{"id":8253,"date":"2019-11-11T12:28:30","date_gmt":"2019-11-11T12:28:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/?p=8253"},"modified":"2019-11-25T12:28:02","modified_gmt":"2019-11-25T12:28:02","slug":"humiliation-by-paulina-flores","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/?p=8253","title":{"rendered":"Humiliation by Paulina Flores"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Translated by Megan McDowell<\/strong><\/p>\n

Published by Oneworld 7 November 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

272pp, paperback, \u00a312.99<\/strong><\/p>\n

Reviewed by Alison Burns<\/strong><\/p>\n

Click here to buy this book<\/a><\/p>\n

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One of Paulina Flores\u2019s many striking characters, Denise, in \u2018Lucky Me\u2019 (a lonely, dissatisfied and voyeuristic librarian who once dreamed of becoming a photographer for National Geographic<\/em>), remembers walking around her neighbourhood with her camera strapped across her body \u2018as if she were carrying a revolver under her arm\u2019. It is a wonderfully apt image for what this fine young Chilean writer is doing here, in nine powerful short stories about day-dreams, disillusionment and retaliation.<\/p>\n

Named one of the Ten Best Books of the Year by El Pais<\/em>, the title work in this debut collection won the Robert Bola\u00f1o Short Story Prize.\u00a0 Translator Megan McDowell has translated books by many contemporary Spanish and Latin American authors including the Man Booker International shortlisted Samantha Schweblin (Fever Dream<\/em>).<\/p>\n

In the opening (title) story, \u2018Humiliation\u2019, two young sisters accompany their adored unemployed father to a casting call. The older of the two, Simona, has been helping him look through the classifieds.\u00a0 She enjoys being part of \u2018the solemnity of adult conflicts\u2019 but, on this occasion, inadvertently contributes to her father\u2019s humiliation\u00a0 –\u00a0 a word she has heard her mother use.<\/p>\n

In \u2018Teresa\u2019, a casual flirtation evokes a past incident involving an assumed name.\u00a0 Beneath the \u2018neon shins\u2019 of a sign advertising stockings, the false Teresa makes love with a man whose young daughter she thinks may be wanting to escape.<\/p>\n

In the impressively dramatic \u2018Talcahuano\u2019, four dirt-poor young-teenage boys hooked on The Smiths plan a complex musical heist requiring training in ninjutsu<\/em>, the art of stealth.\u00a0 Where they live, \u2018this ruinous place we call home\u2019, is a depressed fishing port near a naval base.\u00a0 The laying-off of one their fathers leads to disillusionment so complete that the narrator (the ringleader\u2019s serene and faithful sidekick) leaves home for good.<\/p>\n

These are stealthy stories, all in their different ways quite shocking. Here, very definitely, the \u2018sins\u2019 of fathers and mothers are visited upon their daughters and sons.\u00a0 Parental sacrifice, failure, disappointment and compromise are seen through unforgiving eyes and tracked through their side-effects on the next generation. A young woman abandoned by her severe lover returns to the mother whose judgements have always crushed her; she longs to turn into a laurel bush, or to sink like a stone.\u00a0 Another yearns to be self-sufficient but cannot escape memories of total security at her great-aunt\u2019s side. \u00a0A ten-year-old raised in chaos grows more secure in a caring routine but is obliged by loyalty to throw his life away. \u00a0His are what feel like Paulina Flores\u2019s last words on the subject\u00a0 –\u00a0 at least, for the moment: \u2018All I can do is believe that every detail means something\u2026to try to fit\u00a0 –\u00a0 or force\u00a0 –\u00a0 each piece into place, so everything achieves its meaning.\u2019<\/p>\n

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Reviewed by Alison Burns<\/p>\n

These are stealthy stories, all in their different ways quite shocking. Here, very definitely, the \u2018sins\u2019 of fathers and mothers are visited upon their daughters and sons. Parental sacrifice, failure, disappointment and compromise are seen through unforgiving eyes and tracked through their side-effects on the next generation […] in Reviews<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,19,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-fiction-and-non-fiction","category-notable-books","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8253"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8257,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8253\/revisions\/8257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}