From "Eva's Indifference": Eva wasn't a good-looking woman. I didn't ever find her attractive but, at that first moment, as she crossed the threshold into my office and came over towards me, she filled me with horror. This volume is pretty self-explanatory. It's a great book for Spanish students, offering the Spanish on the left and the English on the right. At a later date, I'll probably go through with an intent to learning Spanish, but this time, I just read the stories in English and enjoyed them. The stories are from a variety of different types of modern Spanish literature, and I really enjoyed them. The only two writers I had heard of were Isabel Allende and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
The first story, "Eva's Indifference", wasn't great, but I did definitely enjoy the predictable but interesting "Literary Tea Party". It was a rather typical way of showing how waiting and impatience and strife brings out the worst in people, people's true natures. In it, a group of people are waiting for a famous writer to show up so that they can talk to him. "On the Honeymoon", described as "deceptively simple" was just that, and more. It's a story of mistaken identities.
I actually didn't like the two stories by authors I had heard of; Isabel Allende's story wasn't very interesting, and Marquez's was confusing. However, most of the stories in this collection were very good, thought-provoking, and a great learning tool. There are 10 stories overall.
This is a collection that I would highly recommend if you are attempting to learn Spanish; if not, you could still read it, but perhaps consider getting a different volume of Spanish stories. There are a lot of other languages in this series: French, German, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, and probably more. It's definitely a great series.
Read Short Stories in Spanish:
- if you like short stories
- if you like Spanish literature
- if you are trying to learn Spanish
Rating: ****
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