What We're Reading

Ghosts

Author: César Aira
Publisher: New Directions
$12.95 Paper (139 p.)
ISBN: 9780811217422
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Reviewed by Sarah Yasin, Continuations Bibliographer

Ghosts is an intellectual masterwork about a Chilean family who has emigrated to Argentina, living and working as caretakers in the unfinished structure of a condominium in the process of being built. The family feels out of place in Argentina, and along with phantoms of the memories of their life in Chile, the condominium is infested with jocund ghosts who disturb their day with noisy laughter.

The events in the novella take place in a single day, and despite its brevity there is an intense depth of craft and meaning in it. The theme of architecture is what, poetically, gives the book its structure. The mid point of the story centers on the architecture of the condominium, the architecture of ideas and anthropology, and the protagonist, Patri, the eldest daughter of the caretaker's family.

Patri's mother is concerned that the ghosts are a bad influence on her because "certain chimerical spectacles could lead her to the utterly misguided belief that reality is everywhere" (p. 72). This is one example of the foundation of the absurd on which the story is built, and it is from this point where the last half turns dark. As the sun sets in the book, so does the lightness of the story.

Ghosts is a delight to read, infused with intelligence, science, and a sense of wonder. I love it when I find a book whose allusions aren't found in Wikipedia entries (e.g., the god Lowalani). This book is for anyone who likes to think.