New Yorker Fiction Review #266: "Our Lady of the Quarry" by Mariana Enriquez

Review of the short story from the Dec. 21, 2020 issue of The New Yorker...

For about a month over the holidays I wasn't getting my New Yorkers in the mail. Hence, why I'm a little behind here. But, on the other hand, given that I've been months or even years behind before -- and missed dozens of issues here an there over the years -- what does it actually matter? The point is...

"Our Lady of the Quarry," a darkly nostalgic story about a group of Argentine girls who become obsessed with their leader and idol, Silvia, who is older, wiser, more worldly and hence cooler -- if not necessarily better looking -- until Silvia draws the attention of the guy all that the group of girls is all unanimously crushing on: Diego. 

There was nothing ground-breakingly new or devastatingly brilliant about this story. It was, however, a sort of voyeuristic departure back into a world that I -- and most of us -- have long since abandoned and forgotten: the frustrating world of teenage lust and desire. Everything from the girls' idolization of Silvia, to their sexual lust that they talk about acting on but never do, to their jealousy over their friend's success with the opposite sex, to their ultimate betrayal and abandonment of her, in a moment driven by petty teenage bitterness, is right out of Being a Teenager 101, if such a book existed. 

What's great about the story, in my opinion, is how alive the prose feels. It reads as though it was written by someone in their early-20s, looking back on something that happened just a few years before, when in fact the author is much further removed from her teenage years than that. It also just strikes to the heart of what it means to be a teenager, basically, to be horny and frustrated.  

Argentine journalist Mariana Enriquez seems to have built a pretty solid resume in the U.S., with publications in The New Yorker (2), Granta, and the Southern Review, not to mention at least one of her books, Things We Lost in the Fire, has been published here. Maybe a writer worth checking out...