HISTORICAL FICTION | The rest of us did, but we didnt dare cross the quarry, it was so wide and deep, and if we started to drown there would be no one to save us, we were in the middle of nowhere. Ad Choices. And thats where she suggested we all go the next weekend, and we agreed right away because we knew Diego would say yes, and we didnt want the two of them going alone. She is also the author of two short story collections, Los peligros de fumar en la cama (Emec, 2009) and Las cosas que perdimos en el fuego (Editorial Anagrama, 2016), and the novelette Chicos que vuelven (Eduvim, 2010). It was said that when there were trespassers the owner would drive out from behind a hill and start shooting. In Our Lady of the Quarry, she captures the cattiness and envy of teenage girls very well, and their nonchalance at a particularly violent incident is completely believable. She was covered in dust. Mariana Enrquez holds a degree in Journalism and Social Communication from the National University of La Plata. Habit Movie 2020 Plot, I think its a story about rage and the desire for revenge, and Natalia gaining the power to unleash it. She tries to masturbate, but cant do it. Our Share of Night by Mariana Enrquez, translated by Megan McDowell, is published on 13 October by Granta (18.99). What drew you to the voice of these girls speaking together? Once, in an attack of rage, shed bitten one of us for real, leaving a giant bite mark on the arm that had lasted for almost a week. Hogarth, $27 (208p) ISBN 978-0-593-13407-8 By David Wallace. One afternoon, when we were on our way to P.E. Were there any particular horror stories that inspired this one, maybe even a certain kind of slasher film or B movie? They are tapping into the richness of the magical realism tradition most associated with Gabriel Garca Mrquez and the surrealism of Jorge Luis Borges, but with entirely unique styles and takes on the world. Silvia hated public. Photograph by Marta Perez / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock. The Dangers of Smoking in Bed establishes Enrquez as a premier literary voice. But Silvia stood up and pointed to the hill where the owner supposedly might appear. All speculation was brought to an abrupt haltas if a cold knife had sliced through our spineswhen we found out that Silvia and Diego were dating. They laughed a lot, thats for sure, and Silvias laugh was raucous and we had to tell her to keep it down. RELEASE DATE: Jan. 12, 2021. Here we have Our Lady of the Quarry, translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell, whose work I really like. It didnt work. They said they were sorry, asked our forgiveness. I fully expected this to be the final issue ofThe New Yorker for 2020 since usually the last two weeks of the year are combined into one. Apparently someone had bought the place, and we accepted that; none of us knew what a quarry pool was good for or if it could be bought, but, still, it didnt strike us as odd that the pool would have an owner, and we understood why this owner wouldnt want strangers swimming on his property. [2] Parts of her family hail from North-Eastern Argentina (Corrientes and Misiones) and Paraguay. But no. . They were older, they didnt have curfews, Silvia had her own apartment, how stupid wed been to apply our little-kid limitations to them. They ignored us, it was like we didnt exist, like it was only Silvia and Diego there beside the quarry pool. In one firecracker, "Our Lady of the Quarry," a volatile mix of teenage vanity, jealousy, and rage leads to a summoning of dark powers and disproportionate revenge. How could he not realize, when we sat on his lap and pressed our asses into him, or tried to brush our hands against his dick like by accident? And there are puzzles within puzzles: The Lookout offers a Borgesian take on the Overlook Hotel, as a specter lures a distraught tourist through a maze-like resort to a tragic end. Girls can be like bees or like locusts: there's something toxic and delicious and exotic about them. Television buffs will smile at the Kincaids resemblance to the Roys of Succession. Yet an undeniable disquiet pervades. Defining what is moral becomes complicated for Sallie. Something about teens swimming at the quarry seems like a classic recipe for disaster: theyre trespassing, swimming there is dangerous, and theres also this sexual tension bubbling up. Megan McDowell, by Were glad you found a book that interests you! There was nothing ground-breakingly new or devastatingly brilliant about this story. But theres a new generation of women writers poised for literary prominence in the U.S. And it is magnificent. Otherworldly elements crop up throughout Smoking In Bed: divine figures like the skeleton-faced Santa Muerte; scarlet-red statues looming over quarry pools; mysterious revenants who inexplicably return from the dead; ghosts of dead babies and brothers who trail after the stories narrators.What makes Enriquezs fiction so affecting is how grounded the world that Mariana Enriquez on Teen-Age Desire. Not really. What if her apprehension came only from her deep antipathy for proud Barcelona? We had to put a stop to it. "Our Lady of the Quarry" by Mariana Enrquez translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell from the December 21, 2020 issue of The New Yorker I fully expected this to be the final issue of The New Yorker for 2020 since usually the last two weeks of the year are combined into one. Silvia was the one who came up with the idea of the quarry pools that summer, and we had to hand it to her, it was a really good idea. Mariana Enrquez, by The red bikini with hearts on one of us; the super-flat stomach with a belly-button piercing on another; the exquisite haircut that fell just so over the face; legs without a single hair, underarms like marble. If we tried a new drug, she had already overdosed on the same substance. Translated by Megan McDowell. What if hers was the phobia of a provincial tourist? Her stories have appeared in anthologies of Spain, Mexico, Chile, Bolivia and Germany.[6]. When! Our Lady of the Quarry has a spatter of Stephen King: a clique of sex-crazed teenagers confronts their monstrous lust on a torrid summer afternoon. Diego made a sh-h-h sound to soothe them, and Silvia said, We cant show them were scared. And then Natalia, furious, finally crying now, screamed at them, You arrogant assholes! One of her short story collections received its English translation in January. A Review of Mariana Enriquezs short story collection The Dangers of Smoking in Bed. Why? Mariana Enrquez (Buenos Aires, 1973) is an Argentine journalist, novelist, and short story writer.. Mariana Enrquez holds a degree in Journalism and Social Communication from the National University of La Plata.She works as a journalist and is the deputy editor of the arts and culture section of the newspaper Pgina/12 an she dictates literature workshops. Mariana Enrquez and Megan McDowell interview on The Dangers of Smoking in Bed. Yes, the menstrual blood is the magical rite that moves the story forward. Enriquez sees the potential evil in children, especially in the unsettling Kids Who Come Back, which contains a single, terrifying line that chills the blood. If we tried a new drug, she had already overdosed on the same substance. As this story begins, we learn about Silvia, the grown-up friend of our first-person plural narrator(s). April 8, 2021 issue. The Centre is part of a particularly dynamic ecosystem, within the second French . Our Share of Night. and Comments (RSS). The 307 came and we got on calmly so as not to raise suspicions. Diego had played us songs on the acoustic guitar after the horseback ride when it got dark near Cerro Catedral, and later in the hotel he showed us the precise measurements of vodka and orange juice to make a good screwdriver. PARANORMAL FICTION | And once she got something into her head she hardly ever backed down. Shes expecting a Virgin, but what she actually finds is Pomba Gira, an Afro-Brazilian spirit evoked by practitioners of Umbanda and Quimbanda. hardcover. Our Lady of the Quarry, your story in this weeks issue, doesnt have one protagonistinstead, we hear a plural voice of teen-age girls, almost like a chorus. Are you up for it?. We even forgot Diego and Silvia a little. In the end, we get the dogs only, uncannily large, and no owner. Hogarth, 2021. originally published as Los Peligros de fumar en la cama (2017) translated by Megan McDowell. Girls can be like bees or like locusts: theres something toxic and delicious and exotic about them togetherthey can convey a certain power. Mariana Enriquez is Argentina's writer of the moment. He still kept closer to Silvia and he still seemed fascinated by her, even if by then hed realized that we were much, much prettier. The author discusses Our Lady of the Quarry, her story from this weeks issue of the magazine. Mariana Enriquez is a writer and editor based in Buenos Aires, where she contributes to a number of newspapers and literary journals, both fiction and nonfiction. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. Our Lady of the Quarry Q113384170) The short stories of Argentine author and journalist Mariana Enriquez are seeing machineslenses that throw the uglier side of the human condition into uncomfortably sharp focus. In her short stories, Mariana Enriquez acts as a doula for the grotesque and ghoulish, ushering into the world visions of horrors enacted upon and by women. We sneaked out a lot, sure, but we were controlled by schedules, cell phones, and parents who all knew one another and drove us placesout dancing or to the rec center, friends houses, home. "Our Lady of the Quarry" by Mariana Enrquez translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell . I dont trust dogs. By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. Mariana Enrquez (Buenos Aires, 1973) is an Argentine journalist, novelist, and short story writer. She said she was saving herself for someone who was worth it, and Diego was worth it. RELEASE DATE: Oct. 21, 1986. It was eerie and kind of lawless to go there: it was out of town, and of course it was forbidden to swim there, because it was dangerous. She stared at us, studying us. Mariana Enriquezs The Dangers of Smoking in Bed is her second short story collection to appear in English, though its original publication predates that of Things We Lost in the Fire, which was also translated by Megan McDowell.It contains twelve stories, all of which eventually find themselves in the territory of horror, except the title story which, at six pages, The second story, Our Lady of the Quarry, involves a crush of several girls on Diego, a muscled guy who falls for the older Sylvia. And shes long been fascinated by gay desire; she spent her youth, she's noted in past interviews, with tousled hair and military boots, a portrait of the artist as a clenched fist, transforming her love of all things underground into a brilliant career. Categories: 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars. Sometimes she did crazy stuff like that, like the menstrual blood in the coffee. Real quick, Natalia poured in the blood shed managed to collectvery littlein a tiny bottle from a perfume sample. Pre-publication book reviews and features keeping readers and industry LITERARY FICTION, by Silvia hated public pools and country-club pools, even the pools at estates or weekend houses; she said the water wasnt fresh, it always felt stagnant to her. Yes, there's teen angst, but in a brutal, chilling ending, we see that even when swimming on a sunny . In one firecracker, "Our Lady of the Quarry," a volatile mix of teenage vanity, jealousy, and rage leads to a summoning of dark powers and disproportionate revenge. And Natalia knew that any other boy who saw her would kill himself jacking off, but not Diego, nohe preferred that flat-assed skank! In the former, the narrator is horrified at first, but then she starts doing things like sticking the angel baby in the closet or carrying her around in a baby harness, and its funny in a gruesome way. Silvia had already made that trip (of course! But we wanted to screw, too, that was all we wanted! We could see Silvia and Diego on the beach, drying each other off. Of all of us, Natalia was the most obsessed. But it wasnt the only one. The dog bit the mouth of its ownersomeone I knewand ate her lips. Bleu du Vercors-Sassenage - a blue cheese made with milk from Montbliard, Abondance or Villard cows and celebrated each year at its very own Fte du Bleu. The Proclamation For The National Artist Award Was Started On, Mariana Enrquez (Buenos Aires, 1973) is an Argentine novelist, short story writer, essayist, and journalist, with over half a dozen books to her name. The chilling tales give horror a feminist spin. What I like about horror is the sense of anticipation, of waiting for the inevitable to hit you. As far as I can tell, at this point we have just one collection of stories, 2017s Things We Lost in the Fire. 187 pp. When Diego and Sylvia play a trick on the girls at the quarry, a dangerous place named the Virgins Pool, the revenge that one of them extracts is much worse. The journalist and author fills the dozen stories with compelling figures in haunting stories that evaluate inequality, violence, and corruption. I review the short fiction in The New Yorker. There is some foreshadowing early on in the story about the owner and his dogs. Mariana Enriquez is a writer and editor based in Buenos Aires. In terms of the story, though, thats when it does shift. 3.67 avg rating 6 Mariana Enriquez, trans. And when Natalia approached it the false virginal white sheet had fallen on its own, she hadnt touched it, like the statue wanted her to see it. Pomba Gira is often depicted as a beautiful, half-naked woman with long hair, and she represents, roughly, sexuality and witchcraft. He looked at us differently, as if comprehending that he was with an ugly skank. Since the nearest river was polluted, she didnt have anywhere to swim. She is the author of Things We Lost in the Fire and The Dangers of Smoking in Bed, which was shortlisted for the 2021 International Booker Prize.Our Share of Night was awarded the prestigious Premio Herralde de Novela. Then she smiled and said, Its not a Virgin., It has a white sheet to hide it, to cover it, but its not a Virgin. We didnt reply. LITERARY FICTION | GENERAL FICTION, by Copyright 2023 Kirkus Media LLC. The catch: her great-aunt died as an infant, and the ghost who stalks her steps is a rotting, mewling newborn as confused and upset as its living relative and, quite possibly, you. Natalia put on a shirt and a skirt, whispered to us to get dressed, too, and then she took us by the hands. The place exists, and I did go swimming in a quarry like that when I was a teen-ager. In another, Our Lady of the Quarry, printed in December 2020 in The New Yorker to anticipate the books release, a group of jealous teenage girls invoke the mischievous powers of Pomba Gira, an Afro-Brazilian spirit, to sabotage the girlfriend of the cute, older boy they collectively desire. "Our Lady of the Quarry" by Mariana Enriquez, The New Yorker. Sometimes he went to pick her up at the ministry and they went out for a drink, and other times they slept together at her apartment. She didnt know how to swim, but she got wet near the shore and then came out of the water with her yellow swimsuit stuck to her tan body so tight you could see her nipples, hard from the cold water. Bye, girls! Silvia shouted triumphantly as she set off swimming, and we were frozen there in spite of the heatweird, we were frozen and hotter than ever, our ears burning in embarrassment as we cast about desperately for a comeback and watched them glide away, laughing at the dummies who didnt know how to swim. All rights reserved. And Enriquez is particularly adept at capturing the single-minded intensity of teenage girls. A very creepy, yet tender story. Mariana Enriquez on Teen-Age Desire. The first story in Mariana Enriquez's latest translated short story collection, The Dangers of Smoking in Bed, finds a woman haunted by the ghost of her great-aunt. Mariana Enriquez on teen-age desire. Youre a beauty and youre a monster and you can be damaged and you can hurt. If we discovered a band we liked, she had already got over her fandom of the same group. It was huge. translated by We had found Diego, and she couldnt keep everything for herself. Clear rating. Published by HOGARTH. Entries (RSS) Strangewas she praying? Just in case, we even used a dictionary to translate the songs that were in English; wed read them to one another over the phone and discuss them. Get book recommendations, fiction, poetry, and dispatches from the world of literature in your in-box. from the Spanish by Megan McDowell. Trouble signing in? Enriquezs terrific new collection of stories has a hint of Borges, and includes Our Lady of the Quarry, about seemingly innocent teens in the torpid days of January below the equator, recently published in the New Yorker. If we thought about going back, we didnt mention that, either. Family intrigue plays out against the backdrop of 1920s Claiborne County, where racism is a given, Prohibition is the law, and bootlegging is the main source of income for Blacks and Whites. It was really far, nearly at the end of the 307 route, after the bus merged onto the highway. But Natalia got the feeling that they hadnt stopped just because they were tired, she thought they were plotting something. And that the red was really well painted, and it shone, like acrylic. Its not my favorite book of his, but the image of the enormous black dogs trained to rape was such a great image of evil that I used it. In fact, Silvia and Diego had been seeing each other without us at night for a while. All rights reserved. Seventeen-year-old Sallie is devoted to Eddie, who's 13, but after he commits suicide she's torn by conflicting loyalties to her weak but lovable stepmother; her fathers scheming but able sister; and her older half sister, Mary, who's next in line to inherit the Kincaid empire but has not lived in Claiborne Country since her parents divorced. We followed her. Once, when her parents had forbidden her to go dancing for a weekher grades were a disastershed taken twenty of her moms pills. When we got to the highway and heard Silvias and Diegos screams, we secretly prayed that no car would stop and hear them, toosometimes, since we were so young and pretty, people stopped and offered to take us to the city for free. At one point, Diego seemed to realize. The dog was as big as a pony, completely black, and it was clearly about to come down the hill. In "Angelita Unearthed," the eponymous infant wears its feet down to the "little white bones" as it follows the narrator into an irresolute ending. I wasnt thinking at all about B movies. Wed met Diego in Bariloche on our senior-class trip. Title: Our Lady of the Quarry Title Record # 2952432 Author: Mariana Enriquez Date: 2021-01-12 Variant Title of: La Virgen de la tosquera [Spanish] (2017) [may list more publications, awards, reviews, votes and covers] Type: SHORTFICTION Language: English User Rating: This title has no votes.VOTE Current Tags: None Historical fiction concerning the intricate battles over succession within the family that controls a poor rural county in postWorld War I Virginia. The black dog as evil is a very traditional image, but it works for me. We arrived at the beach in a very bad mood, and we ignored all of Silvia and Diegos attempts to make us laugh. Fiction Angelita Unearthed: When a young girl discovers a few small bones in her grandmas backyard, she has no idea that a very persistent baby ghost has been unearthed. Shed just decided to keep quiet when the smell inundated her nose like a hot pepper, like strong mint, making her eyes water; a smell that was almost palpable, black, from the crypt., And in the title story, another troubled woman holes up in her apartment, doused in cigarette smoke, passing the days by observing the moths who burn against her lamp. A rollicking soap opera that keeps the pages turning with a surfeit of births, deaths, and surprising plot reveals. Mariana Enriquezs Things We Lost in the Fire (review copy courtesy of Portobello Books) is a collection of twelve excellent stories set in the writers home country. Mariana Enrquez. She was older, too, shed been out of high school for two years. Mariana Enrquezs most popular book is The Picture of Dorian Gray. These were not the owners dogs, we thought, they were the dogs the bus driver had told us about, savage and dangerous. But we wanted her ruined, helpless, destroyed. And we could see that Diego was starting to take an interest in our golden thighs, our slender ankles, our flat stomachs. They must have seen the way we were panting, our armpits stinking like onion and our hair stuck to our temples. The danger that kept swimmers away wasnt how deep it was: it was the owner. When Diego and Sylvia play a trick on the girls at the quarry, a dangerous place named the Virgins Pool, the revenge that one of them extracts is much worse. The Clermont-Auvergne-Rhne-Alpes Centre brings together the units located in the Auvergne region, from Bourbonnais to Aurillac via Clermont-Ferrand, with 14 research units and 14 experimental facilities, representing 840 staff (permanent and contractual staff). On the other side was the hill over which the owners truck could appear at any moment. Angelita Unearthed: When a young girl discovers a few small bones in her grandmas backyard, she has no idea that a very persistent baby ghost has been unearthed. What Israels Crisis Reveals About Its Democratic Compromises. Plus she had a flat ass and broad hips, which was why jeans never fit her well. What brand was it? Why dogs in particular, and is there something creepier about there being no other human presence in this strange place? It must have been three blocks long. Youre a flat-ass skank, and youre a shithead, and those are my dogs!, There was one ten feet away from Silvia. Knowing that the narrator of Where are You Dear Heart initiated her fetish by falling in love with Helen in Jane Eyre (my favorite book as a kid, too!) Mariana Enriquez's fiction is haunted by the specter of late-twentieth-century Latin American history; the bodies are never buried very deep. Mariana Enrquez, New Yorker Fiction Mariana Enrquez: Our Lady of the Quarry This week's New Yorker story is "Our Lady of the Quarry," by Mariana Enrquez and translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell. Sign up for the Books & Fiction newsletter. We heard their mocking laughter along with the splash. short story by Mariana Enrquez. ; Now, that Natalia couldnt believe. ; They admitted it had been a bad joke, designed to embarrass us, mean and condescending. Its like news from a different world. Sofa, a young woman from Buenos Aires visiting ex-pat friends in Barcelona, immediately detects a stench hovering over the city. But there's a new generation of women writers poised for literary prominence in the U.S. Especially in this difficult year, when work and literature have offered one of the few bright spots amid so much uncertainty. ), and she gave him advice, telling him to call her for recommendations on cheap hotels and on families who would rent out rooms, and he bought every word, in spite of the fact that Silvia didnt have a single photo, not one, as proof of that trip or any othershe was quite the traveller. I discovered this Argentine writer when her tightly woven, psychologically astute story Our Lady of the Quarry was published in the New Yorker (issue of December 21, 2020). They opened the little cooler we always brought to the quarry and took out a cold beer, and just as Diego flipped off the cap with his keychain opener we heard the first growl. Not as our boyfriendwe just wanted him to screw us, to teach us sex the same way he taught us about rock and roll, making drinks, and the butterfly stroke. . We tried to keep quiet, to not make any racket that could wake the hidden owner. Enrquez was born in 1973 in Buenos Aires,[1] and grew up in Valentn Alsina, a suburb in the Greater Buenos Aires metropolitan area. He paid attention to us for a while, until Silvia started chatting him up. It was almost always empty, and there was the menace of the owners, who were a phantasmagoric presence, because we really didnt know if someone owned these places. Susan (a shrink with a lot of time on her hands) says to Tom, "Will you stay in New York and tell me all you know?" She probably would have told us, but we would never ask. newyorker.com Mariana Enriquez on Teen-Age Desire The author discusses "Our Lady of the Quarry," her story from this week's issue of the magazine. So does defining family. Submit a letter: . Private Hockey Skating Lessons Near Me, The sun was burning and flat-ass Silvias nose was peeling, she used the crappiest sunscreen, she was a disaster. It was a lie, surely. Ive written many stories about teen-age girls that tend to have just one voice, yes, like a chorus, because to me theres a buzz at that age, a world that functions in your own private language. We wanted to be with him still wet from the cold quarry water, to fuck him one after the other as he lay on the little beach, to wait for the owners gunshots and run to the highway half-naked under a rain of bullets. PURCHASE. Rosette sausage - speciality of Lyon and a firm favourite amongst French saucissons secs. I had picked up this book this past January, long before it was longlisted (and then shortlisted) for this year's International Booker Prize. She also said that shed asked it for a favor. from the December 21, 2020 issue ofThe New Yorker. Silvia was the one who came up with the idea of the quarry pools that summer, and we had to hand it to her, it was a really good idea. Mariana Enrquez's Buenos Aires, meanwhile, is scarred by decades of austerity, squalor and inequality, deadly misogyny, and the disappearance of around 30,000 people during the dictatorship. Mariana Enriquez has been critically lauded for her unconventional and sociopolitical stories o) 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. I liked the slow unfolding of the zombie-kid horror in Kids Who Come Back. The visceral shock of Meat. Theyre stories you can come back to over and over and always find something new. As entertaining as it is affecting and channeled into English with almost clairvoyant percipience by translator McDowell, this is one not to be slept on for enthusiasts of weird fiction and literary horror and of writers like Samanta Schweblin, Amber Sparks, Ayse Papatya Bucak, and Carmen Maria Machado. Its our reality and many writers engage with these issues, in different ways. . This would inspire her to study journalism with a focus on rock music.[4]. He didnt answer her calls, and, if he did, the conversations were always languid and he always cut them off. With Diego, she wanted something special.