Álvaro Enrigue’s stories in Hypothermia reveal a brilliant eye for humorous despair

Álvaro Enrigue landed on my radar not long after I got my undergrad literature studies degree because of his 1996 novel Death of an Installation Artist, which later was named one of the key novels of the Mexican 20th century.

So he’s been on my list to read forever, and to finally dip my toes in, I started with his also highly acclaimed 2013 short-story collection Hypothermia, which is said to explore “the brutal gravity of cultural misunderstandings and the coldly smirking will to self-destruction hiding within our irredeemably carnal lives.”

Enrigue has Mexican and Spanish heritage, received his Ph.D. at the University of Maryland, and teaches at Hofstra University. His writing reflects a world-weariness, including settings such as Washington, D.C., the North Carolina Outer Banks, California, Mexico, and beyond.

Here are my thoughts on the first four stories from Hypothermia:

“Dumbo's Feather” kicks off the collection and I instantly liked Enrigue’s vibe. There’s nothing earthshaking about the story, but it is a slice of life about a writer whose wife once thought he would someday be famous. His son doesn’t respect his art, but at least his friends consider the married pair to be Renaissance people because, even though they have almost no money, they love to enjoy the arts and the finer things in life. By the end, the writer is resolved to be a really strong TV watcher, with a viewing room he plans to design that will be second to none. Hilariously apathetic.

★★★★☆ 4/5

”Self Help” kicks off a section of the collection titled “Scenes From Family Life.” I found nearly every single sentence of this minor story gripping, or at the very least amusing. Told from the perspective of a jaded, drunk, and unsuccessful writer, possibly the same one as in the first story, he panics a little at the thought that he and his wife have a baby on the way and practically no money. He then irritates his boss, who threatens to fire him. But when the writer challenges the boss to say he could write a good book, he is given a contract for six months, during which time he delivers what turns out to be a self-help bestseller on the art of discipline. All irony aside, the writer returns to crafting a novel, which gets published and sells a grand total of 423 copies. It doesn’t really matter that I just told you the entire story. What matters is the journey, and the clear fact that Enrigue is a genius of humorous storytelling.

★★★★★ 5/5

“Gula, or: The Invocation” is where Enrigue comes back to earth a little bit. A writer and his wife are struggling with their life in Mexico City and have decided they will move. He runs into an astrologer friend in the supermarket who predicts a series of maladies that will infect their lives over the coming months, including the predicted death of their beloved cat Gula. This is another very short story, and while entertaining in its structure, it falls pretty flat in terms of character development and motivation.

★★★☆☆ 3/5

“Diary of a Quiet Day” is about a literature professor who is vacationing with his family at the North Carolina Outer Banks. He decides to stay home while his wife, son, and wife’s relatives go off to sightsee in Kitty Hawk and across Cape Lookout and Ocracoke. He realizes it’s the first time he’s had what he calls a bachelor day in a long time and devours a huge amount of the relatives’ Froot Loops, Doritos, and Diet Coke. Throughout the day, he reads and intersperses his thoughts about The Odyssey and the nearby sinking of Blackbeard’s ship with his own worries. He becomes suddenly uncomfortable being in a situation of having little responsibility, like when he himself was younger, and wells up with worry about whether everyone is still safe on their trip. It’s again an excellent short story, made even better by my familiarity with the Outer Banks.

★★★★½ 4.5/5

Enrigue’s short stories reveal how absurd, funny, and quietly despairing ordinary life can be, and that mix makes him worth reading. The start of Hypothermia has me entranced. When I finish it, I’m looking forward to his 2022 novel You Dreamed of Empires, which reimagines life at the height of Tenochtitlan civilization, in 1509, when conquistador Hernán Cortés meets Emperor Moctezuma.

https://popculturelunchbox.substack.com/p/alvaro-enrigues-stories-reveal-a