This Is Not America

May 27, 2019
This thoughtful collection of short stories from Catalonian writer and translator Puntí (Lost Luggage) is set primarily in Barcelona and largely features a cast of jaded male protagonists. Though the stories often blend together, one not particularly standing out from the other, memorable instances occur throughout, such as the somber twist at the end of “Kidney,” about a loner ignoring letters from his sick, estranged brother. In “My Best Friend’s Mother,” and “Consolation Prize,” men pursue fantasies of women they barely know, then realize their dream doesn’t match their reality. In “Seven Days on the Love Boat,” a disgruntled husband exchanges anniversary tickets to France for a solo trip on a Mediterranean cruise liner, where he meets a sage American pianist. In “The Miracle of the Loaves and the Fishes,” a Catalonian with a gambling problem moves to Las Vegas, where he manages to turn his addiction into an unexpected career. Although the collection lacks variety, the stories make for a consistently pleasant reading experience, especially when consumed in small doses.

June 15, 2019
An assured collection of stories about men trying to connect with the world through convoluted, excessive means. Their settings might be firmly rooted in the domestic, but the nine stories in Catalan writer Puntí's (Lost Luggage, 2013) collection read as though they are arriving from another world or being broadcast from a chillier, dystopian future. In "Kidney," a man named Gori gets letters reading "I'll be needing a kidney" along with checks for increasingly large amounts of money in the mail from his long-estranged brother, who perhaps feels he can buy Gori's altruism--or forgiveness. When Gori's niece shows up on his doorstep to make the request for her father in person, Gori "finally gave her the answer he's been savoring all along." Other than its preoccupation with familial dynamics, what the story has in common with those surrounding it is its use of an off-kilter premise to magnify its characters' sense of aggrievement and longing. "Blinker" chronicles a hitchhiker who refuses to make himself vulnerable to his drivers (or his readers) by revealing the contents of his black briefcase, while "Vertical" applies a Peter Pan-like sense of arrested development to a relapsed alcoholic writing his dead lover's name with his footsteps as he walks through the streets of Spain. Other stories parse obsessions borne out to their logical conclusions as characters deceive people they claim to care about for the sake of fulfilling their own desires. "Consolation Prize" focuses on a man's unhealthy fixation on the ex-girlfriend a fellow dog owner casually mentions while they're chatting at the park; he tracks her down and constructs an elaborate scenario to ask her out. "My Best Friend's Mother" places a teenager's lust in amber only to have it break out in a moment of selfishness when, as an adult, he randomly encounters the title character in a bar. Although the stories are well written and studded with wry observations, for the most part Puntí's language clears out of the way to make space for his great gifts of imagination and plot. Subversive stories in which the simplest interactions have dark preoccupations roiling underneath.

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July 26, 2019

The recurring scenario in these nine stories by Catalonian writer Puntí (Lost Luggage) is a relationship the male protagonist carries out with varying degrees of commitment and intensity. In "Kidney," Gori grapples with a request to donate a kidney to his estranged brother. The hitchhiker in "Blinker" routinely but inexplicably thumbs rides while carrying his mysterious briefcase. The main character in "Vertical" wanders through Barcelona neighborhoods seeking consolation after his lover's death. Las Vegas gambler Miquel Franquesa discovers an unusual talent that favors the casino in "The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes." Attempting to rekindle romance with his wife, Mauri of "Seven Days on a Love Boat" plans a Paris vacation but ends up going on a cruise by himself instead. Ibon's idealistic obsession with Anna in "Consolation Prize" fades once they get acquainted. VERDICT Puntí here expands his English-language repertoire with a compilation commissioned (and in some cases rewritten) between 2000 and 2016, deriving its title from a 1985 song by David Bowie and Pat Metheny. The wry humor makes it an appropriate introduction to the works of a rising Iberian writer.--Lawrence Olszewski, North Central State Coll., Mansfield, OH

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2019
Acclaimed Catalonian writer Punt�'s (Lost Luggage, 2013) searing short stories, set mainly in Spain, feature characters searching for control, in spite of their general oblivion, navigating moments of regret alongside unexpected grace. The complexities of relationships romantic or familial form the crux of the nine tales. Vertical follows a narrator's evening walk through the streets of Barcelona, the path of his footsteps evoking the memories of the complicated relationship of a couple attempting to escape their addictions, first together and then hauntingly apart. In the memorable Seven Days on the Love Boat, a husband books an anniversary trip to Paris in a last-ditch effort to fix his marital woes. When events later engender a temporary separation, he winds up on a solo Mediterranean cruise, which leads to an unexpected encounter with a weathered Las Vegas musician. In Matter, a couple finds their long-term relationship unmoored by a vagrant. Punt� is unafraid to explore the uncomfortable rifts of his characters' lives, particularly the lies they tell themselves to embolden or confront their justifications of their situations.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)