Celina or the Cats

ISBN: 9780935480726

出版社: Latin American Literary Review Press

出版年: 1995-12-1

页数: 128

定价: USD 18.00

装帧: Paperback

内容简介

From Publishers Weekly Born in Cuba and a resident of Mexico since 1955， Campos is the author of The Fear of Losing Eurydice and the Xavier Villarutia Prize-winning She Has Reddish Hair and Her Name Is Sabina. The six pieces here are enjoyable， if not urgent， and top-notch translations render them in fluid English. In the title story， the narrator， a successful physician， recalls the disintegration of his marriage of 13 years. He describes his wife， Celina， her neediness and his growing distance， which forces her to retreat into herself and a room filled with cats. A young girl named Natalia anticipates "The Baptism" of her doll， Michel， and relates the details of the moment in believably childlike prose ("It's strange to feel how wet her feet are and the sharp， biting grass beneath her soles. She runs with her eyes shut"). A woman named Alda， for whom time stopped on August 20， 1933， tries to recall her past and to block out unpleasant memories in "All the Roses，" while snapshots of generations of domestic activity are found in "The House" in Havana. Campos's introductory essay， "On Cats and Other World，" is a bit fluttery， but its description of cats ("those soft， ripping， cruel， delicate beings， those solitary nocturnal， always unpredictable beings that inject our everyday world with the sphere of the unknown") says much about the layers of meaning in her writing. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information， Inc. From Library Journal Campos， an award-winning Cuban-Mexican writer of poetic fiction and literary criticism， brings together five thematically related short stories prefaced by an essay， "On Cats and Other Worlds." First issued in Spanish in 1967， this is not a collection of cat stories. Campos uses the short story form to explore the natures of reality， of women， and of narrative itself. "The City" describes an almost cinematically fading Havana. "The Baptism" explores childhood reality within a frame imposed by adults. The male narrator of the title story attempts， without success， to comprehend his wife's obsessions and the failure of their marriage. Campos also has two novels in English， She Has Reddish Hair and Her Name Is Sabina (Univ. of Georgia Pr.， 1993) and The Fear of Losing Eurydice (LJ 1/93)， both also translated by Chambers. Ross， who teaches at New York University， has translated numerous works by Latin American writers and coedited Scents of Wood and Silence: Short Stories by Latin American Women Writers (LJ 1/92). For Latin American literature collections.?Mary Margaret Benson， Linfield Coll. Lib.， McMinnville， Ore.Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information， Inc. See all Editorial Reviews