The Dangers of Smoking in Bed

eBook

English language

Published Jan. 12, 2021 by Hogarth.

ISBN:: 978-0-593-13408-5
OCLC Number:: 1162592517

(1 review)

Following the "propulsive and mesmerizing" (New York Times Book Review) Things We Lost in the Fire comes a new collection of singularly unsettling stories, by an Argentine author who has earned comparisons to Shirley Jackson and Jorge Luis Borges. Mariana Enriquez has been critically lauded for her unconventional and sociopolitical stories of the macabre: populated by unruly teenagers, crooked witches, homeless ghosts, and hungry women, they walk the uneasy line between urban realism and horror. The stories in her next collection are as terrifying as they are socially conscious, and press into being the unspoken -- fetish, illness, the female body, the darkness of human history -- with unsettling urgency. A woman is sexually obsessed with the human heart; a lost, rotting baby crawls out of a backyard and into a bedroom; a pair of teenage girls can't let go of their idol; an entire neighborhood is cursed to death …

Following the "propulsive and mesmerizing" (New York Times Book Review) Things We Lost in the Fire comes a new collection of singularly unsettling stories, by an Argentine author who has earned comparisons to Shirley Jackson and Jorge Luis Borges. Mariana Enriquez has been critically lauded for her unconventional and sociopolitical stories of the macabre: populated by unruly teenagers, crooked witches, homeless ghosts, and hungry women, they walk the uneasy line between urban realism and horror. The stories in her next collection are as terrifying as they are socially conscious, and press into being the unspoken -- fetish, illness, the female body, the darkness of human history -- with unsettling urgency. A woman is sexually obsessed with the human heart; a lost, rotting baby crawls out of a backyard and into a bedroom; a pair of teenage girls can't let go of their idol; an entire neighborhood is cursed to death by a question of morality they fail to answer correctly.Written against the backdrop of contemporary Argentina, and with resounding tenderness towards those in pain, in fear, and in limbo, this new collection from one of Argentina's most exciting writers finds Enriquez at her most sophisticated, and most chilling.

1 edition

ish-i-ness reviewed The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enriquez

Review of 'The dangers of smoking in bed' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

This earlier collection, translated recently, shows how Enriquez developed her style to create the amazing stories found in Things We Lost In the Fire, but it certainly couldn’t be called an equal to that collection. There’s still some fantastic stories, leaning heavily into the horror aspect of her writing, drilling into the anxieties and fears of people living urban environments, especially the seedier ones where life can be uncertain, and embracing the horror often experienced there.

Subjects

Translations into English
Argentine Short stories
Fiction
Nouvelles argentines
FICTION / Literary