"Vast Hell"

by Guillermo Martínez
translated by Alberto Manguel

This is the first story from one of the major literary journals of the US, The New Yorker. Of course, they print a lot of their fiction online, which is the only place I get my fiction. They also only publish the most high quality stuff, supposedly, which was why I was disappointed when I read this story.

It's the story of a small town, a boy, and a French Woman they all suspect to be having an affair with the boy. No names are given. When the boy and French Woman disappear, the town suspects murder, but no. What really got to me about this story was the ending. So much develops and everything is well written until the end, which happens in only a couple sentences that left me wanting. I had many questions about what was going on, but this might be because I don't come from Argentina, where this takes place and was written.

Read the online material at The New Yorker. Their humor section is best, but you should give this story a shot, maybe I was wrong, and it all makes sense.

2 stars.