The Remains

by Margo Glantz

Book Overview

After her ex-husband dies unexpectedly, Nora Garc a travels to the funeral, back to a Mexican village from her past and the art and music of their life together.

The way you hold a cello, the way light lands on a Caravaggio, the way the castrati hit notes like no one else could--a lifetime of conversations about art and music and history unfolds for Nora Garc a as she and a crowd of friends and fans send off her recently deceased ex-husband, Juan. Like any good symphony, there are themes and repetitions and contrapuntal notes. We pingpong back and forth between Nora's life with Juan (a renowned pianist and composer, and just as accomplished a raconteur) and the present day (the presentness of the past), where she sits among his familiar things, next to his coffin, breathing in the particular mix of mildew and lilies that overwhelm this day and her thoughts. In Glantz's hands, music and art access our most intimate selves, illustrating and creating our identities, and offering us ways to express love and loss and bewilderment when words cannot suffice. As Nora says, 'Life is an absurd wound: I think I deserve to be given condolences.'

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1913867471
• ISBN13: 9781913867478
• Release Date: April 2023
• Publisher: Charco Press
• Length: 134 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.0" x 7.7"

Customer Reviews

'Inventive, cerebral book': 'faultlessly lyrical translation'

It's so difficult to describe what Glantz manages to do in this book, that my heading borrows two key phrases from the editorial reviews. I see from the number of used copies available at the time of writing that a number of readers might not have enjoyed the challenge it presents, and I, who normally have short patience, could understand this: but it's WORTH the occasional cerebral travail! And, reading a translation by Andrew Hurley is like receiving a wondrous gift -- I've recently read another of his, The Queen of the South by Arturo Perez-Reverte which is quite a different sort of novel, and can think of no better way to really experience the verve of the original language, nor the subtleties of Ibero-american cultures, than to seek out works that he's so deftly and generously presented to readers of English.