Peering into a Dantean Abyss*

Hell is other people. - Jean-Paul Sartre

The above quote isn't used as the epigraph for this book, but it very well could have been.

I first read Maarja Kangro when I came across her shocking non-fiction novel "Klaaslaps" (The Glass Child) (2016) [read and reviewed] and have since tried to locate her earlier fiction work which consists of 3 collections of short stories. The first of these was "Ahvid ja solidaarsus" (Monkeys and Solidarity) (2010) [not yet found or reviewed], which was followed by this current book in 2012 and then by "Hüppa tulle" (Jump into the Fire) (2014) [read and reviewed].

Dantelik auk consists of 7 short stories, including 1. the title work, 2. Homaarid kahele (Lobsters for Two), 3. Zürii (The Jury), 4. Giulio ja Leedu küsimus (Giulio and the Lithuanian Question), 5. Klaasnuudlid (Glass Noodles), 6. Chick lit ja tõlkekristused (Chick lit and the Translation Christs), and 7. Saluut (Salute).

I've probably read enough of Kangro's short fiction now to say that there is a template to most of it, which could be summed up as fish-out-of-water writer/translator (most often female, but not always) is placed into a somewhat comedic, often grotesque situation (usually of their own making). One can easily picture these as being inspired by Kangro's own travels to international literary events in the course of her work as poet, writer and translator.

Here we encounter situations such as the protagonist and a seemingly disinterested partner (who keeps telling her to move out of the landscape photographs that he is trying to take) viewing the volcanoes of Iceland in Dantelik auk. A single person in Homaarid kahele insists on ordering the title dish for herself alone in a German-speaking restaurant and proceeds to berate a elderly couple eating the same at a nearby table. In Zürii, the title characters, who are the self-declared judges of a dubious literary award contest, appear at the protagonist's apartment and proceed to start eating up various foodstuffs and attempting to abscond with personal items. In Giulio ja Leedu küsimus a tourist encounters fellow traveller Giulio who regales her with seemingly fantastical statements about Lithuania. In Klassnuudlid a writer at what seems to be an artists' retreat participates in a communal meal by contributing an inedible version of the title dish. A group of translators debate Chick lit ja tolkekristused (No, I didn't really understand what was Christ-like about translation). In my favourite story, Saluut, a not very well known writer drives to the countryside for a reading at a rural library location which is only attended by its librarian organizer and a single old man. There is an increasing sense of mystery to the story as the elderly participant hints at a former acquaintanceship with the writer's mother, whom the writer has only ever known as a single parent.

Some of my favourite fictions are those about books and writers and fish-out-of-water situations, so Kangro's themes and plots continue to surprise and entertain me.

I read Dantelik auk in the original Estonian. One of its stories, Saluut (retitled as "Fireworks", although it would literally translate as "Salute"), has been translated by Matthew Hyde and is available in the anthology "Best European Fiction". A currently unidentified (as of early Sept 2018) Maarja Kangro story is expected in the soon-to-be-published "Baltic Belles:The Dedalus Book of Estonian Women's Literature."

*Literally, Dantelik auk would translate as Dantean Hole, but that just doesn't sound very dramatic or imposing enough. ( )