{"id":2518,"date":"2009-10-04T12:26:58","date_gmt":"2009-10-04T16:26:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/?p=2518"},"modified":"2018-05-27T22:12:45","modified_gmt":"2018-05-28T02:12:45","slug":"horacio-castellanos-moya-the-she-devil-in-the-mirror","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/2009\/10\/04\/horacio-castellanos-moya-the-she-devil-in-the-mirror\/","title":{"rendered":"Horacio Castellanos Moya: The She-Devil in the Mirror<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The She-Devil in the Mirror<\/strong><\/em><\/span>
\nby Horacio Castellanos Moya (La diabla en el espejo<\/em>, 2000)<\/span>
\ntranslated from the Spanish by Katherine Silver (2009)<\/span>
\nNew Directions (2009)<\/span>
\n192 pp<\/span><\/p><\/h3><\/div>

\"HoracioH<\/span>ave you ever started a book thinking that the title and the blurbs disclosed too much?\u00a0That though it still promises to be well written and interesting, you wish the ending hadn’t been alluded to?\u00a0That’s how I felt when I started The She-Devil in the Mirror<\/em>.\u00a0It’s a murder mystery monologue by a “fabulously unreliable” narrator, the “she-devil.”\u00a0I\u00a0was very wrong to think that I knew how this book would play out.\u00a0As I’ve found in many of New Directions’ publications, the subject is never quite so easy to pin down.<\/p>\n

As I said above, this is a murder mystery delivered as a kind of dramatic monologue, like, for example, The Reluctant Fundamentalist<\/em>. Though I liked The Reluctant Fundamentalist<\/em>, I think She-Devil<\/em> used the device to much greater effect.\u00a0In other words, I thought The Reluctant Fundamentalist<\/em> had a great story and great bits about identity and emotion, but the monologue felt forced and more like a gimmick in the end, though I do understand why it was used; She-Devil<\/em>, on the other hand, never felt gimmicky. And in the end, the device effects quite an illuminating surprise.\u00a0Here’s how it begins:<\/p>\n

\n

How could such a tragedy have happened, my dear? I just spent the whole morning with Olga Mar\u00eda at her boutique at the the Villa Espa\u00f1olas Mall, she had to check on a special order.\u00a0I still can’t believe it; it’s like a nightmare.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Our narrator, that “fantastically unreliable” narrator, is Laura Rivera, a thirty year old woman and\u00a0apparently the best friend of the murdered Olga Mar\u00eda — at least, that is what she says, and we have no reason to doubt her, really. Something I didn’t expect from this Latin American novel is that Laura\u00a0is upper class: “I’ve had only BMWs for about twelve years now, ever since papa gave me my first car when I turned eighteen and entered the university.” Most of the Latin American books I’ve read lately have dealt largely with the commoner, and they’ve been largely political because of that perspective.\u00a0This one has a different feel because of the different perspective, though the political elements are present.\u00a0This is post-civil war San Salvador, and it’s effects have drifted out into the populous, even those who are in many ways oblivious, like Laura.<\/p>\n

Laura is\u00a0in a state of shock as the book begins; after all, she has just found her that her best friend has just been murdered.\u00a0However, due to the gossipy feel of her monologue, we get the feeling that the shock is just as much the effect of her having been with her best friend only hours before.\u00a0It’s the proximity to death, in other words.\u00a0The indignity she shows feels feigned.\u00a0However, in Laura’s defense, she is genuinely shocked about the\u00a0manner of the death.\u00a0Olga Mar\u00eda was killed in cold blood, in her own living room, in front of her young children.\u00a0There is no apparent motive:<\/p>\n

\n

That’s when little Olga told me about the murderer and how all he wanteed was to kill Olga Mar\u00eda: she told him to take the car, whatever he wanted, just don’t hurt them, especially not the girls; but he didn’t want anything, he just wanted to kill her, like someone had sent him, like he’d been given explicit instructions. Something smells rotten, because Olga Mar\u00eda couldn’t have any enemies.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The bulk of the book is Laura’s attempts to rationalize the murder, to try to find something in the little she knows about Olga Mar\u00eda’s past that could explain the death.\u00a0She comes up with some pretty good theories, as outlandish as they may at first seem. The outlandishness is part of the point.\u00a0But, Laura says, “I’m not paranoid.”<\/p>\n

There is so much to admire in this book.\u00a0Castellanos Moya’s narrator is wonderfully rendered.\u00a0We can feel just how out of touch she is as she talks about the past or even the murder but then gets hung up on what someone is wearing.\u00a0She’s a fan of the melodramatic Brazilian telenovelas, and we’re not sure how much of what she’s saying is based on ideas and emotions shes learned from these pastimes.\u00a0But it’s not just this aspect of Laura’s personality that is well done.\u00a0I thought this next paragraph was particularly enlightening:<\/p>\n

\n

After I hung up, after all the excitement of having solved the case, I got paralyzed.\u00a0It was like I saw a blinding light. I felt this terrible dread, as if my discovery, that I’d solved the case, could cost me my life.\u00a0I didn’t want to keep thinking.\u00a0So, instead, I called Do\u00f1a Olga.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Here’s Laura —\u00a0maybe paranoid, maybe not; maybe correct about her theory, maybe not — avoiding her own ideas by calling Olga Mar\u00eda’s mother.\u00a0This is a great mystery novel, but more than that, it is a great look at how the paranoia permeating post-conflict\u00a0societies,even those purporting to be democratic,\u00a0can influence even those who are, for the most part, untouched and out-of-touch. I had no idea going in just how powerful this book would be.<\/p>\n<\/div>