A review by littoral
Dislocations by Sylvia Molloy
4.0
In Silvia Molloy’s Dislocations, an unnamed narrator presents vignettes from the life of her friend M.L., who we quickly learn is afflicted with an unnamed condition (hinted to be Alzheimer’s) that affects her memory. Each vignette is well-observed in its own way, and the book only grows more rending as the reader’s deeper understanding of M.L. as the book goes on runs counterparallel to M.L.’s progressively worsening memory.
The brief book makes the most of each vignette, and the observations ring true - presenting the different facets of degenerative disease, the variability in the good days and the bad (3 sequential vignettes about a gift of alfajores are deceptively simple and true), the loss of the memory of not only events and facts but also of who you are, how to be. There is a lot packed into few words in exploring who defines our identity and our histories when our memories no longer supply these for ourselves. As literature, this is moving, thought-provoking. The cruel reality is that the affliction is substantially messier than the carefully crafted, even detached version presented here (something the narrator hints at), but this does not always make for good literature.
The brief book makes the most of each vignette, and the observations ring true - presenting the different facets of degenerative disease, the variability in the good days and the bad (3 sequential vignettes about a gift of alfajores are deceptively simple and true), the loss of the memory of not only events and facts but also of who you are, how to be. There is a lot packed into few words in exploring who defines our identity and our histories when our memories no longer supply these for ourselves. As literature, this is moving, thought-provoking. The cruel reality is that the affliction is substantially messier than the carefully crafted, even detached version presented here (something the narrator hints at), but this does not always make for good literature.