{"id":301126,"date":"2015-04-25T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-04-25T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wdev.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent-dev\/2015\/04\/25\/why-this-book-should-win-things-look-different-in-the-light-by-btba-judge-madeleine-larue\/"},"modified":"2018-04-16T14:39:21","modified_gmt":"2018-04-16T14:39:21","slug":"why-this-book-should-win-things-look-different-in-the-light-by-btba-judge-madeleine-larue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/2015\/04\/25\/why-this-book-should-win-things-look-different-in-the-light-by-btba-judge-madeleine-larue\/","title":{"rendered":"Why This Book Should Win – Things Look Different in the Light by BTBA Judge Madeleine LaRue"},"content":{"rendered":"

Madeleine LaRue is Associate Editor and Director of Publicity of<\/i> Music & Literature<\/a>. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Things Look Different in the Light and Other Stories<\/i><\/a> – Merdardo Fraile, Translated from the Spanish by Margaret Jull Costa, Spain
\nPushkin Press<\/strong><\/p>\n

For most of us, Things Look Different in the Light<\/i> arrived late in the game. My own copy wasn\u2019t delivered until after I\u2019d already sent in my longlist picks. But I\u2019m grateful that it\u2019s on the longlist now, because this collection of stories has turned out to be so delightful.<\/p>\n

In a year of many excellent short stories \u2014 and many Spanish-speaking male writers \u2014 Medardo Fraile holds his own. Ali Smith writes in her introduction that \u201cgenerosity runs through Fraile\u2019s writing like electricity, or like light and flowers do, but always in the knowledge that flowers wilt and light is a matter of darkness.\u201d Light is indeed a key word in Fraile\u2019s work. Most of his stories describe entirely ordinary events \u2014 a man attends a party, two women grow old, a sign painter makes a mistake \u2014 but Fraile casts a light that makes them suddenly surprising, touching, or insightful. <\/p>\n

One of my favorite stories is \u201cChild\u2019s Play,\u201d in which two ageing sisters try to ward off the approach of blindness and death by filling their apartment with light. They gradually extend their chandelier until it takes up almost the entire living room, its arms touching the walls and nearly reaching the floor. \u201cIn the evening,\u201d Fraile writes, it was a veritable forest of glinting crystals, a bag of light, a labyrinth, a hanging city. It had to be secured to the ceiling by five chains when it reached its prime, its peak, when Flora and Martita were old, too old, and sat beneath the chandelier like two transparent raisins filled with light. <\/p>\n

Fraile\u2019s writing is often like this: filled with strings of marvelous metaphors, gentle humor, and light. He\u2019s sympathetic to his characters, even or especially when they\u2019re faintly ridiculous, and this generosity protects his stories from falling into sentimentality. <\/p>\n

Fraile\u2019s light touch does not, however, preclude him from addressing serious or sorrowful themes. In the story \u201cReparation,\u201d a couple is robbed of their fortune while travelling by train. A few years later, the wife dies, and her grieving husband decides to become a beggar, living on charity until he has received reparations for his loss. \u201cWhat one person robs another person begs,\u201d he reasons. \u201cWherever there are thieves there must be beggars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fraile died quite recently, in 2013. Though he was recognized throughout his life as one of Spain\u2019s greatest writers, Things Look Different in the Light<\/i> is his first publication in English. Anglophone readers too often have to wait for wonderful books; I\u2019m glad we no longer have to wait for Fraile. Margaret Jull Costa has outdone herself with this beautiful translation; the Best Translated Book Award<\/a> prize would be fitting recognition of her work, as well of the many hours of reading pleasure this book has brought me and others. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Madeleine LaRue is Associate Editor and Director of Publicity of Music & Literature. Things Look Different in the Light and Other Stories – Merdardo Fraile, Translated from the Spanish by Margaret Jull Costa, Spain Pushkin Press For most of us, Things Look Different in the Light arrived late in the game. My own copy wasn\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":186,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67476],"tags":[60576,58046,13566,60566,26336,26,36,60556],"class_list":["post-301126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-best-translated-book-awards","tag-btba2015-fiction-award","tag-madeleine-larue","tag-margaret-jull-costa","tag-medardo-fraile","tag-pushkin-press","tag-spain","tag-spanish","tag-things-look-different-in-the-light-and-other-stories"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/186"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301126"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":333586,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301126\/revisions\/333586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}