A review by chillcox15
Why, Why, Why? by Quim Monzó

1.0

I’m calling BS on this one. Quim Monzo’s Why, Why, Why?, freshly translated by Peter Bush and published by Open Letter, has me asking the titular series of questions. Filled with short short stories often about the nature of romantic relationships, Monzo is going for the sort of defamiliarized depiction of a commonplace occurrence within a relationship that, in the right hands, can be revealing of a deeper insight or absurdity within the mechanics of human interaction. Often in these stories, however, it just feels banal; there’s no texture here, nothing of life, and even taking the situations as Monzo presents them, there’s a nasty misanthropy that definitely gravitates towards the misogynist that makes the book less enjoyable to read. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some well-done misanthropy, but this ain’t it.