Panic Signs

by Cristina Peri Rossi

Cristina Peri Rossi is one of the most acclaimed and personal voices in Hispanic letters. This volume of short stories, "Panic Signs," first published in 1970 in Montevideo, Uruguay, presages the atrocities that would come with dictatorship in 1972.

The premonitory dimension is one of the striking characteristics in all the stories -- a sense of impending catastrophe, sometimes hallucinatory and often graphic, leads us to undetermined places where the horrors of censorship, torture, and human bondage take place. At the same time, the stories expose the shackles that incapacitate us and deny us the acceptance of ourselves.

This elegy for freedom mourns the loss of liberty and justice while seducing us into questioning what we hold true. The metaphorical procession of images, and the craftsmanship of a narrative that continually engage us, motivate us to explore our own uncertainties and values, and offer an unquestionable opportunity to reassess today's global conditions. Peri Rossi succeeds in creating a whirlwind of despair and self-discovery, impelling us to assess our own panic signs and so avoid being entrapped by those who hold power over us.

The translation of this powerful text will help English-speaking readers attain a more profound understanding of the complexities of Latin America's cultural and socio-political issues.

Genres: Short Stories, Poetry

114 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1970

About the author

Uruguayan novelist, poet, and author of short stories.

Considered a leading light of the post-1960s period of prominence of the Latin-American novel, she has written more than 37 works. She was born in Montevideo, Uruguay but was exiled in 1972, and moved to Spain, where she became a citizen in 1975. As of 2005[update] she lives in Barcelona, where she continues to write fiction and works as a journalist. She studied at the University of the Republic.

Reviews

[Steven Godin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I spent many years caressing statues.
When I got tired, they were destroyed. From dreaming so much, someone had pulverized them. The last one I touched disintegrated in my fingers. I thought it was a sacrificed female astronaut. Things like that have been seen all through the ages. I had missed the age of prophecy and responce. I had entered the era of machines. I left the museum and ran away forever from
falsification. Art is grandiloquent.

- - - -

I will till no more
nor will I cultivate new growth
or children.
I will not climb again
Nor will I set your womb
becoming sombre.
I won't work the hoe through your field,
your soil,
your legs open in exaltation.
I will not harvest tatters
out of season.
All this, to escape taxes.

- - - -

Hell is bloody birds, their guts shattered, and still wailing.

- - - -

Adjacent and distant, light giver, duenna of a sea of permanent calm, of a cold and grey sadness, of an inconsistent dust and doesn't drift away, everything in peaceful repose, neighbouring seas, fleeting promontories light-molden, sky-blue and selene, close, adjacent.

[Pablo Pereira · Rating 4 out of 5]

A dos días de conmemorarse otra Marcha del Silencio en Uruguay, esta colección de cuentos y poemas -publicados en 1970- de Cristina son una premonición de la crueldad, violencia, censura y daño que las FFAA de nuestro país habría de ejercer luego sobre toda la población uruguaya.
Mi narración favorita: Sitiado.

[sofía · Rating 4 out of 5]

escritura revolucionaria. un surrealismo coherente en un imaginario trabajado e ideológico. no todos los relatos son buenos pero los que sí me han encantado.

[Teresa Carreón Granados · Rating 4 out of 5]

El personaje de un monumento nacional decide bajar de su gallardo corcel y asomarse a la vida que él desconoce. Otro cuento narra la persecución que vive un hombre por unos pájaros de plumaje azul. Otro describe la conversación de unas palomas mientras otras personas dialogan. No se sabe bien a bien qué pareja es más lógica.
Cristina Peri Rossi acaba de ser galardonada con el Premio Cervantes 2021 y leer sus libros permitirá comprender el criterio del jurado: Peri Rossi es una magnífica escritora uruguaya que tuvo que huir de la dictadura de su país para radicar en Barcelona. Los motivos se entienden leyendo su producción literaria que impedirá que la desmemoria conduzca al olvido de las atrocidades efectuadas por los militares uruguayos.

[Natalia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tiene fragmentos absolutamente maravillosos.

[la_sibarita · Rating 5 out of 5]

Necesito leer más de Cristina Peri Rossi

[Вікторія Слінявчук · Rating 2 out of 5]

муть какая-то...