‘Not a River’ by Selva Almada   (2020) – 87 pages                Translated from the Spanish by Annie McDermott

Despite the shortness of this novella, ‘Not a River’ is not an easy read. I would call it an uneasy read dealing as it does with the carelessness of guys, both with the fish they catch and with the women they pursue and sometimes catch.

Three men are out on a boat fishing in northern Argentina. They are two fifty year old men, Enero and El Negro, and their dead friend’s son Tilo. While they are fishing they catch a giant ray which is a fish that sort of looks like a giant pancake. Before they haul it into the boat, one of the guys shoots it.

“Christ, she’s ugly!

Says Enero slapping his thigh and laughing. The others laugh as well.

Fought us pretty hard.

Says El Negro.”

This “Says” is a poetic device that the author Selva Almada uses throughout ‘Not a River’. It is a device that emphasizes the person who is talking.

They hang the ray up on shore so the local townspeople can admire it, but the guys really don’t have any idea about what they can ultimately do with it. After a few days, the dead fish starts rotting and they throw it back in the water. This carelessness makes the locals very angry at them.

“They chucked it in the river.

Says Aguirre.

Motherfuckers!

Says Cesar.

We need to teach them a lesson.

Says Aguirre.

What kind of a lesson.

Says Cesar.

Just as in Aguirre’s mind, “it wasn’t a ray” that Enero and El Negro killed, “it was that ray. A beautiful creature stretched out in the mud at the bottom, she’d have shone white like a bride in the lightless depths. … Pulled from the river to be thrown back in later. Dead.”

Unlike ”The Wind that Lays Waste’, another novella written by Selva Almada that I have read recently, ‘Not a River’ is not at all a straightforward story. It jumps around from these men and the boy fishing in a boat to a local woman Siomara and her two daughters, Mariela and Lucy. We get a view of the music and nightlife in the local town bars which the girls are excited to go to, but where the men, fueled with alcohol, don’t treat the girls any better than they treat their fish. This is a story about toxic masculinity. Although not as easy to follow as the other novella, ‘Not a River’ achieves an even greater depth.

Selva Almada gives the reader a good picture about what town life is like in this river region of northern Argentina.

Grade:    A

‘The Wind that Lays Waste’ by Selva Almada      (2012) – 124 pages             Translated from the Spanish by Chris Andrews

In the novella ‘The Wind that Lays Waste’, we have a classic situation. The Reverend Pearson travels throughout northern Argentina preaching sermons, trying to convert the crowds to Christianity. His 16 year old daughter Leni travels with him.

“God has given us words. Words set us apart from all of the other creatures living under this sky. But beware of words, for they are weapons that may be wielded by the Devil.”

Their car breaks down and they wind up in El Gringo Brauer’s car repair shop, having to stay in that small town for several days. Brauer’s 16 year old son Tapioca works with his father helping to repair the cars.

Brauer is a pragmatic man who works hard fixing cars and has little use for religion.

“Religion, in his view, was just a way of ignoring responsibilities. Hiding behind God, waiting to be saved, or blaming the Devil for the bad things you do.”

While waiting for his car to be fixed, the Reverend Pearson hatches this plan to take the mechanic’s son Tapioca with them on his preaching tour.

While the car is in the garage, a severe thunderstorm hits the town.

The Reverend smiled.

“Well, let’s just be grateful we weren’t on the road when the storm hit.”

“True. That would have been tricky.”

“You see what I mean. The Lord always has reasons for doing the things he does.”

“We’re not going to start talking about God, Pearson,” said the Gringo, gently shaking his head. “There’s plenty of things you couldn’t explain the reason why he does them like that. I’d run out of fingers pretty quick if I started counting them up.”

Selva Almada does not tilt her novella either way, toward the religious or toward the pragmatic. The author maintains a balance between the two mindsets. Ultimately the two fathers physically fight over their differences, but each father has a back story that makes the situation more ambiguous and less clear cut.

Grade :    A