A small disclaimer: I know everybody hates my Book Notes series because I only read Spanish books with no English translations these days. But I’m going on vacation next week and I promise I’ll read a bunch of books in English. I have a great lineup of books that you’ll like hearing about. In the meanwhile, it’s not such a horrible thing if you get a glimpse of what’s happening in the Spanish literature, right?
Author: Soledad Puértolas
Title: El fin
Language: Spanish
Year: 2015
My rating: 8 out of 10
Puértolas is another writer from Spain whose work I follow. This year she published a collection of short stories titled The End. These are stories where nothing whatsoever happens, and a careful reader will notice that the writer is doing it very consciously and even makes it clear that this is what she’s doing in the very first story.
As a result, the first few stories are really puzzling. You read them and think, “OK, nothing happens here. What’s the point of all this?” As you keep reading, though, it becomes clear that when taken all together, these short stories have an absolutely devastating impact. They can’t be read separately because they only work as a whole even though they don’t share characters, plot elements, narrative voice, setting, or anything else. It takes an incredible artistic talent to combine – in a very deliberate way – a bunch of meaningless pieces and make them deliver such a massive punch in conjunction.
I’d gladly give the collection 10 out of 10 but there are 3 stories about dogs in it. And I hate dogs. Not even my great admiration for Puértolas’s enormous talent makes me get over my annoyance with the subject of dogs.
This is great literature, though. God, I love Spanish literature.
Clarissa's Blog 
Wait, I thought you got over your fear and hatred of dogs with the help of your analyst!
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I no longer have panic attacks when I see them. And I don’t have any fantasies of cracking their sculls against concrete. And I can even pet them every once in a while. But it’s not like I started liking them.
Analysis makes you feel better but it doesn’t change who you are. For instance, I can now hang out with people without feeling the need for copious amount of alcohol but I didn’t become a social butterfly. I’m still me. 🙂
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You remind me of this story by the English writer Eric Frank Russell:
Well, the man isn’t from earth, he is from another planet. He visits Earth and finds out that he can read the minds of Dogs, not cats, and that they rule the world by sucking up to men. He is trying to warn the his fellows about it (they have been given a breeding pair of dogs as a gift to take back with them). They think he’s nuts, and yes, a dog does trip him and he falls out of the spaceship and dies.
It is a short story by Eric Frank Russell “Into Your Tent I’ll Creep”. Collected in the “Best of Eric Frank Russell”.
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http://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/40890/name-of-a-short-story-with-a-telepathic-man-and-cats
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I know exactly how this man felt! Thanks for the story and the understanding! 🙂
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