Cincuenta agujeros negros.
(Fifty Black Holes)
Liliana Wendorff, Univ. of North Carolina at Pembroke -- Críticas, 1/15/2009
Rubiano Vargas, Roberto.
Colombia: Panamericana. 2008. 235p. ISBN 978-958-30-2896-0. pap. $17.50. STORIES
The title of this fourth collection of short stories by Colombian Rubiano Vargas is certainly revealing: it consists of 50 extremely short tales (the longest is three pages), and the tone is truly dark, so that readers feel they’ve been sucked into a vortex created by a black hole. Astonishing transformations and unexpected twists take place: an angel, ill with acrophobia, cannot use his wings and must turn to other forms of transportation; a chess match between a mediocre worker and a tyrant boss changes into a medieval duel; a scientist decimates all the birds in the world while trying to record everything he can about these creatures’ behavior. Some of Rubiano Vargas’s tales, truly literary jewels, are grouped by themes: five concern the art of writing. In “Sufrimiento” (“Suffering”), for instance, the Muse really exists and is strangled so that the author can achieve peace. Along the same lines, and reminiscent of Woody Allen’s The Purple Rose of Cairo and Buster Keaton’s Shelock Jr., the character of Dracula literally breaks out of the movie screen and decides to go to Hollywood looking for the fountain of youth. This extraordinary book is an exceedingly enjoyable, easy read. Highly recommended for bookstores and for public and academic libraries.
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