Thus Were Their Faces: Selected Stories (NYRB Classics)

Perfect condition of book of fiction l by Spanish woman author in translation.

Earlier stories were best. I read it bc of Borges’s praise but his stories are better.

Quality as promised. NYRB collections are well worth the selling price.

A uniquely wonderful fantasist.

It's at least somewhat common to hear an author described as being "deceptively deep", meaning that their work only appears to be shallow and that it becomes more significant with time. However, I find Ocampo to be deceptively shallow. The prose has an almost invariably solemn tone that should suggest profundity; the frequent themes of betrayal, existential unrest, mortality, etc. should also suggest the same but story after story shows largely the same sardonic sneer lurking beneath these strangely tinted yet somehow ultimately dull evocations of Argentine life. Sometimes there are instances of the more pointedly metaphysical fable -- "Report on Heaven and Hell" being the most often cited example -- but they tend to be more slight and fanciful than richly thought-provoking; as overestimated as I find Borges' philosophical mind to be frequently judged, this author is even less impressive in the areas of conceptual depth and complexity. The fatal flaw of Ocampo's work in general seems to be a lack of emotional and intellectual investment which, presumably, the unyielding air of impersonal, fatalistic cruelty serves to cover and gives only the appearance of "literary seriousness". Considering that she had been a person of considerable privilege, her preoccupation with the cruelty of humans and life in general seems contrived, and the regular involvement of a vaguely magical element in these cruelties seems to emphasize how little the author knew about and experienced such things in actuality. Reading through these stories, I couldn't help but think that this is how Nabokov's fiction might have turned out if he'd been a less intelligent, more narrowly talented person who had never been tried by the difficulties of immigration (though he, too, was born into privilege): nothing but posturing sardonicism, barely leavened by an indulgent imagination.

'Thus were their faces' is one of those remarkable book of short stories that will leave a deep impression. Many i had to read twice, a few times my jaw dropped, several stayed with me and kept me awake as i was thinking about them. I had never heard of Silvina Ocampo before coming across an online recommendation but i'm so glad i did. Her writing is so rich, so detailed, hypnotic, strange and cruel that they stay with you long after the book had ended. It is haunting at its best and i for one will be reading more and more. Highly reccomended if you like to think while you read.

The book arrived and was per the author requested, high quality binding and all that. I found that I did not appreciate her writing but that is to my account. I do not see Amazon as a literary criticism instrument, but strangely, most do,

It is as if the reader meets Ocampo at last, earned her attention. Except the reader she meets isn’t me. As consolation, I note that I was seven years old in 1955 when that last note was written, and we could have met then … if Argentine hadn’t been just another mysterious faraway country in my school atlas or in my stamp album. The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long to post here. Above is its conclusion.

I am only half way through the book, but I will give my first impressions. It's rather odd, and a bit jarring. You have to be on your toes reading it as there are a lot of strange themes and rugs that get pulled from underneath the reader. Very skillful writing. One time she was describing someone cleaning a window, the picture hit me with such lucidity I had to put the book down.

Great Argentinean female writer! A must read