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A Sunny Place for Shady People
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November 2024 monthly read: Mariana Enriquez's A Sunny Place for Shady People
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I loved this book!Have fun with it!
I will try to post a review as soon as possible.
My Sad Dead: I feel like Enriquez wasn't a great choice for a little bit of distraction on election night. It's a good story, but she likes to meander and circle around to the point of the story, and that wasn't what I was in the mood for.A Sunny Place for Shady People: This one was much more successful in holding my attention, but I also read it this morning. I think it ended up just barely not being in bad taste. The collection has had kind of a meh start for me.
I'm away from my copy, but read the collection last week, taking somewhat detailed notes so I can participate. I might experience the stories differently if I read them after this past Tuesday. Enriquez's fiction is rooted in Argentina's harsh socioeconomic realities, and these stories are no exception. "My Sad Dead": the ghosts in the story passed in horrible circumstances, and even the protagonist is not able but take care of all of them. In which case she blithely recommends earplugs and sleeping pills for a good night's sleep! Hilarious, not usually what I expect from her.
I remember the Elisa Lam mystery, but the title story takes us a bit away from the source. The harsh realities are now in Los Angeles, as we find out gradually about the narrator's late ex, and watch her nonchalantly (view spoiler), yow. The ending (view spoiler) is somehow fleeting, fragmentary, and affecting.
"Face of Disgrace": not a surprising arc, but the cross-generational sexual abuse is intense. The creature and victim condition are genuinely creepy."Julie": love the voice of the protagonist, and the complex identity politics of Argentina, the potshots at Americans. What was the protagonist's motivation for helping Julie get to the facility in Uruguay? At first I was reading her as being sympathetic to Julie's plight, then the last paragraph, whoa. What really happened? Did she know?
So far I find these stories to be less intensely dark as the ones in Things We Lost in the Fire. Maybe Enriquez was able to develop more distance over the years?
Face of Disgrace: I liked this a lot. I think the author's enjoyment of throwing a lot of little details worked really well for this one. The second scene at the hospital was my favorite bit. The ending was great, too. Julie: The narrator was the highlight of this one for me. I think my love of Marjorie Cameron might have come up before. I'm experiencing some déjà vu. Either way, I was excited for her to be mentioned, even if she wasn't all that relevant to the story.
I also did not understand the ending, but I'm guessing alien abduction just to make Cameron more involved.
I enjoyed this book very much. As usual some stories are great and some...I read the spanish version. I have been searching for the list of the stories in English but I have not found it. So, I don't know if the titles below fit...
My favorite stories were:
Ojos negros (Black eyes)
Un artista local (A local artist)
Cementerios de heladeras (Graveyard of refrigerators)
Los pájaros de la noche (Night birds)
Mis muertos tristes (My sad dead)
Vavita wrote: "So, I don't know if the titles below fit..."They look pretty much the same as Megan McDowell's translations.
"Night Birds": a fabulous poetic tale. I love the narrator and her fabrications (?), and her sister and her fabrications.
For some reason earlier I was puzzled by the epigraph, and couldn't track down Mildred Burton. But this came up today:
https://awarewomenartists.com/en/arti...
Ahhhh. Funny she claims the source of her work wasn't dreams but reality. Certainly,
On the shores of this river, all the birds that fly, drink, perch on branches, and disturb siestas with the demonic squawking of the possessed --- all those birds were once women.
The narrator casually mentions she has a horrific rotting disease. Her sister Millie claims to invent her when she was in a psychiatric hospital. Love the explosion of folklore, family drama, body horror, struggles of young women coming of age. The final section is intriguing: is the narrator a ghost? or maybe really a figment (of the sister's imagination)?
"Metamorphosis": the body horror is too real and disturbing. The shift is very interesting, with the protagonist regaining control, and the transformation.
Night Birds was first published in a book based on the exhibition mentioned in the article Bill linked to. The whole book is available for free. You can see all the paintings that are referenced in the story.https://museomoderno.org/en/books/mil...
Night Birds: The idea of merging known details about an artist's life with their artwork to create a story is a brilliant one, especially with an artist whose work is as thematically and stylistically diverse as Burton's. I like that the story can also stand alone without the artwork. I'm partial to the narrator being a figment of the sister's imagination, like an imaginary friend that stayed at their creator's childhood home after they moved on to live the rest of their life.
Metamorphosis: Preach, unnamed narrator. I have three books about menstruation and related health subjects on my kindle right now, and I was surprised with a bladder biopsy at my last appointment with a doctor. I was a little distracted agreeing with the narrator to focus on the horror aspects, but I did still like the imagery of the last section.
Hyena's Hymn: I liked the ending of this one a lot. I was very invested in the characters, so (view spoiler) was perfect for me. The setting of this story might not be a real place, but the details made it feel real. (At least, nothing came up when Googling "Argentina zoo fire" that seemed like a match.)
Different Colors Made of Tears: This is the first story in the collection to give me the creeps. I love how the clothes are described. Being able to picture the clothes and jewelry really added to the story, but I don't think that there's so many details that it would be too distracting for readers that aren't interested in period clothing.
Vanessa wrote: "Night Birds was first published in a book based on the exhibition mentioned in the article Bill linked to. The whole book is available for free."Thanks Vanessa! Wow, I just skimmed the book, very nice design. Would love to get a paper copy, but I don't see it on bookfinder, argh. I note that "Night Birds" is titled "Millie" in its earlier appearance.
Sorry to hear about the biopsy, Vanessa. Hope you're ok.
I thought "Hyena Hymns" was a lighter piece, with an unsurprising arc. But I did like the queer couple, the turnaround at the end, and the rather sweet conclusion.
I was a little surprised with the title of "Different colors made of tears", a quote from Velvet Underground's Venus in Furs. The song is obviously a reference to Sacher-Masoch, so the dominance of the female character is opposite to the power relationship in the story? But it was a nice idea, and I enjoyed it.
"Suffering Woman" is the only story in the collection that I didn't think really came together.
Bill wrote: "Vanessa wrote: "Night Birds was first published in a book based on the exhibition mentioned in the article Bill linked to. The whole book is available for free."Thanks Vanessa! Wow, I just skimmed..."
Everything came out okay.
Suffering Woman: My main maternal figure passed away a few years ago from ovarian cancer. The story was very medically accurate. Other than that, I have Eternal Sunshined it from my mind.
The Refrigerator Cemetery: The ending of this one didn't work for me. It was predictable because of the foreshadowing, and I feel like it was over too quickly to have as much impact as it could have. I did like when the narrator would discuss how memories of what they did would return to her.
A Local Artist: I thought the setting was really fleshed out. I loved the teenage girl selling Taylor Swift art. It was also suspensful. I think I might have thought it was scarier with a less ambiguous ending.
"The Refrigerator Cemetery" is a simple story; I'm a fan of architectural anomalies, and of course found the disappearing door to be rather creepy. Actually liked the nice inconclusive ending."A Local Artist" is nice folk horror, with the usual city people getting into surreal threatening situations. The art is pretty fun, and I liked the worm creature and the entrapment.
"Black Eyes" is probably most similar to my favorite stories in Things We Lost In The Fire, with the well-meaning main characters working for an NGO, supporting homeless in the gritty urban milieu. I like the narrator's voice. The sudden assessment of the boys would be absurd if not for the skillful setup.
Our mother will come and get us later. This will be over soon.
Brrrr. Chilling encounter, a few cutting details, nothing is spelled out in the ending.
I'd say this was a very enjoyable collection, though not as strong as Things We Lost in the Fire. But what is?
I loved "Black Eyes." It really captured the vibe of working that kind of job. The narrator is great. I didn't like the last few ambiguous endings, but the author put the horror of the unknown to great use here.
I finished the collection and I loved it overall, but my absolute favorite was "A Local Artist", with the worm people and rain and an artist doing eerie art, was quite Lovecraftian, loved it! Also I love the social commentary in most of the stories.
I read this a bit late, but I thought this collection was excellent. I absolutely loved Different Colors Made of Tears and A Local Artist. Both of those stories stuck with me and as a result, I am now reading Mariana Enriquez's Our Share of Night. I can't help but wonder how her prose must sound in the original Spanish!
Literary Horror
Books mentioned in this topic
Things We Lost in the Fire (other topics)A Sunny Place for Shady People (other topics)
Things We Lost in the Fire (other topics)
The Dangers of Smoking in Bed (other topics)
We've had very interesting group reads here of her last two collections, Things We Lost in the Fire, and The Dangers of Smoking in Bed.
A couple reviews:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/202...
https://chireviewofbooks.com/2024/09/...
The collection is available on paper and as an e-book. Let's start around next weekend!