by Alejandro Zambra, translated by Megan McDowell
(Fitzcarraldo Editions, ISBN 9780992974787)
What particularly impressed me about Chilean author Alejandro Zambra’s 2013 novel Ways of Going Home, an examination of life under the Pinochet dictatorship, was the way he could squeeze import and meaning from descriptions of mundane and everyday happenings. In his latest collection of short stories – in a handsome edition from new publisher Fitzcarraldo – he once again throws a spotlight on a people and a society struggling to come to terms with a murky and conflicted history. Pinochet and his vile regime are a constant baleful backdrop to the lives of Zambra’s characters, whether they regard themselves as political or not. In ‘National Institute’, the discipline of an elite school run on militaristic lines is challenged by the children exploring what thoughts and actions are permissible, post-Pinochet. ‘Family Life’ concerns a man, house-sitting for relatives travelling in Europe, who invents an entirely fictitious family history and has to cope with the consequences when his actual family return home. Computers figure strongly in these stories – as do cats and cigarettes – and the wonderful tale ‘Memories of a Personal Computer’ traces the parallel lifespans of a PC and a love affair; from shiny newness to decay, failure, disillusionment and breakdown.
