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steveatwaywords's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
3.75
This is my first discovery of Quiroga, after looking for his short story "The Spectre." The remainder of this short anthology was as rewarding as that first read.
Here this turn-of-the-20th-century Uruguayan writer finds himself in a changing world, one informed on one side by the traditional supernatural tales of the pre-industrial era and those new sciences which involve electricity and the modern film. As a consequence, most of what is captured here is a fascinating merging of the two, when the motions of camera capture more than image, where love demands a reach across electrons, and where vampires aren't interested entirely in blood.
There is a traditional tale-telling going on here, a very comfortable almost Victorian-age sensibility in presentation, but almost always, the terror occurs where it must, not in the horrors that present themselves but in the human motivations which create them. Quiroga is thoughtful and delicate (often) in his character creation, and we meet simple people of wealth or poverty, each compelled by very real, human desires: and some, presented with the temptations offered by a glittery new world, fail to heed the warning signs.
Here this turn-of-the-20th-century Uruguayan writer finds himself in a changing world, one informed on one side by the traditional supernatural tales of the pre-industrial era and those new sciences which involve electricity and the modern film. As a consequence, most of what is captured here is a fascinating merging of the two, when the motions of camera capture more than image, where love demands a reach across electrons, and where vampires aren't interested entirely in blood.
There is a traditional tale-telling going on here, a very comfortable almost Victorian-age sensibility in presentation, but almost always, the terror occurs where it must, not in the horrors that present themselves but in the human motivations which create them. Quiroga is thoughtful and delicate (often) in his character creation, and we meet simple people of wealth or poverty, each compelled by very real, human desires: and some, presented with the temptations offered by a glittery new world, fail to heed the warning signs.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death
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