The Literary Conference (New Directions Pearls)

May 15, 2010
As any proper mad scientist should, the narrator of prolific (70 books and counting) Argentinian writer Airas antic novella wants to conquer the world, to effect which he has mastered portable cloning. Because money would help, he solves the mystery of the Macuto Line in Mexico and, claiming the treasure at the lines end in the gulf, proceeds to a literary conference in Venezuela, of which he and Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes are guests. His scheme is to clone a great geniusFuentes, that would beand thereby realize his fiendish ambitions, somehow. Of course, things go awry, and huge blue worms descend on the conferences host city. This not-unlikely-for-the-movies scenario is interestingly wrinkled by the fact that the mad scientist and Aira himself are one and the same (thats why the former is feted as the latter by the conference). Because fiction writers are often conflated with their protagonists, and actors with their roles, and writers and actors both may envy their characters adventures, the story comes by its self-reflexiveness honestly. Hilariously, too.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)