A review by taitmckenzie
Lands of Memory by Felisberto Hernández

5.0

Felisberto Hernández draws on the influence of Rilke and Proust, and in turn influenced Marquez, Calvino, and Cortazar, in order to craft this wonderful gem of short "fictions:" semi-autobiographical memories of his own childhood and early adulthood as a piano player for silent films. I was reminded of a use of magically real events similar to that of Bruno Schulz's "Street of Crocodiles," which allow the author's themes of music and obsession to jump off the page. While many critique Hernández for beginning and ending his stories in the middle of his plots, this technique is not jarring and instead adds to the intricacy of the work, like reading a series of nested puzzle boxes.