Prosa breve. (Brief Prose)
Reviewed by Kathleen March, Univ. of Maine -- Críticas, 8/15/2008 8:56:00 AM
Saenz, Jaime.
Bolivia: Plural, dist. by Bolivia Books. 2008. 199p. ISBN: 978-99954-1-116-9. pap. $14. ESSAYS & STORIES
Saenz's style is a mixture of seriousness and humor, the grotesque and the picturesque, Bolivian local color and the universal human condition. His prose is full of contradictions: each text seems to write and unwrite itself, as his characters make observations and then proceed to state the opposite. There is some repetition of stylistic techniques in this sense, but in this same repetitious style Saenz has a purpose. He uses broad features to portray Bolivian society in his fiction, which also is ambiguous because the reader is never quite sure if the characters are real or invented. The placement of "El aparapita de La Paz" (“The Aparapita from La Paz”), an essay on the aparapita as a social pariah, at the beginning of the collection serves as a portal for the ensuing stories, as both essay and fiction present a society as abject and burdened with solitude. The aparapita, the Aymará who has migrated to the city and survives against all odds, is similar to the protagonists of "Los cuartos" (“The Rooms”), "El señor Balboa" (“Mr. Balboa”), and "Santiago de Machaca". All the characters seem to be trying to make sense out of their lives and yet are unaware that they are completely incapable of comprehending their true situation. Even for those who have little familiarity with Bolivian literature, this is an accessible collection of texts. This is no longer the literary Bolivia of Jesús Lara and indigenismo with its portrayal of the Aymará or Quechua communities. Or if it is, one must look harder to find the original culture, abandoned or hidden by those who are transposed onto urban patterns. Saenz's tongue in cheek style will leave readers thinking for a long time; highly recommended.
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