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DENGUE BOY

A hyperkinetic, audacious grotesquerie about metamorphosis and the inevitability of change.

A mosquito-borne fever dream that fleshes out the author’s 2022 O. Henry Award–winning short story.

Coming from a literary tradition known for magical realism and societal criticism, Argentine writer Nieva’s English-language debut boils both into a hallucinogenic cocktail about the end of one world and the beginnings of another. Earth is in sorry shape in 2272—the polar ice caps have melted away, leaving much of South America underwater with Antarctica the new Patagonia. Meanwhile, the divide between the poor (everyone) and the ultrawealthy is stretched to garish proportions as investors rake in fortunes betting on the emergence of new viruses and enjoy the apocalypse on luxurious cruise ships. This is the future given to the titular antihero, a human/mosquito hybrid with insect-like features, a disdainful mother, and a burgeoning existential crisis. Banished to a torturous summer camp, young Dengue Boy abruptly becomes Dengue Girl, slaughters a classmate, and sets off on a revenge tour, vowing “Mosquitos, reign over this world!” We also meet René Racedo, the daughter of an influential virofinance broker, who’s obsessed with a violent, genocide-themed videogame that pits “Christians vs. Indians,” and Noah Nuclopio, the time-traveling founder of Ascension Industries and Solutions, whose connections to Dengue Girl are closer than they appear. It’s an otherworldly trip reminiscent of Philip K. Dick’s altered states, complete with telepathic stones and a thriving bootleg trade in both illegal stimulants and “sheepies”—more “sexual organ with autonomy and a life of its own”than electronic sheep. It’s a bit hard to know what to make of the book, whether as an acidic prosecution of colonialism, capitalism, and climate change denial or a hyper-exaggerated back door into identity and body horror. Ultimately, it’s about transformation as an elemental force—of the self, body, or world—delivered as a mighty yelp of defiance from a most unusual prophet.

A hyperkinetic, audacious grotesquerie about metamorphosis and the inevitability of change.

Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2025

ISBN: 9781662602658

Page Count: 224

Publisher: Astra House

Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2025

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THE MAN WHO LIVED UNDERGROUND

A welcome literary resurrection that deserves a place alongside Wright’s best-known work.

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A falsely accused Black man goes into hiding in this masterful novella by Wright (1908-1960), finally published in full.

Written in 1941 and '42, between Wright’s classics Native Son and Black Boy, this short novel concerns Fred Daniels, a modest laborer who’s arrested by police officers and bullied into signing a false confession that he killed the residents of a house near where he was working. In a brief unsupervised moment, he escapes through a manhole and goes into hiding in a sewer. A series of allegorical, surrealistic set pieces ensues as Fred explores the nether reaches of a church, a real estate firm, and a jewelry store. Each stop is an opportunity for Wright to explore themes of hope, greed, and exploitation; the real estate firm, Wright notes, “collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in rent from poor colored folks.” But Fred’s deepening existential crisis and growing distance from society keep the scenes from feeling like potted commentaries. As he wallpapers his underground warren with cash, mocking and invalidating the currency, he registers a surrealistic but engrossing protest against divisive social norms. The novel, rejected by Wright’s publisher, has only appeared as a substantially truncated short story until now, without the opening setup and with a different ending. Wright's take on racial injustice seems to have unsettled his publisher: A note reveals that an editor found reading about Fred’s treatment by the police “unbearable.” That may explain why Wright, in an essay included here, says its focus on race is “rather muted,” emphasizing broader existential themes. Regardless, as an afterword by Wright’s grandson Malcolm attests, the story now serves as an allegory both of Wright (he moved to France, an “exile beyond the reach of Jim Crow and American bigotry”) and American life. Today, it resonates deeply as a story about race and the struggle to envision a different, better world.

A welcome literary resurrection that deserves a place alongside Wright’s best-known work.

Pub Date: April 20, 2021

ISBN: 978-1-59853-676-8

Page Count: 240

Publisher: Library of America

Review Posted Online: March 16, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2021

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THE WEDDING PEOPLE

Uneven but fitfully amusing.

Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.

Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.

Uneven but fitfully amusing.

Pub Date: July 30, 2024

ISBN: 9781250899576

Page Count: 384

Publisher: Henry Holt

Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024

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