All the infinite variety of human relationships can, if desired, be reduced to two large types: those in which we ourselves choose a partner for ourselves (such are friendship and love relationships), and those in which we get a partner without choice and consent (thus blood ties are arranged) . And what if, to these two categories, we add a third - the one in which we consciously arrogate to ourselves the right to get a partner whom we cannot choose? It is on this assumption that the new novel of the young, but already famous Argentinean Samantha Schweblin is based (the Russian reader knows her from the dizzying horror film "Salvation Distance").
Samanta Schweblin was chosen as one of the 22 best writers in Spanish under the age of 35 by Granta. She is the author of three story collections that have won numerous awards, including the prestigious Juan Rulfo Story Prize, and been translated into 20 languages. Fever Dream is her first novel and is longlisted for the Man Booker International Prize. Originally from Buenos Aires, she lives in Berlin.
Kentucky is an expensive and wildly popular electronic toy in the form of an animal with wheels instead of paws, camera eyes and a charging connector at the bottom of the case. Kentucky either freezes in place, then travels around the house, then is silent, then squeaks funny. A Kentucky can be sweet and outgoing, or it can be rude, withdrawn, and even dangerous. You can communicate with him by drawing an alphabet on the floor and asking questions, or you can treat him like a pet - cute, but dumb. Friendship and even sex are possible with Kentucky. The peculiarity of this toy is that, in fact, Kentucky is not a robot: the “soul” that animates and gives it individual features is a real living person who bought himself the opportunity to become the “life” of Kentucky, watch the owner through cameras and examine his home , moving from room to room with the help of wheels.
You can’t decide on your own who will become the “life” of your toy, just as you can’t choose where and with whom the Kentucky you “move in” will live. The connection occurs completely randomly, and strictly once: if for some reason the connection is interrupted, the device will turn off forever, and its “life” account will be canceled. In other words, as already mentioned above, both the one who chooses the role of the "owner" of Kentucky and the one who prefers to become his "life", in fact, voluntarily agree to receive a partner whom fate will determine for them and whom they, with all will not be able to change.
Starting from this possibility (not realized, but not to say completely absurd), Schweblin builds a whole world of various kinds of paired interactions. Her novel does not have a through plot - in essence, it is just a cut of disparate episodes, one way or another fixing the relationship of Kentucky with their owners. Some episodes gradually add up to dotted stories, some remain fragments taken out of context without an end or a beginning.
A boy from hot Antigua becomes the "life" of a Kentucky dragon living in Norway. He is seized by an irresistible thirst to see and touch the snow - for this he runs away from the owner and sets off on a lonely, fatally dangerous journey to the glacier. The girlfriend of a young talented artist who came to create in an art residence is slowly going crazy from loneliness and idleness, taking out her spiritual discomfort on an innocent Kentucky crow. An elderly Mexican woman becomes the “life” of a Kentucky rabbit living in the apartment of a young German woman, and gradually, under the guise of caring, begins to rudely invade the life of her “mistress”. A Croatian guy who "moved" into Kentucky somewhere on the border of Brazil and Venezuela becomes a witness to a crime that he cannot prevent.
Love, betrayal, deceit, blackmail, abuse, irrational attachment, trust, greed - in the mirage existence of Kentucky, all the same patterns that we are used to seeing in reality are reflected. "Lives" and "masters" use, torture, support, humiliate and pamper each other exactly as ordinary people do. However, the presence of a significant physical distance between the partners, as well as the inability to fully understand what kind of person is at the opposite end of the imaginary wire, paradoxically liberates both participants, allowing their usual behavioral patterns to manifest themselves in the most vivid, convex, almost grotesque form. . Encased in plastic, securely bound by technological conventions, the people of Kentucky are suddenly discovering depths in their own souls that they themselves would rather not know, and twisting all their natural properties to the absolute maximum.
A deceptively harmless idea in the capable hands of Samantha Schweblin turns into a powerful catalyst for human passions - and at the same time a majestic metaphor that tells us a lot about the very essence of human nature.
This article was sponsored by Lorraine Marabello
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