Alberto Fuguet. The Movies of My Life.

Garrett, Daniel

Albert Fuguet. The Movies of My Life. Ezra E. Fitz, tr. New York. Rayo / HarperCollins. 2003 (released 2004). 287 pages. $24.95. ISBN 0-06-053462-1

THE MOVIES OF MY LIFE, by Chilean author Alberto Fuguet, is a family romance of anger and sweetness, countless aunts and uncles, and more grandparents than most children need, class differences, adultery, and ... friendship, it is the biography of an individual mind and an exploration of seismology, a science that combines technology and uncontrollable natural force. The novel is also a love letter to the fondly remembered films of childhood. It is not enchanting, but it is pleasing.

The reader meets Beltran, who studies earthquakes, as he prepares to take a flight from Santiago de Chile to Japan for a conference. Shortly before he leaves for the airport, Beltran's sister telephones him to say that his grandfather died in El Salvador. Beltran expresses no grief, and he is not given to being charming. He fearlessly asserts his rights to the airline when it suggests rescheduling his flight due to overbooking and to his seat partner when she seems inclined to intrude on his privacy. (Beltran says about his work: "I liked being surrounded by people who were completely unable to relate to themselves or to one other. There is no greater paradise on earth than the microcosm of science--and now, especially computer science--for those who don't dare to die but also are unable to live like the rest.") Beltran is an alienated figure, one of many in modern literature, and part of this story is the telling of how he became that way. The text moves among various time periods; that feature, along with a fragmented narrative and carefully distilled information, are also traits of a modern literary text such as this one. Beltran's unexpectedly friendly conversation with the woman seated next to him includes her mention of a list of favorite movies, which inspires his own film lists that he will send to her via e-mail.

The films, as alternative narratives, provide a counterpoint-both as distraction from and guide--to the political upheavals of the time (Nixon, Allende, Pinochet). Napoleon and Samantha features an actress who reminds the boy, Beltran, of a girl he's infatuated with; the King and I stars an actor to whom one of Beltran's aunts is briefly married, Yul Brynner; and Beltran sees Earthquake! with his seismologist grandfather and realizes the man's fundamental fear of earthquakes. Beltran's first orgasm is inspired by memory of Jacqueline Bissett in a wet t-shirt in The Deep, and he takes his mother to see An Unmarried Woman to help her become reconciled to being a single woman. The book, while being a very literary text, is enjoyable for its demonstration of how popular culture intersects with youth in the modern world. We see as part of Beltran's memories sudden changes in culture (from Santiago to Inglewood and Encino in California), schoolyard abuse, a distant father, a mournful mother, and a scientist grandfather who introduces him to a field that has both practical and imaginative uses.

Alberto Fuguet has replaced magical realism with the force of personality, human purpose, and nature.

Daniel Garrett

Richmond Hill, New York