The Transmigration of Bodies

Yuri Herrera · ★★★

Second Yuri Herrera after Signs Preceding the End of the World. So far what I can gather about Herrera is that he is exceedingly good at writing titles but, at least for my interests, he fails at developing his ideas profoundly enough for them to be anything more than literary dalliances. I enjoyed Signs more but my problems with it have carried over to this novella: there just isn't enough here. Of course, length doesn't always equate with quality but if I look at Cesar Aira or maybe a better comparison, Barry Gifford, there is a match in scope between the content and form. With Herrera, although he can turn a phrase here and there, the overall ideas in these novellas aren't interesting enough to be all he has to say. They seem more like starting points for a more interesting narrative, one that he seems to have no interest in pursuing. I can't exactly articulate why I feel this way. The stories do have a beginning, middle, and end, but they feel so small as to be barely significant. I wonder if I'd feel the same if I read an omnibus collection of his novellas. At least then they could be mapped against something more coherent and hefty. On their own, these novellas don't contribute enough to stand on their own.