Safe Return Doubtful

translated from the Spanish (Argentina) by Jordan Landsman

Normally when I grade a collection of short stories I average out the scores of the individual stories, but in this case, I have no hesitation in giving five stars due to the strength of three of the stories, particularly the title story.

Note that the title story, a long short story, or short novella, is available from Peninsula Press by itself.

Bonomini, a contemporary of Adolfo Bioy Casares, Silvina Ocampo, and Jorge Luis Borges, had never been translated into English before this collection.

The Novices of Lerna concerns an academic, a lawyer, offered a prestigious place at a foreign university to study. On his application papers he must give detailed measurements of every aspect of his body, as his fellow scholars are all look exactly the same as him. On arrival the scholars are given a set of rules intended to eradicate their identities further. After some months a contagious illness spreads amongst them, perhaps an ironic coincidence, or maybe part of a wider plan.

The rest of the stories are very short, and a real mix of genre and indeed quality, some seem experimental. In common to them all is that ambiguity that was encountered when considering the illness that spread amongst the scholars – in, did this actually happen.

I would highlight two others, The Fire in which the narrator is watching his workplace burn down, and The Hunt in which an 11 year old boy is deemed to be just a year too young to join the men of his family on their winter stag hunt.

A feature of Bonomini’s writing is humour, evident throughout though sparsely positioned, and often dark. An example is in the story The Model in which the protagonist goes shopping for underpants.

My GoodReads score 5 / 5