Proceed With Caution: Stories and a Novella

by Patricia Ratto, Andrea G. Labinger (Translation)

In the tradition of surrealist masters Julio Cortázar and Leonora Carrington, and joining contemporaries Guadalupe Nettel (Bezoar & Other Unsettling Stories) and Samanta Schweblin (Mouthful of Birds), Argentine writer Patricia Ratto’s English language debut collection, Proceed With Caution, offers an alternate reality that is both mysterious and familiar. Whether it’s a malevolent act born from the paranoia of living under a totalitarian regime, or the creeping sense of dread blanketing a small whaling town, the stories in Proceed With Caution linger in the memory, and make us question where the natural world ends and the supernatural begins. In “Rara Avis” a baby bird is rescued after dropping from the sky, only to transform from vulnerable creature to life-threatening menace. In the powerfully moving title story, an old woman lives out her final days accompanied by a mysterious doglike being that provides comfort even as it devours her memories. And in the novella “Submerged,” an Argentine submarine crew during the Falklands War of the early 1980s navigates its way through a claustrophobic nightmare of boredom and terror, where the very meaning of being alive is cast in doubt. Translated from the Spanish by PEN/Heim award-winner Andrea G. Labinger, Proceed With Caution is a striking collection, brimming with emotion, animal instinct, and a sense of wonder that announces the arrival of a compelling new voice in Latin American literature.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

171 pages, Paperback

Published January 19, 2021

Reviews

[Alexander Peterhans]

"Now, on the other hand, in my old age, I am always a body, a body that hurts, a body that doesn’t respond, a body that my head always has to carry around on its back. A body that weighs tons, even though I’m as skinny as a wire."
- Proceed With Caution

Proceed With Caution is a taut collection of short stories and a novella, by Argentine author Patricia Ratto, this is her first set of works to be translated into English.

In her main characters Ratto favours the outsider, the observer with a meticulous eye for detail (sometimes verging on the overwhelming), not taking much action themselves.

Her stories have a slight sense of magic realism, actually a bit less than I would've liked.

"They moved along the concrete esplanade, till one of the women in the party stopped short, arched her body forward, and vomited forcefully. The women standing beside her moved away in a reflex action, perhaps out of disgust, perhaps to protect their clothing from stains."
- Quintay

There's Quintay, which describes a whaling village blanketed by an ominous smell that turns into a real sense of dread (although of what exactly..?).

There's Rara Avis, about a student trying to rescue an ungainly baby bird that has suddenly dropped from the sky.

And there's the title story, in which an old lady is visited by a large dog, who functions as her companion, all the while devouring her memories. This is by far the best story in the collection, a story in which magic realism, meaning and emotion intersect perfectly.

"The creaking noise has stopped, as if the sea has finally swallowed it up, and there’s a dense, strained silence here that makes you think something is about to happen, something besides what already is silently happening."
- Submerged

The novella Submerged is a different beast altogether. Not only is it longer, it may also test the patience of the reader. It tells the claustrophobic story of a submarine on a mission right at the start of the Falkland War with Great Britain, and is an onslaught of wave upon wave of numbing details about the crew and what they're up to, switching from mindless boredom to fidgety paranoia (the submarine crew don't really know what's happening, only now and then picking up stray radio broadcasts).

Overall an interesting collection, I don't think every story works, but the ones that do are exceptional.

3.5 stars

Quintay - 4 stars
Black Dog - 3 stars
The Guest - 3.5 stars
Chinese Boy - 3 stars
Rara Avis - 4 stars
Neko Caf - 2 stars
As If The World Were Ending - 3 stars
Proceed With Caution - 5 stars
Submerged - 3.5 stars

(Kindly received an ARC from Schaffner Press through Edelweiss)

[2TReads]

2.5 to 3 stars

There were some really intriguing, sharp stories that definitely kept my attention.

The novella was a slow burn that never quite caught to become a flame.

[Michael Wichita]

whale
dog
parrot
dog
nandu
cats
faun
cynocephalus
barnacle