Imminence

by Mariana Dimópulos, Alice Whitmore (Translator)

We’re alone together, for the first time. I have to touch him now. I try stroking a foot, then a shoulder. But no current lifts in me, nothing pulls at my chest they way they said it would.
A new mother holds her month-old son for the first time, but her body betrays her with an absence of feeling. Disoriented, she wanders with her partner around their plant-filled Buenos Aires apartment. Little by little, her world begins to unravel.
Taking place over the course of an evening, and a lifetime, Mariana Dimópulos’s mesmerising novella shifts seamlessly between the present and the past. In this dreamlike space, composed of overlapping vignettes, she retraces the mirrored paths of a life filled with images that swell and recede: cats, babies, mathematical formulae, distant wars, flooded deltas, hopeless deserts.
The narrator finds herself torn between four male figures – the bookish Pedro, the terse and competent Ivan, a sinister, domineering cousin, and her bewildering infant son Isaac.Feeling herself caught in a web of obligations, she insists time and again: ‘I’m not a woman.’

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Spanish Literature, Womens, Literary Fiction

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Mariana Dimópulos es licenciada en Letras (UBA), escritora y traductora. Cursó estudios de Filosofía en Alemania (Universidad de Heidelberg), donde vivió de 1999 a 2005. Es traductora del alemán y del inglés, y también docente universitaria. Colabora en medios gráficos argentinos (Radar/Página12; Revista Ñ/Clarín). Ha traducido, entre otros, a Walter Benjamin, Theodor W. Adorno y Robert Musil. Como narradora, publicó cuentos en diversas revistas y las novelas Anís (Entropía, 2008), Cada despedida (Adriana Hidalgo, 2010) y Pendiente (Adriana Hidalgo, 2013).

Reviews

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

From Argentinian author Mariana Dimopulos, this novel centers on a 41 year old Buenos Aires woman recovering physically and emotionally from a nearly fatal postpartum illness. Confined to the plant-filled apartment she shares with her partner Ivan, who is caring for the baby, she reflects on memories of her past - her friends, former lovers - and struggles to find a connection to her child.

The story is told in vignettes that orbit elliptically around the narrator's thoughts on womanhood and motherhood and how they have or have not evolved. A very provocative novel, beautifully translated by Alice Whitmore.

[Cherise Wolas · Rating 5 out of 5]

A novel that takes place over a single evening while also moving elliptically and associatively through time. The narrator is in her 40s, living in Buenos Aires, and struggling to bond with her newborn son. He is a month old and she has been in the hospital since his birth after a nearly fatal postpartum infection. This is the first night that this new family is home - mother, the infant soon named Isaac, which lacks the musicality of Spanish, by her Russian partner, Ivan. Much occurs within Irina's mind, her interior narration taking the reader through her earlier years, her prior lovers, her best friends, Ludmila and Mara, their feminism, beliefs, their intention to never curry favor with a man, to never have children or marry. Throughout, it is clear that Irina's view of herself as a woman has never solidified, that she lives her life often at a distance, finding safety in mathematical numbers. She is a woman to whom her boss at the real estate agency gives a brush, suggests she dress better, with more care, set in the back out of sight when she doesn't. The flow of memories, of her passivity with past lovers, of the connections and repetitions among people and events in her life, and of her profound alienation, is not chronological, but unwinds dreamlike, bouncing off one another, her observations more reportage than felt, even as they are told lyrically. This is a story that unwinds to create an unsettling tapestry.

[Joseph Schreiber · Rating 5 out of 5]

It will be a tall order to read a better new release fiction title this year. Dimopulos has created a strangely distanced and utterly entrancing narrator, who is never quite certain how to engage with the world—never more than now that she finds herself at home with an infant she is uncertain she can connect with or care for. It will take a little while to get her my thoughts on this one.
A longer review can be found here: https://roughghosts.com/2019/05/31/a-...

[Nathália · Rating 5 out of 5]

!!!!!!!!!

My new favorite author?

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's such alienation running through this slim, elusive, eloquent novel, I wondered if there's an additional traumatic event that is never mentioned. But the story feels complete as it is, and after the detailed, brilliant portrait of disorientation maybe the end is a note of hope, maybe not.

[Kaya · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 fleeting stars…

Imminence explores women’s relationships with women and men and the pressure to conform to ideals about what women should be. I wasn’t picking up what the author was putting down. Ultimately I was frustrated by my inability to make sense of this book. It felt like an indecipherable dream that robbed me of a good night's sleep.

[Elise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent prose and a circuitous structure that examines the messiness and awfulness of heteronormative relationships.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A new mother in Buenos Aires reflects on past loves (good and bad), gender, death, domesticity, relationships and motherhood. Interesting, fragmented structure - like Speedboat but more coherent. The crescendo at the end is brilliant.

[Roman Cyngiel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dark modernist novel about one evening in a life of a person who desides to spill all their memories with "stream of consciousness" (inside the head of this person I've felt almost like in hungarian village of Krasznahorkai novels).

[Marisa]

wow

[olive parker · Rating 5 out of 5]

just finished this pretty fairly inebriated pool-side. so unrelenting and violent in a similar way to boulder/permafrost that I love. supremely excellent translation work

brutal and unflinching even when I myself would cover my own eyes so I love that it doesn't doubt itself at all. wonderful if you love the rest of Ivana's picks, probably not a rec for any of my friends xxx

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Recently, I went to a most impressive art exhibition at the Carlisle Street Artspace at the old St Kilda Town Hall. The young artist Daniel Coulson is upfront about his struggle with mental health, and the artworks on display were a testament both to his sense of disassociation and alienation, and his recovery. He draws and paints in what is called Expressive Art, and you can see the style he uses and the artists he admires at his Pinterest page. I'm beginning this review by reflecting on my experience of seeing a visual representation of dislocation and alienation, compared to reading about it. When I look at a painting like this one, the play of light, colour and texture shows the paradox of the self dissolving and at the same time insisting on breaking through. The eyes of the young woman suggest that she is determined not to submit to the torment she feels. It's a very powerful painting.

But reading Imminence is a more depressing experience. A young woman drifts through a day and a life without feeling. As the book begins, she has come home from a prolonged stay in hospital after the birth of her baby. She cared so little about the existence of this infant, that she left the decision to abort it or not, to her lover. Now she feels nothing for it, and abandons its care to Pedro. And it's not post-natal depression because she's been like this all her life, an observer of others, disengaged from the business of living.

We're alone together, for the first time. I have to touch him now. I try stroking a foot, then a shoulder. But no current lifts in me, nothing pulls at my chest the way they said it would.

The baby has a foot that shines silver from the wool of his bootie. I try again, but I can't even get close. Removing the covers, removing any of his layers, is suddenly unthinkable. I laugh to myself. I tell myself it's impossible, and the thought is like a soothing caress; nothing is wrong, it will pass. (p.1)

Her cynical friends are contemptuous of men, and love, and commitment. Her male lovers — Pedro, Ivan and Cousin — are perfunctory experiences. There are episodic events in a haphazard chronology, but the only one that engaged me at all was an episode of sheer stupidity when the narrator and Ivan were stranded in the desert because their car broke down. I understood that this extreme event was to show the extent of the narrator's lack of feeling: it really is the ultimate in not caring about yourself and others when you put yourself in danger to no purpose, but still, while I recognised that I was meant to empathise with the narrator, I felt more in sympathy with the 17-year-old boy who had to risk his own safety in order to help her out.

In his thoughtful review, Joe at Rough Ghosts comments that some readers might find it hard to 'forgive' the narrator's detachment — and I think that's how I felt.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2019/07/25/i...

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decidedly scattered, confused, dreamlike replay of Abraham and Isaac, this time with a mother. She is surfacing from a lake into the backyards of normal people; she is standing on red roof tiles wishing on eternal fixedness; she is revolving with a stone for a stomach; she is dividing, differentiating, distributing, constantly retreating into the solace of senseless patterns; she is losing people to signal-empty, biblical deserts and having them back in sudden instances of redemption. Maybe then she tips out of her misplaced names and identities and into love, where the clocks smile and the blowflies fade and she is finally a woman.

[Erin Crane · Rating 3 out of 5]

A 3.5 rounded down. Very different kind of read. It feels fragmented because there are many breaks and you read from multiple time periods in this woman’s life. The reader is kept at a distance from the protagonist, so it’s easy to miss what’s actually going on in a scene. It’s got some subtly written sexual harassment and abuse, for example. I probably should have read it slower, but it’s such a short read and the fragments keep you moving quickly!

Mainly it’s about this woman’s experience of womanhood - children, friends, partners, expectations. Multiple times she says “I’m not a woman,” which I didn’t know what to make of at first. As you read it becomes clear that she means she’s not what a woman is /supposed/ to be. You don’t get a lot of her thoughts so I think multiple interpretations are possible, but to me she seemed to not want children or even especially a partner for a long time. Both of those things run counter to expectations, making her feel like an unnatural woman.

There’s an oddly hopeful ending (I think), which was a surprise but nice. I think this would pair well with Convenience Store Woman which also looks at a woman who does not meet expectations.

The downside of such a short book and fragmentary style is that I don’t think it’s going to stick with me!

[Pointless And Proud · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writing style, while erratic and vague, is exactly how this story needed to be written. The sense of brain fog, mindless repetition, and rapid change in thought allows the reader to experience the protagonists waning mental health. Near the end of the book the writing style does become clearer, which I think is simply the authors way of showing that our protagonist is slowly coming out of her mental lapse.

The main themes in this book are the expectations surrounding womanhood/motherhood, and how that plays a role in the protagonists self image and actions.

There are no distinct chapters in this book. Instead anecdotes from the protagonist are sprinkled throughout signaling the start of a new thought or memory.

[Mira · Rating 5 out of 5]

Honestly incredibly surprised by the rating here because this was easily one of my favourite reads of 2022. A deeply, deeply intimate, recount of parts of the author’s life told in fragments that blend and drift together un-chronologically but very smoothly, like a dream. Each scene manages to flow through your mind as if they’re your own with the way they are presented and that was incredibly special. Imminence explores her interesting perspective as well as the people she’s loved, lost, wronged and been wronged by. The intimacy of this story resonated so deeply and the themes of womanhood and disconnection to motherhood were explored in an interesting way I don’t often see. I’d highly recommend this quick read, and the translation by Maria was incredibly well done.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel is subtle, mostly tone and atmospheric content. The protagonist was detached from the events and people in her life that might have reflected autistic traits. Or it might have been a result of her discomfort in navigating her own actions and emotions after being domineered by machismo. She was uncomfortable with social interactions, even within her closest relationships. This resulted in her passivity. She noticed a pattern of events between two romantic relationships but was unable to halt the upcoming episodes. The nonlinear plot was somewhat difficult to follow but helped to create the protagonist’s state of mind.

[k lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

can see how people love the book but maybe just not my cup of tea. very non-linear timeline, which oftentimes makes books more interesting — not this one tho. translation by alice was superb, really captured the melancholic feeling and apathy of the protag.

irina just reminds me of what pick me girls actually want to be. except she does it hardcore and legit.

lots of yin and yang typa vibe, w celeste/mara and irina , life and death, pedro ivan, logic feelings

lots of full circle moments towards end of book so u gotta pay attention in the first 30-40 pages

celeste carried plot rip

[Ale dlS · Rating 4 out of 5]

Es un libro dónde la autora explora el mundo femenino de los mandatos ,de la relaciones de pareja ,los vínculos,las amistades ,la familia y la maternidad.Lo que se "espera" y no de una mujer.
Al principio me costó entender como estaba narrada la historia de la protagonista,pero una vez adentrada en la misma ,se comprende fácilmente.Me gustó y me hizo reflexionar sobre las diversas temáticas abordabas

[keely · Rating 4 out of 5]

dimópulos has a way of writing and observing that makes both the smallest and the largest facets of human nature feel newer and realer. imminence tells the story of a mother who, upon holding her son for the first time, feels nothing. though very different, the way dimópulos dealt with such a taboo topic reminded me so much of ferrante's the lost daughter and nettel's still born. so excited to read more from this author and so excited to keep reading about ambivalence and fear of motherhood.

[Kaity · Rating 4 out of 5]

wonderful book about feeling disconnected from motherhood and womanhood. Mariana speaks on the difficulties of conforming to expectations, relationships, and more in the span of one evening when a new mother returns from her month long stay in the hospital to confront her fears of motherhood. this story made me feel seen and understood.

[Alana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Irina is “not a woman,” nor is she certain of her new role as mother. Her first night home from hospital after the tumultuous birth of her son has her reflecting on new and past relationships as she struggles to reconcile her identity and navigate her way through the world reluctant to conform to societal pressures and expectations. Cleverly written with past and present beautifully intertwined.

[Meaghan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this very much. Told in spiraling, nonlinear vignettes, the brain fog and disconnect of our female narrator in the wake of coming home after a near fatal postpartum infection and trying to connect to motherhood and feelings is both dark and mesmerizing. If I hadn't had to get up early I would have finished in one sitting.

[Bronwyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful language and surprising metaphors (some of which may have made more sense in the original Spanish), but the narrator was so distant that I had difficulty connecting with her or understanding her motivations. Which fit thematically, but I found it rather frustrating for a primarily psychological novel.

[eve · Rating 3 out of 5]

"A few months ago we'd fallen, feebly, into the trap of recounting stories of past lovers. The error occurred as a result of that false trust that arises, gradually, from the daily repetition of dinners and breakfasts, from the daily magic of saying 'bread' and receiving bread, and the same thing with salt or wine or olive oil. All of this was glaring evidence of our life together, and neither of us would have chosen to deny it. The evidence was edible."

[Alexis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Devedtating, precise, intense. Beautiful translation by Whitmore. Easy and fast to read, but took a long time to process and reflect on. It examined abject feminity, a rejection of motherhood, and the intensity of apathy and absolute subjectivism. Would be worth analysing deeper.

[kirsten · Rating 4 out of 5]

That night in Tigre, when I came home, Pedro and I had to talk, the way couples talk when they've been together for a long time, when they've known each other's physiognomy for years, and know how to forgive each other because they've had to learn.

[Mali · Rating 5 out of 5]

A new all-time favorite. Kept taking breaks from reading it because I didn’t want it to end. Thank you to Mariana Dimópulos, King County Library System, and my time-honored tradition of judging books by their covers. (Edit: and Alice Whitmore for translating!!!)

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Increasingly alarming story of a woman unable to bond with her new baby, after a traumatic birth, roving backwards through her life's memories. Very good.

[Dqframey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eloquent, grotesque, maddening.