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A review by erinys
Three Messages and a Warning: Contemporary Mexican Short Stories of the Fantastic by Guillermo Samperio, Chris N. Brown, Amparo Dávila, José Luis Zárate, Eduardo Jiménez Mayo, Iliana Estañol, Yussel Dardón, Donaji Olmedo, Queta Navagomez, Eduardo Mendoza, Alberto Chimal, Mónica Lavín, Carmen Rioja, Ana Gloria Álvarez Pedrajo, Amélie Olaiz, Mauricio Montiel Figueiras, Horacio Sentíes Madrid, Karen Chacek, Agustín Cadena, Bernardo Fernández, Bruno Estañol, Hernán Lara Zavala, Liliana Blum, Jesús Ramírez Bermudez, María Isabel Aguirre, Pepe Rojo, Claudia Guillén, Edmee Pardo, Óscar de la Borbolla, Gabriela Damián Miravete, Gerardo Sifuentes, Rene Roquet, Lucía Abdó, Beatriz Escalante, Ana Clavel
4.0
An anthology of short stories edited by Chris N. Brown and Eduardo Jiménez-Mayo. It's a ton of content in one place: 33 pieces of short fiction, all of them highly restricted in length. The whole collection fits into 235 pages of the trade paperback.
The brevity of the tales is definitely a characteristic that struck me repeatedly. The rules of what constitutes "fiction" or "story" are nicely flexible, so the authors are not constrained by the expectations that seem to govern most of the stories I read by English-language authors. You get to read some beautiful stuff that would probably never sell to most English-language magazines, precisely because it is weird and not "plotty" enough. It widens the notion of what constitutes a "story" in interesting ways.
Personal favorites from this collection include a few that would fit nicely in an issue of a literary or genre mag. "Trompe-L'Oeil" by Monica Lavin and "Future Nereid" by Gabriela Damian Miravete could fit in any sci-fi or fantasy magazine. The titular story "Three Messages and a Warning in One Email" by Ana Clavell and "Luck Has Its Limits" by Beatriz Escalante could both make excellent additions to any issue of Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine.
I also enjoyed the stories that seemed to serve as commentary om sexual politics, like "The Guest" by Amparo Davila, or "A Pile of Bland Desserts" by Yussel Dardon.
A few stories definitely felt like political satire, particularly "Lions" by Bernardo Fernandez and "The President Without Organs" by Pepe Rojo.
I think the stories that may stick with me the longest, though, are the really strange ones, which reach into the metaphysical. "The Return of Night" by Rene Roquet and "Wolves" by Jose Luis Zarate had a mystical feel, as did "You Walk A Narrow Path" by Maria Isabel Aguirre.
"Photophobia" by Mauricio Montiel Figueiras, "The Last Witness to Creation" by Jesus Ramirez Bermudez, "Future Perfect" by Gerardo Sifuentes and "The Nahual Offering" by Carmen Rioja all feel like tales of existential horror. The images of those stories will stick with me for a long time, even if the plot details fade.
At any rate, an interesting collection to read, especially if you're interested in story-telling as a craft, or the concept of a national "voice" for speculative literature.
The brevity of the tales is definitely a characteristic that struck me repeatedly. The rules of what constitutes "fiction" or "story" are nicely flexible, so the authors are not constrained by the expectations that seem to govern most of the stories I read by English-language authors. You get to read some beautiful stuff that would probably never sell to most English-language magazines, precisely because it is weird and not "plotty" enough. It widens the notion of what constitutes a "story" in interesting ways.
Personal favorites from this collection include a few that would fit nicely in an issue of a literary or genre mag. "Trompe-L'Oeil" by Monica Lavin and "Future Nereid" by Gabriela Damian Miravete could fit in any sci-fi or fantasy magazine. The titular story "Three Messages and a Warning in One Email" by Ana Clavell and "Luck Has Its Limits" by Beatriz Escalante could both make excellent additions to any issue of Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine.
I also enjoyed the stories that seemed to serve as commentary om sexual politics, like "The Guest" by Amparo Davila, or "A Pile of Bland Desserts" by Yussel Dardon.
A few stories definitely felt like political satire, particularly "Lions" by Bernardo Fernandez and "The President Without Organs" by Pepe Rojo.
I think the stories that may stick with me the longest, though, are the really strange ones, which reach into the metaphysical. "The Return of Night" by Rene Roquet and "Wolves" by Jose Luis Zarate had a mystical feel, as did "You Walk A Narrow Path" by Maria Isabel Aguirre.
"Photophobia" by Mauricio Montiel Figueiras, "The Last Witness to Creation" by Jesus Ramirez Bermudez, "Future Perfect" by Gerardo Sifuentes and "The Nahual Offering" by Carmen Rioja all feel like tales of existential horror. The images of those stories will stick with me for a long time, even if the plot details fade.
At any rate, an interesting collection to read, especially if you're interested in story-telling as a craft, or the concept of a national "voice" for speculative literature.