as in Wolf, which finds Little Red Riding Hood wondering, What does my grandmother have that I don't? These dreamlike landscapes will delight and charm readers new to Shua's work.
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--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
Review
http://www.rochester.edu/College/translation/threepercent/index.php?id=2081
(Chad W. Post
Three Percent 20090622)
http://www.rochester.edu/College/translation/threepercent/index.php?id=2081
(Pedro Ponce
Review of Contemporary Fiction 20081001)
http://nebraskapress.typepad.com/university_of_nebraska_pr/2009/06/short-stories-on-twitter-short-stories-on-recommended-reading-list.html
(Cara Pesek
UNP blog 20081001)
"Argentinean poet Shua is a master of the bon mot. Each of these concise, lyrical pieces—somewhere between aphorism, anecdote and poem, and rarely longer than a paragraph—contains a fluid, perplexing, and (often) highly amusing thought. . . . These dreamlike landscapes will delight and charm readers new to Shua’s work."—Publishers Weekly
(
Publishers Weekly 20081001)
"This is a very enjoyable collection, and the best pieces impress mightily; certainly one is left hungry for more of these morsels. Well worthwhile."—M. A. Orthofer, Complete Review
(M. A. Orthofer
Complete Review 20081001)
"Moving from the familiar to the strange in simple sentences, and somehow finding the worlds within our world this collection of stories bewilders and delights all at once. . . . An intriguing genre, it reeks of freshness and should be explored."—2009 MOSAIC
(
2009 MOSAIC )
"Treat the various stories like abstract art, rather than typical works of English. They are most enjoyable after rolling around in one''s mind for a time. They are exquisite to ponder. They have subtle meanings and messages that can be searched for."—Clinton Borror, Big Muddy
(Clinton Borror
Big Muddy )
"This book is a fascinating opportunity to read something light, quick, and enjoyable. It is a fun escape into a world that urges you to reflect upon the multi-faceted joys and wonders of everyday life."—Jacqueline Strege, Straylight
(Jacqueline Strege
Straylight )
“The microfictions of Ana María Shua unfurl an absurd and ingenious world like that of Lewis Carroll. . . . What great literature breathes in these pages!”—A B C (Madrid)
(ABC )
“Argentinean Ana María Shua is one of the best creators of the microstory genre. An ingenious and absurd world in which pulsates the best literature.”—El País (Madrid)
(El Pais )
“Shua’s microfictions are paradigms of wicked humor. The author shows herself capable repeatedly of zeroing in on a detail—perverse, quirky, often appalling—of the unstable reality of human experience and revealing it to be the essence of ordinary daily existence.”—David William Foster, Regents’ Professor of Spanish and Women & Gender Studies at Arizona State University, and editor of Chasqui: Revista de literatura latinoamericana
(David William Foster )
“For their mental sharpness, imaginative insightfulness, and critical irony, the microfictions of Ana María Shua place her on the front line of the new Latin American fiction.”—José Miguel Oviedo
(Jose Miguel Oviedo )
