Somebody is Walking on Your Grave My Cemetery Journeys
by Mariana Enríquez
Mariana Enríquez has, so far, been known in the English-speaking (or reading) world for her fiction—specifically, three collections of short stories (The Dangers of Smoking in Bed, Things We Lost in the Fire, A Sunny Place for Shady People) and her novel Our Share of Night. Somebody Is Walking on Your Grave presents another facet of her writing. Subtitled My Cemetery Journeys, this book is a collection of essays describing—and inspired by—Enríquez’s visits to various cemeteries around the world, from Latin America to Europe (a visit to the Paris Catacombs stands out), the US to Rottnest Island in Western Australia.
Mariana the taphophile
is, in certain respects, a slightly different person from what her readers
might expect. Certainly, the dark Gothic tones that underlie her speculative
fiction are also reflected in the chapters of this book—her vivid descriptions of
cemeteries, her penchant for the legends and ghost stories associated with
these liminal places, and her attraction to the occult (evident, for instance,
in her essay on New Orleans), all combined with a sensitivity to social themes,
will feel like familiar territory to her followers.
However, this book also blends in elements of aesthetics, history, travel writing, and memoir. I particularly enjoyed the longer pieces which, more often than not, are more intimate and tinged with a strong sense of melancholy and nostalgia. I found the chapters about Savannah (“The Absent Girl”) and Cuba (“Crystal Roses”) particularly moving and poetic. Enríquez fans will also get a glimpse of her personal tastes—Suede, Manic Street Preachers, and, perhaps rather surprisingly, Mucha and the Pre-Raphaelites.
Is this Mariana’s best book? Quite possibly. It is certainly her most personal. And, in the hands of her brilliant and dependable translator Megan McDowell, one can be assured of yet another dark delight from the Argentinian “sorceress of horror.”
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