New Yorker Fiction Review #196: "The Size of Things" by Samantha Schweblin
Yeah, I'm more than a year behind now. Well more than a year. Going to try and correct that over the summer months here, but... promises.
This is an intriguing, sort of tragic story by Argentine writer Samantha Schweblin bearing some of the distinct hallmarks of good old Latin American magic realism, but there are no ghosts or spirits or flying witches or disappearing objects. Just a local rich kid (man) named Enrique Duvel who, in an attempt to escape his domineering mother, wanders into a local toy shop and becomes their live-in employee for a few weeks until his mother comes to collect him.
All short stories should be this length, under 3,000 words that is. Nice, compact and easy to read in under 20 minutes or so; however, having said that, this particular story feels incomplete, feels like a story fragment rather than a complete tale. Perhaps a little bit more about Enrique Duvel and his domineering mother might have helped? Why is he an over-grown man-child? Even the slightest hint would have made me feel a bit more satisfied.
As is, I'm left hungry, wanting more, as though I ate one solitary peanut.
Comments