A review by jdscott50
Hi, This Is Conchita: And Other Stories by Santiago Roncagliolo
5.0
Hi, This is Conchita is a book of short stories covering miscommunication and loss. These are brilliantly funny stories of people trying to make connections. Told through phone conversations, the technique emphasizes the distance, the miscommunication and loneliness. We can remake ourselves over the phone, but that breeds its own form of isolation. Nothing is more depressing than a long rambling message on an answering machine to which no one will ever listen.
In the titular first story, a man tries to connect with a phone sex operator, but the fantasy world makes him unhinged. A customer is constantly rebuffed in resolving his account due to bureaucratic circles. A former lover is trying to resolve his feelings through an answering machine. A man who wants his mistress murdered, but the hitman falls in love with her.
Much of the conversation demonstrates a strong frustration, you aren't getting what you want, but you can't make that clear. There is too much interference, emphasizing how much trouble there is in simple communication. There is an endearing madness to this story. It reminded me a lot if Senselessness.
In Despoiler a woman his haunted by her own birthday.
In Butterflies Fastened with Pins, we are witness to the suicide if the narrator's friends, with one twist at the end.
The Passenger Beside You is more of an old-fashioned horror story with an epiphany from the dead.
It would be difficult to describe these stories as horror stories, or in some cases even dark. Conchita has a more black comedy vibe to it. Despoiler isn't about her dream, but a loss in her childhood that haunts her. Butterflies has more of the black comedy to it, even the bit in the end. The last story is very touching and moving as well as sad. Altogether these are unique compelling stories that demonstrate a mastery of suspense, horror, and humor.
Favorite parts:
"...people don't listen sometimes, other people's words upset them as if they were, I don't know, fake tickets for an opening, or checks with insufficient funds--you give the check to the cashier and he gives you no money in return." P. 65
"Or maybe it was just the opposite, and he had tried to die for years until one day, by accident, he succeeded." P.160
In the titular first story, a man tries to connect with a phone sex operator, but the fantasy world makes him unhinged. A customer is constantly rebuffed in resolving his account due to bureaucratic circles. A former lover is trying to resolve his feelings through an answering machine. A man who wants his mistress murdered, but the hitman falls in love with her.
Much of the conversation demonstrates a strong frustration, you aren't getting what you want, but you can't make that clear. There is too much interference, emphasizing how much trouble there is in simple communication. There is an endearing madness to this story. It reminded me a lot if Senselessness.
In Despoiler a woman his haunted by her own birthday.
In Butterflies Fastened with Pins, we are witness to the suicide if the narrator's friends, with one twist at the end.
The Passenger Beside You is more of an old-fashioned horror story with an epiphany from the dead.
It would be difficult to describe these stories as horror stories, or in some cases even dark. Conchita has a more black comedy vibe to it. Despoiler isn't about her dream, but a loss in her childhood that haunts her. Butterflies has more of the black comedy to it, even the bit in the end. The last story is very touching and moving as well as sad. Altogether these are unique compelling stories that demonstrate a mastery of suspense, horror, and humor.
Favorite parts:
"...people don't listen sometimes, other people's words upset them as if they were, I don't know, fake tickets for an opening, or checks with insufficient funds--you give the check to the cashier and he gives you no money in return." P. 65
"Or maybe it was just the opposite, and he had tried to die for years until one day, by accident, he succeeded." P.160