{"id":29798,"date":"2022-08-15T12:37:05","date_gmt":"2022-08-15T16:37:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/?p=29798"},"modified":"2022-08-15T12:37:05","modified_gmt":"2022-08-15T16:37:05","slug":"alejandro-zambra-skyscrapers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/2022\/08\/15\/alejandro-zambra-skyscrapers\/","title":{"rendered":"Alejandro Zambra: “Skyscrapers”"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/span><\/div>

“Skyscrapers”<\/strong><\/span>
\nby Alejandro Zambra<\/span>
\ntranslated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell<\/span>
\nfrom the August 22, 2022 issue of\u00a0The New Yorker<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p><\/h3><\/div>

\"\"It’s been some years since I last read anything by Alejandro Zambra, but I have liked everything I’ve read so far. His work is often interested in narrative structure, and it appears this one goes there too. I like how the first little section gets us involved in the narrative immediately, even though we don’t know what’s going on.<\/p>\n

\n

I didn\u2019t go to New York, because I didn\u2019t want to cut my hair. And my father didn\u2019t read my \u201cLetter to My Father.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll read it next time I feel like crying,\u201d he told me. \u201cExcept I never feel like crying.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t know how to respond. I never knew how to respond. That was why I wrote; that\u2019s why I write. I write the replies I don\u2019t think of at the time. Or drafts of those replies, really.<\/span><\/p>\n

The first time I tried to write this story, for example, I erased you. I thought it would be possible to conceal your absence, as if you simply hadn\u2019t shown up for that day\u2019s performance and we, the other actors, had to improvise at the last minute.<\/span><\/p>\n

Only now do I realize that this story started with you, because, although I might prefer to somehow avoid acknowledging it, this is, above all and in every sense, a love story.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Please feel welcome to leave your thoughts below!<\/p>\n<\/div>