'False Calm' Acts As A Record Of Real Life In Patagonia
Argentine writer María Sonia Cristoff wants to be honest: She won't shape her subjects' narratives or take control another person's story. This is both the book's great strength and great weakness.
Jorge Luis Borges's iconic Patagonia story "The South" opens in Buenos Aires, in Argentina's north. The protagonist, Juan Dahlmann, is a librarian who's spent his whole life in the city, dreaming of moving to the Patagonian ranch he inherited from his grandfather.
To Dahlmann, Patagonia represents an alternate world, a macho Wild West filled with tough guys and gauchos, men in control of their fates.
The Argentine writer MarĂa Sonia Cristoff might laugh at Juan Dahlmann. She grew up in, translated flawlessly by Katherine Silver, she returns to Patagonia, writing with empathy but no illusions. There are no gauchos in and no one's in control.
