In short, it's disappointing that it wasn't a "never-ending" Cesar Aira collection of short stories. Brilliant!

César Airas influences are rather apparent: Marcel Schwob, Raymond Roussel and, of course, Jorge Luis Borges but he is more on the side of satire so in his hands symbolism, surrealism and magical realism turn into the weapon of ridicule.The little girls rapid consumption of novelties was accepted as something natural, even exciting. This is how it should always be, some people were thinking, philosophically: getting and losing, enjoying and letting go. Everything passes, and thats why were here. Eternity and its more or less convincing simulacra are not a part of life.In the Café is my favourite tale in the collection its a great parable of art and gnoseology. The title story The Musical Brain is almost the Kafkian fable of a cryptic metamorphosis but it is a murderous mockery.Acts of Charity is an excellent philosophically satiric allegory of wealth and poverty. The rich are always seduced by altruism and philanthropy and tempted to be charitable and help the poor But they successfully fight the temptation and in the end win.The way they see it, the poor deserve the conditions they live in, because theyre lazy or dont even want to improve themselves; whatever you give them will only prolong their poverty. Theyve never known anything else, and theyre satisfied with what they know. In merely practical terms, without having to go into moral, historical, or sociological considerations, its obvious that poverty, especially in its extreme forms, is a phase that societies have to go through, and cant simply be eliminated. Why even try? The poor live happily with their lacks, and dont even see them as such.Therefore the rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer.

Este libro me confirmó que me gusta más el concepto de Aira que su literatura per se. Al haber tantos relatos reunidos y leerlos uno tras otro, queda en evidencia su artificio. Esto no le hace justicia al aspecto principal de la obra aireana: su dispersión, su factor sorpresa. Tengo muchos de los libritos aquí recogidos ("En el café", "Mil gotas") y son mucho más atractivos en sus versiones originales que en esta recopilación insulsa de Penguin Random House Mondadori. Sin embargo, como es Aira, me sorprendieron varias historias: la del juego de decir un número mayor, la del taxi, la de la revista independiente, la del osito de Coca cola.

A collection of witty parables, Aira skirts the line of the fantastic well enough that you're often left wondering if perhaps shopping carts can have an inclination towards malevolence.

Aira deals in the higher geometries of narrative. Sometimes, his stories fold in on their own devices, examining their own technique and structure in startling ways. Because of Aira's warm sense of irony (he frequently enters his own stories as an unreliable narrator and evasive philosopher), he's able to do so without the particularly cold, reflexive feel of much avant-garde contemporary writing.In fact, in one of his interviews, he rejects "avant-garde" as a military term, and says that his aim is not to deconstruct. He loves it all. By appearing often in his own work, he injects a sense of humanity and tenderness into complex, almost mathematical forms. For me, the result is a sense of wonder and continuing curiosity.I particularly liked "A Brick Wall," "The Cart," and "The Spy" for their sense of nostalgia and for how they always stayed a little out of reach before yielding their secrets. I read all three of these stories several times, and was amply rewarded for the work.