I dont trust dogs. Mariana Enrquez: "Our Lady of the Quarry" This week's New Yorker story is "Our Lady of the Quarry," by Mariana Enrquez and translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell. It was a black dog, though the first thing Diego said was Its a horse. No sooner did he finish the sentence than the dog barked, and the bark filled the afternoon and we could have sworn it made the surface of the water in the quarry pool tremble a little. Maybe Natalias experiment with menstrual blood is one place where we start to feel the shift. We may earn commission from the links on this page. Getting around the quarry wasnt easy; it seemed much smaller when you were sitting on the little beach. ), and she gave him advice, telling him to call her for recommendations on cheap hotels and on families who would rent out rooms, and he bought every word, in spite of the fact that Silvia didnt have a single photo, not one, as proof of that trip or any othershe was quite the traveller. All speculation was brought to an abrupt haltas if a cold knife had sliced through our spineswhen we found out that Silvia and Diego were dating. Bye, girls! Silvia shouted triumphantly as she set off swimming, and we were frozen there in spite of the heatweird, we were frozen and hotter than ever, our ears burning in embarrassment as we cast about desperately for a comeback and watched them glide away, laughing at the dummies who didnt know how to swim. We were scared. Her friends whisper about a pedophile ring, missing children, and Sofa becomes a true detective of the supernatural. I love translating things that make me squirm a little. Fiction from the Spanish by Megan McDowell. He didnt answer her calls, and, if he did, the conversations were always languid and he always cut them off. I can see how it has that atmosphere, certainly, but the setting was inspired by a real place. I never trusted a dog again. Who would ever love her like that, with dandruff, depression, zits on her back, cellulite, hemorrhoids, and everything dry, so dry.. In January 2021 we will be getting a second, The Dangers of Smoking in Bed. Mariana Enrquez, Megan McDowell (Goodreads Author) (Translator), Pablo Gerardo Camacho (Illustrator) 4.39 avg rating 17,777 ratings published 2019 48 editions. Tough to choose just oneI definitely liked Our Lady of the Quarry and its plural, mean girl narrator. I guess the idea being that its the details of the characters normal lives that makes the abnormal parts hit harder. She works as a journalist and is the deputy editor of the arts and culture section of the newspaper Pgina/12,[5] and she dictates literature workshops. Our Lady of the Quarry: A story of obsession, deadly jealousy and witchcraft. 2020-12-21- Mariana Enriquez Silvia lived alone in a rented apartment of her own, with a five-foottall pot plant on the balcony and a giant bedroom with a mattress on the floor. Strangewas she praying? . Our Lady of the Quarry by. We were sixteen, and some of us hadnt had sex yetit was terrible. What I like about horror is the sense of anticipation, of waiting for the inevitable to hit you. Mariana Enrquez, New Yorker Fiction Mariana Enrquez: Our Lady of the Quarry This week's New Yorker story is "Our Lady of the Quarry," by Mariana Enrquez and As in her previous collection, Things We Lost in the Fire, Enrquez mines her inner Poe: Her characters grapple with ghosts and their own hauntings. Mariana Enriquez on Teen-Age Desire. The catch: her great-aunt died as an infant, and the ghost who stalks her steps is a rotting, mewling newborn as confused and upset as its living relative and, quite possibly, you. short story by Mariana Enrquez. Why dogs in particular, and is there something creepier about there being no other human presence in this strange place? Mariana Enriquez's macabre fantasies are various and unnerving and not a little bit metal. The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. She had the provincial last name of Olavarra and a cousin who had disappeared mysteriously while travelling around Mexico. And Enriquez is particularly adept at capturing the single-minded intensity of teenage girls. 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars. We had found Diego, and she couldnt keep everything for herself. 500usc To Naira, Silvia was the one who came up with the idea of the quarry pools that summer, and we had to hand it to her, it was a really good idea. And it is magnificent. She shows us. But we wanted her ruined, helpless, destroyed. Diego didnt even hear Natalia: he stood in front of his girlfriend to protect her, but then another dog appeared behind him, and then two smaller ones that came running and barking down the hill where the owner never did turn up, and suddenly they started howling, from hunger or hatred, we didnt know. The Virgins Pool was special, people said, because almost no one ever went there. They talked a little more about oceans and waterfalls and streams, and then Silvia mentioned the quarry pools. Save The Children Charity Navigator, This would inspire her to study journalism with a focus on rock music.[4]. "Our Lady of the Quarry" by Mariana Enriquez, The New Yorker. We listened devotedly and looked for messageswas he trying to tell us something? In 2017 Las cosas que perdimos en el fuego was translated into English by Megan McDowell, and published as Things We Lost in the Fire in by Portobello Books[7] in the U.K. and Hogarth[8] in the U.S. The first story in Mariana Enriquez's latest translated short story collection, The Dangers of Smoking in Bed, finds a woman haunted by the ghost of her great-aunt. A dance of demons staring into our souls. Pomba Gira is often depicted as a beautiful, half-naked woman with long hair, and she represents, roughly, sexuality and witchcraft. I like feeling unsafe in a story, both reading and writing it. For more stories like this, sign up for our newsletter. In Our Lady of the Quarry, she captures the cattiness and envy of teenage girls very well, and their nonchalance at a particularly violent incident is completely believable. It was also the biggest, deepest, and most dangerous of all. Our Lady of the Quarry Since the nearest river was polluted, she didnt have anywhere to swim. Youre a flat-ass skank, and youre a shithead, and those are my dogs!, There was one ten feet away from Silvia. translated by There, very close to us, three slobbering pony-dogs were walking. We hated that her long, heavy, straight hair was colored with a dye we couldnt find in any normal beauty salon. I want to see the altar up close. Then, once we were back in Buenos Aires, we called to invite him to a party. The Dangers of Smoking in Bed, by Mariana Enriquez 9780593134078. Just like that. We, though, were impeccable. We could see Silvia and Diego on the beach, drying each other off. The black dog as evil is a very traditional image, but it works for me. He taught us to make a roach clip out of a matchbook, and he watched out for us, making sure we didnt get in the water when we were too crazyhe didnt want us getting high and drowning. Weird Things is proudly powered by She was covered in dust. It must have been three blocks long. They opened the little cooler we always brought to the quarry and took out a cold beer, and just as Diego flipped off the cap with his keychain opener we heard the first growl. newyorker.com Mariana Enriquez on Teen-Age Desire The author discusses "Our Lady of the Quarry," her story from this week's issue of the magazine. In her short stories, Mariana Enriquez acts as a doula for the grotesque and ghoulish, ushering into the world visions of horrors enacted upon and by women. Is there something satisfying about the way that we know in a horror story that something bad is going to happenits inevitabilityeven if were not sure exactly what? Get book recommendations, fiction, poetry, and dispatches from the world of literature in your in-box. and Comments (RSS). Title: Our Lady of the Quarry Title Record # 2952432 Author: Mariana Enriquez Date: 2021-01-12 Variant Title of: La Virgen de la tosquera [Spanish] (2017) [may list more publications, awards, reviews, votes and covers] Type: SHORTFICTION Language: English User Rating: This title has no votes.VOTE Current Tags: None . They told me many times that she tried to take away from him something that he was eating, and that this is something you cant do, but that explanation was never enough for me. The point is "Our Lady of the Quarry," a darkly nostalgic story about a group of Argentine girls who become obsessed with their leader and idol, Silvia, who is older, wiser, more worldly and hence cooler -- if not necessarily better looking -- until Silvia draws the attention of the guy all that the group of girls is all unanimously crushing on: Diego. Why didnt we just throw ourselves at him, once and for all? What we did know, what we realized because it was so obvious, was that the dogs didnt even look at us. She also said that shed asked it for a favor. Of course, parents didnt know about these escapades, and many friends didnt know either, because they disapproved of our going there. It was very confusingthere were all kinds of conflicting signs. The problem was that the two of them were very good swimmers, and although they played with us in the water and taught us a few things, sometimes they got bored and swam off with fast, precise strokes. ; No doubt they smoked pot from Silvias plant in bed after sex. The author discusses Our Lady of the Quarry, her story from this weeks issue of the magazine. The days were torrid and the water was so cold: it was like sinking into a miracle. Silvia lived alone in a rented apartment of her own, with a five-foot-tall pot plant on the balcony and a giant bedroom with a mattress on the floor. And in the creepy and desolating "Kids Who Come Back," the lost, sold, and rejected children of Buenos Aires begin to return, sparking dubious joy out of even more dubious grief and exposing an entire populace steeped in guilt but determined to reject its culpability. You dont know why exactly, but you are certain something is wrong. Because it was true for all of us, it wasnt just an obsession of Nataliaswe wanted Diego to choose us. But Natalia got the feeling that they hadnt stopped just because they were tired, she thought they were plotting something. All rights reserved. And he preferred her? She has black nipples.. Then she smiled and said, Its not a Virgin., It has a white sheet to hide it, to cover it, but its not a Virgin. The chilling tales give horror a feminist spin. By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. hardcover. I liked the slow unfolding of the zombie-kid horror in Kids Who Come Back. The visceral shock of Meat. Theyre stories you can come back to over and over and always find something new. Its interesting that Natalia ends up appealing to the Virgin for her revenge. But we wanted her ruined, helpless, destroyed. They looked at us closely, laughed the same way they had when theyd stopped swimming, and then jumped right back into the water and started swimming as fast as they could back to the little beach. Our Lady of the Quarry, your story in this weeks issue, doesnt have one protagonistinstead, we hear a plural voice of teen-age girls, almost like a chorus. Were glad you found a book that interests you! Shes expecting a Virgin, but what she actually finds is Pomba Gira, an Afro-Brazilian spirit evoked by practitioners of Umbanda and Quimbanda. Our Lady of the Quarry Q113384170) READ THE FULL PIECE AT THE LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS Still relatively new to English, Enriquez is poised to become a Roberto Bolao-esque figure of the international publishing world: a writer whose grittiness is mannered, who writes 2019- Booker Prize Foundation (registered charity in England no 1090049). Silvia had already made that trip (of course! The red bikini with hearts on one of us; the super-flat stomach with a belly-button piercing on another; the exquisite haircut that fell just so over the face; legs without a single hair, underarms like marble. Hogarth, 2021. originally published as Los Peligros de fumar en la cama (2017) translated by Megan McDowell. Just in case, we even used a dictionary to translate the songs that were in English; wed read them to one another over the phone and discuss them. She said no, she wanted to see the Virgin. The 2021 International Booker Prize shortlisthas been announced, @TheBookerPrizes#2021InternationalBooker, Rules and how to enter The Booker Prize and TheInternational Booker Prize, Get the latest news and announcements delivered straight to your inbox, Submitted by The Booker Prizes on Wed, 21/04/2021 - 12:42. Champa quarry, Le Gua, Grenoble, Isre, Auvergne-Rhne-Alpes, France. Perfect for a picnic with a stick of freshly baked bread. At one point they had to stop, and, as we watched from the shorethe sun beating down on us, dust plastered to our bodies with sweat, some of us with headaches from the heat and the harsh light in our eyes, walking as if uphillwe saw them stop and talk, and Silvia laughed, throwing back her head and treading water, paddling with her arms to stay afloat.
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