Daniel Saldaña París, Trans. by Christina MacSweeney
PositiveBookslut...luidly brought into English through the polished and effortless-feeling translation of the talented Christina MacSweeney ... [a] darkly humorous and thoughtful novel ... It was especially refreshing to me that Saldaña París depicted adult male characters actually questioning their fascination with and attraction to adolescent girls, which happens too little in life, and probably even less in literature. Among Strange Victims could easily have ended on a more swaggery male-fantasy-gratifying note, and it wouldn't have been surprising. That it is surprising and exciting that he avoids this is one of the great disappointments of the world, but it is also to Saldaña París's credit as an observer of that world.
Idra Novey
RaveBookslutUsing her poet's—and translator's—precision, Novey seeds her story with crystalline images, like perfect little dioramas through which her characters move...More than entertaining and deftly written, though it most certainly is those things, Ways to Disappear sweats the questions we should be asking, of ourselves, our art, our culture, our assumptions, about hanging somewhere in between knowing and not knowing, about responsibility and accountability. Novey has crafted a delightfully metafictional and metatranslational exploration into the creation and appreciation of literature, and about choosing to live a meaningful life, whatever that means to each of us.
