The Dangers of Smoking in Bed

Last updated
The Dangers of Smoking in Bed
The Dangers of Smoking in Bed.jpg
Author Mariana Enriquez
Original titleLos peligros de fumar en la cama
Translator Megan McDowell
LanguageSpanish
GenreShort Stories
Publisher Anagrama
Publication date
2009
Publication placeArgentina
Published in English
2021

The Dangers of Smoking in Bed (originally Los peligros de fumar en la cama) is a psychological horror short story collection written by Mariana Enriquez. The collection was first published in Argentina in November 2009. [1] The book was translated to English in 2021 by Megan McDowell.

Contents

This book has been critically acclaimed and was shortlisted for the 2021 International Booker Prize.

Background

Mariana Enriquez Mariana Enriquez (2019).jpg
Mariana Enriquez

Mariana Enriquez, born in 1973, is an Argentine writer and journalist located in Buenos Aires. [2] She is currently the deputy editor of the arts and culture section of Pagina 12. [3] Her published works also include Bajar es lo peor (1995), Cómo desaparacer completamente (2004), Chicos que vuelven (2010), Las cosas que perdimos en el fuego (2016), and Nuestra parte de noche (2019). Her work has been translated into German and English and published around the globe.

Her literature is rooted in Latin America urban areas, a realistic setting she pulls from her own life. She twists Latin American mythologies, local urban legends and crimes, pagan saints, and local issues in order to integrate culture into her horror stories. [4] Enriquez credits a technique of blurring the realistic and fantastic for the sinister nature of her writing. [5]

Synopsis of each story

Angelita Unearthed

A girl discovers small bones in her backyard, and her grandmother claims they are the bones of Angelita, the grandmother's sister who passed away as a baby. Years later, a decomposing baby appears at the girl's bedside, and the girl realizes that the baby is Angelita. Angelita follows the girl everywhere but never talks. One day, the girl takes Angelita to the house where her bones were displaced in order to make peace with her.

Our Lady of the Quarry

A group of friends hangs out at a quarry pool every weekend. One day, Diego suggests that they all go to the quarry's altar, but once the girls reach the altar, Diego and Silvia ditch them. Natalia prays at the altar, and savage dogs appear and surround Diego and Silvia. Natalia leads the other girls to the bus stop as Silvia's and Diego's screams are heard in the distance.

The Cart

One afternoon, a very drunk man stumbles into a neighborhood with a cart full of stuff. He terrorizes the neighborhood, and irate neighbors chase the man off. His rotting cart is left behind, and two weeks later, the neighborhood begins to deteriorate. Some blame the cart's presence for the neighborhood's extreme decline. One girl's family isn't struggling nearly as much as the other neighbors, and her family hides this fact until their only option is to escape.

The Well

Josefina visits The Woman, an alleged witch, while on a family trip. After the trip, Josefina has newfound fear and anxiety that is crippling; she can't live a normal life. One day, she decides to go back to The Woman's house in hopes that The Woman can help her. The Woman tells Josefina that her family had regrettably passed evil spirits onto her, and Josefina is so distraught that she attempts to throw herself down a well.

Rambla Triste

Sofía visits her friend Julieta in Barcelona, but the city isn't the same one Sofía remembers. Julieta tells Sofía that countless children's souls reside in Rambla del Raval, that they want people to suffer like they did, so the children drive people mad and prevent them from leaving. Sofía is spooked, and Julieta says that she plans on getting out as soon as possible.

The Lookout

The Lady Upstairs is a being that lives in the abandoned lookout tower of a hotel. The Lady Upstairs notices how isolated a woman named Elina is, and she takes the form of a girl to convince Elina to visit the lookout tower. The next day, Elina goes up to the tower, and The Lady Upstairs plots to lock Elina in the tower so that she will eventually die and take The Lady Upstairs’ place.

Where Are You, Dear Heart?

A girl becomes obsessed with people who have cardiac diseases and fetishizes their irregular heartbeats. One day, she meets up with a man who has a cardiac disease and lets her manipulate and listen to his heartbeat for her own pleasure. This puts the man's health at risk, but he is willing to die for the sake of the girl's obsession.

Meat

After the successful release of his album Meat, Santiago Espina commits suicide. Two girls who are extreme fans of Espina sneak into the cemetery where Espina is buried, and they consume his body. The girls are arrested, sent to a psychiatric hospital, and don't speak to anyone but each other the entire time, causing hysteria across the country.

No Birthdays or Baptisms

Nico gets many bizarre film requests. One day, a lady asks Nico to film her daughter Marcela's hallucinations in hopes that Marcela will see that her hallucinations aren't real. Marcela is unconvinced by Nico's videos, and Nico notices that her body is mutilated. Marcela tells Nico that “he” cuts her in her sleep, and she is disappointed that Nico can't see him.

Kids Who Come Back

Mechi maintains the archive of lost and disappeared children in Buenos Aires. One day, Mechi finds one of the missing children, who was supposedly seen dead in a video, sitting in a park. This is the beginning of hundreds of missing children reappearing out of nowhere, not a day older than when they disappeared. However, the children's parents don't recognize them, and they begin to disown the children. All of the children gather into abandoned houses, and Mechi visits them hoping to get some answers.

Ouija Board Tavola Ouija.jpg
Ouija Board

The Dangers of Smoking in Bed

Paula wakes up to the smell of smoke outside and discovers that an apartment had caught on fire, killing a woman who had fallen asleep smoking a cigarette. Paula goes back to bed, but she can't sleep. She makes a tent with her covers, puts a lamp under the tent, and criticizes her aging body and the defects that now litter her skin. "Her body is failing her in more ways that she didn't want to think about." She burns holes in the sheets with a cigarette. When she looks at her ceiling from outside the tent, it looks like it's covered with stars, and she admires them.

Back When We Talked to the Dead

A group of girls' attempts to use a Ouija board are always unsuccessful, and a spirit tells them that one of the girls doesn't belong. The girls each think of someone they know who has disappeared, but Pinocchia can't think of someone. One night, Pinocchia's brother vanishes in front of her. The spirit tells the girls that Pinocchia was the one who didn't belong.

Publication and Translation

Enriquez initially had her series of short stories published in Spanish for Argentinian audiences in 2009. Following the success of her 2017 translation of Enriquez's earlier work, Things We Lost in the Fire , Megan McDowell translated The Dangers of Smoking in Bed into English for mainstream publication in January 2021. [6] This translation was published in the United States by Hogarth Books. [7]

Reception

The 2021 translation by Megan McDowell of Enriquez's book was received quite positively by American audiences, with many reviewers showing immense appreciation for the haunting scenes and intense imagery which Enriquez was able to create. [7]

The novel was nominated and shortlisted for the 2021 International Booker Prize, [8] 2021 Kirkus Prize, [9] and 2022 Ray Bradbury Prize. [10] [11]

Kirkus Reviews named The Dangers of Smoking in Bed one of the best books of 2021. [9]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lyudmila Ulitskaya</span> Russian author

Lyudmila Evgenyevna Ulitskaya is an internationally acclaimed modern Russian novelist and short-story writer who, in 2014, was awarded the prestigious Austrian State Prize for European Literature for her oeuvre. In 2006 she published Daniel Stein, Interpreter(Даниэль Штайн, переводчик), a novel dealing with the Holocaust and the need for reconciliation between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. She won the 2012 Park Kyong-ni Prize.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Concha Espina</span> Spanish writer

María de la Concepción Jesusa Basilisa Rodríguez-Espina y García-Tagle, short form Concha Espina, was a Spanish writer. She was nominated for a Nobel prize in literature 25 times in 28 years.

Annabel Lyon is a Canadian novelist and short-story writer. She has published two collections of short fiction, two young adult novels, and two adult historical novels, The Golden Mean and its sequel, The Sweet Girl.

Kevin Sweeney is a British businessman convicted in 2001 in the Netherlands for the murder of his wife, Suzanne Davies, by arson on 17 July 1995. The prosecution offered no motive for the alleged crime and Suzanne's life insurance policies were in trust for the children.

Rincón de Luz is a 2003 Argentine children's telenovela aired during 2003 on Canal 9 and later on América TV. It is a spin-off and spiritual successor of the children's telenovela Chiquititas. It was starred by Soledad Pastorutti and Guido Kaczka, with the antagonistic participations of Melina Petriella, Alejandra Darín and Juan Ponce de León, Esteban Pérez and with the stellar performance of Salo Pasik and the first actress Susana Lanteri.

Consentidos was an Argentine children's comedy in daily television series that was broadcast on Channel 13 and produced by Ideas del Sur together with Televisa. The series premiered on 9 November 2009 and ended on 8 July 2010. It starred Natalie Pérez, Michel Noher, Claribel Medina and Marcelo de Bellis. The main antagonistic characters are: Mariana Prommel and Macarena Paz.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tuuve Aro</span> Finnish author

Tuuve Aro is a Finnish author, who was born and lives in Helsinki. Alongside her work as a writer, she has worked as a film critic and has also done some film producing. Her first book appeared in 1999, and she has published a total of eleven fiction books, six of which are short story collections, three novels and two children's novels. Her debut novel Karmiina (2004) and collection of short stories have been translated into German.

The Premio Valle-Inclán is a literary translation prize. It is awarded by the Society of Authors for the best English translation of a work of Spanish literature. It is named after Ramón del Valle-Inclán. The prize money is GBP £3,000 and a runner-up is awarded £1,000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mariana Enríquez</span> Argentine journalist, novelist, and short story writer

Mariana Enríquez is an Argentine journalist, novelist, and short story writer. She is a part of the group of writers known as "new Argentine narrative". Her short stories fall within the horror and gothic genres and have been published in international magazines such as Granta, Electric Literature, Asymptote, McSweeney's, Virginia Quarterly Review, and The New Yorker.

Pobre señorita Limantour is a Mexican telenovela broadcast on El Canal de las Estrellas in 1987. Was starring Víctor Cámara in his debut in Mexican telenovelas, Ofelia Cano in her only starring in soap operas and Manuel Saval and Úrsula Prats in antagonistics. It also marked the debut of Thalía in Mexican telenovelas. It is based on the soap opera "Regina Carbonell" Inés Rodena original.

El secreto de Puente Viejo was a Spanish soap opera produced by Boomerang TV that originally aired from 23 February 2011 to 20 May 2020 on Antena 3.

Megan McDowell is an American literary translator. She principally translates Spanish-language works into English. Originally from Kentucky, she studied English at DePaul University in Chicago. Upon graduation, she worked at the Dalkey Archive Press. She then moved to Chile, moving back to the US after three years to study translation at the UT Dallas. Her first work of translation was Alejandro Zambra's The Private Lives of Trees. Since then, she has collaborated with Zambra on several more books.

Ma. Salvacion Espina Varona, more popularly known as Inday Espina-Varona is a Filipina journalist. She is Head of Regions for Rappler. She was formerly a senior contributing editor and a writer for ABS-CBN Integrated News & Current Affairs.

<i>A Good Girls Guide to Murder</i> Young adult fiction series by Holly Jackson

A Good Girl's Guide to Murder is a young adult mystery crime debut novel by Holly Jackson. The novel is the first in a series of three novels and one novella: A Good Girl's Guide to Murder (2019); Good Girl, Bad Blood (2020); As Good As Dead (2021); and Kill Joy (2022). All books were published by Electric Monkey in the United Kingdom and by Delacorte Press in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marianna Kiyanovska</span> Ukrainian poet, writer and translator

Marianna Kiyanovska is a Ukrainian poet, translator and a literary scholar and is a recipient of the Shevchenko National Prize (2020) and the Zbigniew Herbert International Literary Award (2022) for the poetry book The Voices of Babyn Yar. She is a member of the National Union of Writers of Ukraine and the Ukrainian PEN.

<i>Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City</i> 2021 book by Andrea Elliott

Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City is a book written by Andrea Elliott.

Feliciana Enríquez de Guzmán was a Spanish playwright of the Spanish Golden Age and one of the first women to write a play in Spanish. She is known for a two part play Los jardines y campos sabeos with several comic interludes. Its second print edition includes theoretical texts in which she asserts her position within the world of theatre.

<i>Noise</i> (2022 film) 2022 Mexican film

Noise is a 2022 Mexican-Argentine drama film directed by Natalia Beristáin and written by Beristáin, Diego Enrique Osorno & Alo Valenzuela Escobedo. Starring Julieta Egurrola. It won the Spanish Cooperation Award at the San Sebastián International Film Festival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Latin American Gothic</span>

Latin American Gothic is a subgenre of Gothic fiction that draws on Gothic themes and aesthetics and adapts them to the political and geographical specificities of Latin America. While its origins can be traced back to 20th century Latin American literature and cinema, it was in the first decades of the 21st century that it gained particular relevance as a literary current.

References

  1. "Sobre los autores". 2012-09-26. Archived from the original on 2018-10-28. Retrieved 2022-04-03.
  2. "Mariana Enriquez | Penguin Random House". PenguinRandomhouse.com. Archived from the original on 2022-04-03. Retrieved 2022-04-03.
  3. "Mariana Enríquez". Revista Anfibia (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 2022-05-17. Retrieved 2022-04-03.
  4. "The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enríquez review – unsettling tales". the Guardian. 2021-04-07. Archived from the original on 2024-05-29. Retrieved 2022-04-20.
  5. "Mariana Enriquez on Political Violence and Writing Horror". Literary Hub. 2018-04-18. Archived from the original on 2022-01-30. Retrieved 2022-04-04.
  6. "Los Angeles Review of Books". Los Angeles Review of Books. 2021-03-05. Archived from the original on 2022-01-20. Retrieved 2022-04-05.
  7. 1 2 BookBrowse. "Summary and reviews of The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enriquez". BookBrowse.com. Archived from the original on 2021-01-16. Retrieved 2022-04-05.
  8. "The Dangers of Smoking in Bed". The Booker Prizes . Archived from the original on 2022-01-20. Retrieved 2022-04-05.
  9. 1 2 "The Dangers of Smoking in Bed". Kirkus Reviews . 2020-10-26. Archived from the original on 2023-08-10. Retrieved 2024-05-28.
  10. Templeton, Molly (2022-02-23). "The Los Angeles Times Announces the Finalists for the Ray Bradbury Prize". Reactor . Archived from the original on 2024-05-29. Retrieved 2024-05-29.
  11. "2022 Ray Bradbury Prize Finalists". Locus Online . 2022-02-23. Archived from the original on 2023-02-07. Retrieved 2024-05-29.