Synopses & Reviews
In Death as a Side Effect, Ana María Shuas brilliantly dark satire transports readers to a dystopic future Argentina where gangs of ad hoc marauders and professional thieves roam the streets while the wealthy purchase security behind fortified concrete walls and the elderly cower in their apartments in fear of being whisked off to state-mandated “convalescent” homes, never to return. Abandoned by his mistress, suffocated by his father, and estranged from his demented mother and ineffectual sister, Ernesto seeks his vanished lover. Hoping to save his dying father from the ministrations of a diabolical health-care system, he discovers that, ultimately, everyone is a patient, and the instruments wielded by the impersonal medical corps cut to the very heart of the social fabric. The world of this novel, with its closed districts, unsafe travel, ubiquitous security cameras, and widespread artificiality and uncertainty, is as familiar as it is strange—and as instructive, in its harrowing way, as it is deeply entertaining. The Spanish edition has been selected by the Congreso de la Lengua Española as one of the one hundred best Latin American novels published in the last twenty-five years.
Review
“Shua ridicules the idea of thinness as . . . an aristocratic model, as well as the institutions that promote that ideal. [
The Weight of Temptation] is a sharp, funny, acid, and entertaining novel.”—Patricio Lennard,
Radar: Página/12
Review
“Whos not afraid of those extra pounds? Who doesnt need the mirrors daily reassurance? Who doesnt fear ugliness and isolation as even more unbearable than death? In her latest novel, Ana María Shua tracks the unhappy path of the obese to those murky institutions that claim omnipotence.”—Magdalena Ruiz Guiñazu,
Perfil
Review
“Written in a rich, colloquial language stripped of euphemism, alternately raw and seductive.”—Marta Ortiz,
La CapitalReview
"Are thinness, youth and beauty really the ultimate values of the human race? Science fiction, allegory or parody, this tasty little novel serves up a witty parody of today's calorie-obsessed culture to sweeten its merciless, well-aimed bite."—Nick DiMartino, Nick's Picks, University Book Store, Seattle
Review
"[The Weight of Temptation] offers an incredible new look into the cyclic addiction to food and fans of dystopian literature, political parables, and food aficionados will find this to be a newly relevant twist on an old tale."—Three Percent
Review
"Argentinean poet Shua is a master of the bon mot. Each of these concise, lyrical pieces—somewhere between aphorism, anecdote and poem, and rarely longer than a paragraph—contains a fluid, perplexing, and (often) highly amusing thought. . . . These dreamlike landscapes will delight and charm readers new to Shuas work."—Publishers Weekly
Review
"This is a very enjoyable collection, and the best pieces impress mightily; certainly one is left hungry for more of these morsels. Well worthwhile."—M. A. Orthofer, Complete Review
Review
"Moving from the familiar to the strange in simple sentences, and somehow finding the worlds within our world this collection of stories bewilders and delights all at once. . . . An intriguing genre, it reeks of freshness and should be explored."—2009 MOSAIC
Review
"Treat the various stories like abstract art, rather than typical works of English. They are most enjoyable after rolling around in one's mind for a time. They are exquisite to ponder. They have subtle meanings and messages that can be searched for."—Clinton Borror, Big Muddy
Review
"This book is a fascinating opportunity to read something light, quick, and enjoyable. It is a fun escape into a world that urges you to reflect upon the multi-faceted joys and wonders of everyday life."—Jacqueline Strege, Straylight
Review
“The microfictions of Ana María Shua unfurl an absurd and ingenious world like that of Lewis Carroll. . . . What great literature breathes in these pages!”—A B C (Madrid)
Review
"Shua laces her small, powerful narrative with humor, and her insight into the human condition, particularly in her vision of a city run amuck, has resonance."—Publishers Weekly
Review
"Shua's finest moments occur when she portrays individuals confronting the spectre of death in their own ways, or when a son's initial resentment dissolves when he discovers an epistolary—and far more enduring—means of escape."—Karen Rigby, Fore Word Reviews
Review
"[Death as a Side Effect is] not to be mistaken for a light, optimistic read, but the quality of writing and the deftness of characterization make it a satisfying one."—Matthew Tiffany, Booklist
Review
"Shua's poetic novel is full of ironic twists that keep the suspense high until the very end."—Dana Heather Schwartz, Literary Review
Review
"Death as a Side Effect strikes a brilliant balance between the downbeat subject matter and the dark humour running through the whole novel. It is absurd, bleak and funny. Ernesto is an everyman character who is both frustrating to observe and easy to sympathise with, and his father is compelling and repellent in equal measure. For all its craziness, Death as a Side Effect is an accessible satire about ordinary family life, and a book that should be added to those holiday wish lists."—Andy Barnes, Belletrista
Review
"Originally published in 1997 and translated into English for the first time by Andrea G. Labinger, Death as a Side Effect uses dark satire to effectively meld societal and personal tribulations."—Tim Gebhart, Blogcritics
Review
http://www.rochester.edu/College/translation/threepercent/index.php?id=2081
Review
http://nebraskapress.typepad.com/university_of_nebraska_pr/2009/06/short-stories-on-twitter-short-stories-on-recommended-reading-list.html
Review
“Argentinean Ana María Shua is one of the best creators of the microstory genre. An ingenious and absurd world in which pulsates the best literature.”—El País (Madrid)
Review
“Shuas microfictions are paradigms of wicked humor. The author shows herself capable repeatedly of zeroing in on a detail—perverse, quirky, often appalling—of the unstable reality of human experience and revealing it to be the essence of ordinary daily existence.”—David William Foster, Regents Professor of Spanish and Women & Gender Studies at Arizona State University, and editor of Chasqui: Revista de literatura latinoamericana
Review
“For their mental sharpness, imaginative insightfulness, and critical irony, the microfictions of Ana María Shua place her on the front line of the new Latin American fiction.”—José Miguel Oviedo
Synopsis
Dystopian fantasy, political parable, morality tale—however one reads it, this novel is first and foremost pure Ana María Shua, a work of fiction like no other and a dark pleasure to read. Shua, an Argentinian writer widely celebrated throughout Latin America, frames her complex drama in deceptively simple, straightforward prose. The story takes place at a fat farm called The Reeds, a nightmare world that might not exist but certainly could. The last resort of the overweight wealthy (or sponsored), The Reeds subjects its “campers” to extreme measures—particularly the regimented system of public humiliation imposed by its director, a glib and sharp-minded sadist called the Professor.
Into the midst of this methodical madness comes Marina Rubin, who experiences all the excesses of The Reeds. The pervasive cruelty of this refined novel distances it from facile conclusions. Amid the mordant social satire, The Reeds obese campers are far more than merely victims of the system, subjected to impossible social demands for physical perfection. Out of control, fierce, rebellious, or subjugated, they are recognizable human beings, contending with an unjust but efficient authority in their unique and solitary ways.
Synopsis
Cinderellas sisters surgically modify their feet to win the princes love. A werewolf gathers up enough courage to visit a dentist. A medium trying to reach the afterworld gets a recorded message. A fox and a badger compete to out-fool each other. Whether writing of insomnia from a mosquitos point of view or showing us what happens after the princess kisses the frog, Ana María Shua, in these fleet and incandescent stories, is nothing if not pithy—except, of course, wildly entertaining. Some as short as a sentence, these microfictions have been selected and translated from four different books. Flashes of insight, cracks of wit, twists of logic, and quirks of language: these are fictions in the distinguished Argentinean tradition of Borges and Cortázar and Denevi, as powerful as they are brief. One of Argentinas most prolific and distinguished writers, and acclaimed worldwide, Shua displays in these microfictions the epitome of her humor, riddling logic, and mastery over our imagination. Now, for the first time in English, the fox transforms itself into a fable, and “the reader is invited to find the tail.”
About the Author
Ana María Shua has published more than forty books in many genres, including poetry, childrens fiction, novels, and books on Jewish folklore, and her work has been translated into many languages. She lives in Buenos Aires.
Steven J. Stewart is an associate professor in the English Department at Brigham Young University-Idaho in Rexburg. He was awarded a 2005 Literature Fellowship for Translation by the National Endowment for the Arts. His translation of Devoured by the Moon: Selected Poems of Rafael Perez Estrada was a finalist for the PEN USA Translation Award.