BG's Reads

I found these titles while browsing in a Book Warehouse outlet in Atlanta, GA recently. I mean, you can buy 2-3 books for under ten dollars – nice! I bought three titles, and below are two.

In Things We Lost In The Fire, Argentinian author, Mariana Enriquez, uses her country’s history of violence and political conflict, mixed with the supernatural, to speak of remnants and consequences of murder and brutality in her short stories.

In these short stories, the presence of the police and soldiers contribute to the uneasiness and the threat of violence. Their cruelties are an implied consequence of the strange, supernatural happenings – the ghosts or silent apparitions in the forests, old jails, homes and graveyards in these stories.

The first story, The Dirty Kid, involves the relationship between an upper-class graphic designer and a homeless boy. The graphic designer, a young woman, is the narrator and lives in an old stone house in a formally aristocratic neighborhood that is now a poor, run down, dangerous place, with suspicion and rumors of ‘witch-narcos’ who perform deadly rites in order to ask for protection. People disappear and are found disfigured, partially decapitated on the streets.

The narrator befriends this homeless child when he comes to her door because he is hungry. Later, when a murdered beheaded boy is found in the neighborhood, she is convinced it is this child. She feels guilty that she didn’t do more to help the hungry boy. Guilt-ridden and tormented by nightmares, she confronts the boy’s pregnant mother and demands to know what happened to the child. The mother snarls that she gave the child to a witch-narcos and has promised her unborn child as well. The narrator is shaken and upset by this, but can still return to the safety and sanctuary of her home. There is a clear line between what goes on in the street and within the narrator’s upper-class home and life.

The author gives vivid descriptions and history of Argentinian and Buenos Aires neighborhoods. In the fourth story titled Adela’s House, a young girl is jealous of her older brother’s relationship with his friend Adela, their neighbor. Adela’s parents are wealthy, she has the best toys, the best parties, but she also has a birth defect – one missing arm. Adele and the young girl’s brother are a bit older and are allowed watch horror movies, while she can’t. Adela and the brother become obsessed with an abandoned house in the neighborhood that has a sketchy history. They don’t include the young girl in their fanciful games until they decide to actually enter this house.

As they enter, the house is alive with lighting and furnishings. Here the story takes a bad turn. The house begins to buzz and they see shelves filled with teeth and fingernails. They hear Adela’s screams in the dark, but can’t find her. They never see her again. Now, the question is why did the house draw in and take Adela and not her friends? Was it because she was different and was somehow vulnerable?

There are ten other short stories within this title, Things We Lost In The Fire, by the author Mariana Enriquez. Her stories go from the normal-everyday to ghost-haunting terror to self-inflicted violence of protest and to the unexplained. Her characters range from husbands and wives, mothers and daughters, and friends who are cast in these situations. These stories do what a good story is supposed to do – keep you engaged, not knowing what to expect, while asking questions afterward. Hope you check it out.

This second title is published by Hogarth’s Shakespeare project, Shakespeare’s works retold by talented, best-selling authors of today, a series of seven novels. This is book five in the series – the author of Girl With A Pearl Earing, Tracey Cavalier, writes New Boy, a twist on Shakespeare’s Othello, which takes place in a Washington D.C, 1970’s all-white elementary school. The new boy, a diplomat’s son from Nigeria, is the school’s only black student – hence the drama is set. It takes place over the course of one school day, in five parts – before school, morning recess, lunch, afternoon recess, and after school.

Sixth graders Osei Kokote, called O, and Daniella Benedetti, called Dee, meet on the playground before school. Dee is assigned to look after O for the day and show him around school. They feel a connection and become close, to the alarm and disgust of some of the teachers and most of the students, especially Ian, a student and manipulating bully.

Ian doesn’t like the shift in balance that has taken place since O has arrived at school. Before O, everyone knew their place, within certain groups with followers and leaders. O is confident and displays on the playground that he has skills – he can stand alone and not follow anyone. Even though O was different, the students respected him. Ian decides to take action – he will drive O and Dee apart.

This novel, New Boy, by the author, Tracey Chavalier, is well paced, and it’s not clear until the very last page if this will be a true tragedy of O. These are sixth graders after all, but the author brings love, friendship, loyalty, racism, jealousy and betrayal effectively to the playground and classroom of this elementary school. Really good read. I will be checking out other books in this Shakespeare project series, hope you will too.