Interfictions Reviews - "When It Rains, You'd Better Get Out of Ulga"
Originally published at The Mossy Skull. Please leave any comments there.
“When It Rains, You’d Better Get Out of Ulga”
Adrián Ferrero
translated from the Spanish by Edo Mor
At some point in the early history of the Interfictions anthology, apparently, it came down to Adrián Ferrero or me. Though it eventually turned out that there was room in the anthology for both of us, for a moment, at least, the editors were forced to debate whether we both were necessary. I can understand that, I think. These are both stories about place, about the magical nature of place. They also both begin with several paragraphs of abstract ruminations that make you go “Get to the story already!”
From there, though, for me at least, the parallels diverge. I’m not sure I would even have recognized “When It Rains” as magic realism, had Adrián Ferrero’s name and language of choice not given away a hint as to his origins. When I think of García Marquez and Allende (the magic realists invoked in the Afterword with reference to Ferrero), I think foremost of character. Ferrero’s characters to me are mostly vessels for his prose. His story feels…blurry to me. Atmospheric. Ostensibly, it’s about a prophecy of flood, a retelling of the deeds of Noah in the days before the rain. But there’s no real chronology to follow, no plot, just more of a mood, a series of expressionistic studies of the emotional and prophetic significance of water. My writing messes with narrative structure a bit, but overall it’s much more conventional and straightforward in its conveyance of events and themes. And much sillier. That in mind, I can see how the editors might have chosen him over me. Heck, I might have done so myself. He’s the one, of the two of us, who’s pushing the edge, challenging convention. I guess I’m just glad they didn’t have to choose.