The Scent of Buenos Aires

August 15, 2019
The first collection in English from the acclaimed Argentine short story writer (1936-2018) who possessed a well-trained eye for life's idiosyncrasies. Uhart's stories often turn on the simplest of everyday settings: baking a cake at home, a trip to a hair salon, a day at an elementary school, a homeowners' association meeting. Yet the delivery is just a touch off-center, as if her prose were microdosed: The narrator of "At the Hair Salon" imagines the woman washing her hair "rations out the assault like a cat" and figures the pedicurist "was destined for heroic deeds, like driving a tank in the steppe"; the homeowners' meeting escalates from complaints about mail delivery to climate change. The offbeat observations are fitting for characters who tend to see the absurdity of existence: "Human beings are radically alone," says one character; "the world was just one big prison," thinks another. Sometimes Uhart's stories take a fablelike form, as in "The Wandering Dutchman," about a foreigner's bemused travels through the Argentine countryside ("the whole world was a concert of cows, doves, and frogs"), or "Mister Ludo," about a man who hikes his family from town to town with six children in a line behind him, as if they were ducklings. But the stories are unified by Uhart's interest in families, especially women's roles within them. The opening "Guiding the Ivy" follows the narrator, who is going about her day while fearing becoming a woman whose "life was in a perpetual state of disaster"; in "The Light of a New Day," an elderly woman fears for the neglect of her neighbor, who's broken her hip. These stories rarely adhere to conventional plots, but as mood pieces they're effective glimpses into the peculiarities of Uhart's characters, who crave order but usually concede that the world's default mode is disarray. A welcome (if, alas, posthumous) introduction to a sui generis writer.

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August 26, 2019
This collection from Uhart (1936–2018), her first to be translated into English, introduces new readers to a refreshing and unique writer. Uhart’s stories are written in a voice that’s frank, almost conversational, and occasionally humorous, but they land with surprising gravitas. In “The Stories Told by Cecilia’s Friends,” the titular stories, though mundane, turn out to be oddly prescient for Cecilia, inducing a new outlook on life. Though none are very long, Uhart’s briefest tales are snatches of a scene (“At the Hair Salon”), allegorical (“Christmas Eve in the Park”), or have the tone of a bedtime tale (“The Boy Who Couldn’t Fall Asleep”). While some nail their intent, such as “At the Hair Salon,” which nicely encapsulates the perfect storm of vanity and gossip in a hair salon, or “Hello Kids,” in which children sharply observe animals at the zoo, others can feel like filler, such as “My New Love,” which uses lover’s language to describe a dog. Still, there’s a wonderfully off-kilter humanity to Uhart’s writing that readers are sure to respond to. This collection feels like a deserved celebration of a writer’s career.

October 1, 2019

The recently deceased and relatively unknown Uhart was a prolific short story writer with about a dozen published collections dating back to 1962. This anthology of 38 pieces from various stages of her career marks the first book-length appearance of Uhart's work in English. Unlike those of her compatriot Jorge Luis Borges, her tales are more grounded in reality and in domestic situations, taking place in such locales as a kitchen, a beauty salon, the zoo, organization meetings, a piano recital, and schools. Despite the title, some of the work here is set elsewhere in Argentina, including Uhart's hometown of Moreno. The mostly female characters, levelheaded yet sensitive, generally undergo a change, but the stories eschew plot development for mood creation and generally do not end with a twist. Instead, they end quietly and subtly because that's all Uhart has to say. Though the length varies from two to more than 30 pages, the shorter ones, such as "My New Love," which starts out hinting at human love and ends up being canine, are exquisite because of their simplicity and singular purpose. VERDICT These stories cover a broad spectrum of situations and will appeal to a wide range of readers. A remarkable introduction to one of the unsung women writers of Argentine letters.--Lawrence Olszewski, North Central State Coll., Mansfield, OH

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