And a body to Remember With

and a body to remenber with, Carmen Rodriguez, Arsenal Pulp Press, 1997

These stories are about living in a time of hope for the future, which characterized life in early 1970s Chile. After the bloody 1973 coup which put Gen. Pinochet in power, life becomes a time of fear, uncertainty, and, for some, including the author, emigrating to Canada, a place with a totally different set of rules.

A woman sees, and is recognized by, the man who tortured her in Chile on the streets of Vancouver. Soon after, she commits suicide.  On her way back to Canada after her first visit to Chile after many years of exile, a woman stops in Argentina to visit grandparents who emigrated from 1930s Germany. They emigrated seeking a better life; now her children have emigrated to Canada, also seeking a better life. Another story is about life in Chilean Resistance, never living in the same place for very long, and never letting anyone get too close. A member of the Resistance decides to risk everything to attends a concert in Chile given by a world-famous musician whose records he plays religiously. He is unable to get a ticket at the door, but tries again years later in Vancouver. That night, he gets a call from the hospital saying that a friend has been critically injured, and misses the concert. Soon after, the musician dies.

A woman takes in an injured member of the Resistance, and nurses her back to health, only to have her suddenly disappear. Another tale looks at the actual process of emigrating to Canada, trying to get used to a whole different landscape (in more ways than one).

These stories are short, poetic gems that do an excellent job of showing what it is like to leave your homeland, and live in a very different place. This one is well worth reading.