A review by vulpasvulpas
Hi, This Is Conchita: And Other Stories by Santiago Roncagliolo

3.0

quite the damn rumpus, the first 3/4 told almost exclusively through chirps (and unhinged run-on voicemail messages) of dialogue between a phone sex operator(s?) and their borderline maniacal, obsessive caller(s?), polished off with an ending that made me squeal from madness. deposed lovers, murder-for-hire plots, and an irrationally and brilliantly irksome customer service representative form the real meat of this collection, braided together with about 3 other short stories that seemed a little disenchanting compared to the titular story, that of which is essentially a tale of sexual mania and its reckless, anonymous results. although in sum a rather underwhelmed collection, it's storytelling like this that makes me love latin american literature above almost all other canons: atypical storylines, subversive plot devices, absolute literary deviance and chimerical magic, whose writers have a way of making literature something completely ungovernable and magnificent.