Noel, Dexter J.

English

University of New Brunswick: Centre for Digital Scholarship Journals

and from  books like Ramsey's that guide us through the new, more expanded notion of  New Novel. Julieta Campos Celina  or the Cats Trans, by Leland H. Chambers Pittsburgh: Latin American Literary Review Press, 1995. Pp. 140. $15.95 Reviewed by Dexter J. Noel Julieta Campos, born in Cuba, is one of  Latin America's growing number of women writers who are striving to create a new poetics independent of  the traditional canon. Campos, a professor  of  literature, has published novels, reviews and a book on literary criticism. Celina  or the Cats,  originally published in Spanish (Celina  o los gatos,  1968J, is a collection of  five  short stories divided into two sections; the first  contains three stories and the second, two. The stories are preceded by an introduction, intended to serve, in part, as an exegesis for  the stories. In this introduction, Campos reviews the historical relationships between cats and humans and provides the underpinnings for  the symbolism of  cats, "our contact with all that is imaginary, indecipherable, unfathomable,  inaccessible" (16). Cats, for  Campos, "evoke worlds that belong not only to a beyond that is divine or satanic ... but also to the lost paradise of  childhood..." (24). The title story, Celina  or the Cats,  tells about the relationship between Carlos Manuel and his wife  Celina. Although the story centers around the wife,  it is told in the first  person by the husband as he attempts to analyze the events that led to the marriage breakup and Celina's subsequent suicide. Carlos Manuel traces the stages of  the relationship and tries to decide whether or not he was victim or culprit. Celina first  seeks to express her personality through her husband's world; then, she moves away from  this world and creates her own. Next, she tires of  this and acquires some cats, becomes engrossed in them, and, finally, commits suicide. All of  this is foreshadowed  by Celina's obsession with her nails, her mirror, and her preening. The second story, The  Baptism,  chronicles the events surrounding the baptism of  Natalia's doll, Michel, and is the backdrop for  Natalia's struggle with growing up. The tension is illustrated by the fact  that Natalia wants the security of  the known stage while, at the same time, she wants to seek out the new and unusual. In order to maintain control over her situation, Natalia returns to her favorite  spot in the garden where she can be alone with her thoughts. Her loss of innocence is signaled when she finds  Luis and Marisa in each other's arms in her garden, and when she finally  discovers a change in the color of  the sky. 108 The  International  Fiction  Review 24 (1997) The implicit desire to preserve an arrested temporality is also one of  the themes in All  the Roses. Aurelia, the protagonist, of  this story seeks the "prolongation of  an interminable present that blends memory and oblivion" (85). The death of  the roses and her sister Alda's madness could both be ended if  only she could remove the fateful  date—August 20,1933, to which she ascribes all her ills—from  the calendar. Apart from  this, routine and avoidance of  change are the keys to her peace and tranquility. Consequently, Aurelia retreats to her "safe place." Her inaction, though, causes the unattended garden to invade the house and destroy it along with its inhabitants. This theme of  nature overrunning an apparent sanctuary recurs in The  House (trans, by Kathleen Ross), in which the house is taken over by the sea. Routine and repetition are the themes of  this story about the lives of  the family  of Consuelo and Jim (a couple who do not communicate), their daughters Consuelo and Albertina, and their dogs. Time passes but not many changes occur; names and events are repeated, and everything seems blurred. In one particular scene Consuelo, the mother, and Consuelo, the daughter, are both looking out to sea, which invokes similar memories and a temporal clash, since "everything is happening now, in an unlimited now, where what was the past and what would have been the future  vanish" (16), thus providing permanence and peace. The  City,  the final  story, also belongs to that segment of  the corpus of Campos's work which critics, such as Martha Martinez, classify  as the constant interiorization of  Cuban memories ("Julieta Campos o la interiorización de lo cubano," Revista  Iberoamericana  132-33 [1985] 797). In this story, the duality of  the city (presumably Havana) is examined, its glorious past and its decaying present juxtaposed. There is no harmony between the past, a rejected memory, and the present. This is a city "without a before  or an after"  (127), a city which encroaches upon and destroys the vestiges of  the past. The stories in this collection share some common themes: arrested time, the comforting  effect  of  memories, and the need for  sanctuary. In all of  them, the characters are generally as introverted, enigmatic, and incomprehensible as cats. Further, throughout the collection, Campos interweaves another element of  her poetics: the power of  words. In Celina  or the Cats,  Carlos Manuel tries to invoke the power of  words in his attempt to decipher his wife's  actions and their relationship; in The  House,  the communicative power of  words is the missing factor  that could save the relationship for  Jim and Consuelo; in The  Baptism,  All the Roses, and The  City  words are the essential medium for  preserving memories, which, in turn, provide the stability and permanence sought by the characters. Celina  or the Cats  is an excellent sample of,  and a good introduction for  the English-speaking public to, Julieta Campos's work. It is a fitting  illustration of this writer's ongoing quest for  a suitable vehicle to express a female  voice in the literatures of  Latin America. Book Reviews 109 

Julieta Campos, Celina or the Cats

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Julieta Campos, Celina or the Cats

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