Today I decided to read a story from a collection recommended by my workshop professor from last semester. There were two she recommended from Blow Up and Other Stories by Julio Cortazar, and I chose "Letter to a Young Lady in Paris."
I'm not convinced entirely by this story. I always wonder when I read translated texts what I'm missing, and I just won't know unless I learn Spanish. The tone of the story is a bit formal, but the content is crazy fun, albeit disturbing.
You see, our narrator, the fellow writing the letters to the lady from whom he's subletting the apartment pukes bunnies. Yup, you heard me right. Walking up the stairs, there's a little fuzziness in his throat, and blechh, up comes a bunny. For some reason that I don't get, he's doing a lot of puking after he moves into the apartment. Ten bunnies, and a housekeeper named Sara from whom he's trying to hide the bunnies. Then tragedy strikes.
I'm not one to give away plots, so I won't reveal said tragedy. I will reveal that despite some problems with the plot--mainly concerned around my never feeling convinced about the odd upchuck--I did enjoy the language. Cortazar writes with a high level of particularity. The details and images are on the spot. That's worth spending half an hour with a short story, isn't it?
Tell me what stories you've been reading.
1 comment:
I puked up a bunny once, how strange. I've been re-reading Alice Munro's Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage, because I love it, and because I'm too tired to appreciate anything new this week.
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