(The short story “My Sad Dead” by Mariana Enriquez appeared in the February 13th & 20th, 2023 issue of The New Yorker.)
(Translated, from the Spanish, by Megan McDowell.)
(It goes without saying, but just saying, SPOLIERS!)
Photo illustration by Silvia Grav for The New Yorker
“My Sad Dead” is a finely written story by Mariana Enriquez, and I am sure there are people who will love it greatly, but it fell flat to me. It was the equivalent of being a kid and eating my vegetables with dinner; I know it’s good for me, but I just don’t like it. Part of my hesitation to embrace the story was that the premise of a woman who can speak to dead people and get them to “calm down,” was too close to the idea behind Ghost Whisperer, the Jennifer Love Hewitt television show from the early 2000’s. The other reason is boilerplate basic, as the protagonist doesn’t learn or grow over the course of the story.
Now, it wasn’t lost on me that the theme, or the central metaphor, was about how middle-class communities cannot divorce themselves from the blight of their societies. That these problems will land on their doorsteps eventually. Which is what happens when a ghost knocks on all the front doors late at night in the neighborhood, repeating his last act of looking for help before he is murdered by the kidnappers he escaped from. All the neighbors ignore him, thinking that he is a thief faking needing aid so as to gain entry to their homes and rob them. In this regard, the story reminded me of the short stories of Haruki Murakami, especially from his book The Elephant Vanishes. Both writers are very good at making their fantastical situations feel believable, and exist in the real world.
Yet, when “My Sad Dead” concludes with the protagonist staying where she is, I was left feeling hollow, unsatisfied. All the ingredients are here for a satiable conclusion; death, mothers, children, ills of society… But the protagonist goes nowhere. The piece starts with the protagonist wanting to stay in the house with her mother, and ends with her reiterating that she wants to stay in the house with her mother.
Nothing changes.
Matthew Groff 