“Moses and Gaspar” - A Short Story by Amparo Dávila - first published in 1959 - translated from the Spanish by Audrey Harris and Matthew Gleason - in The Houseguest and other stories - a Collection of her stories published in 2018

 

“Moses and Gaspar” - A Short Story by Amparo Dávila - first published in 1959 - translated from the Spanish by Audrey Harris and Matthew Gleason - in The Houseguest and other stories - a Collection of her stories published in 2018

Amparo Dávila 

Born: 21 February 1928, Pinas, Mexico

Died: 18 April 2020, Zacagecas, Mexico

Cooking With Amparo Dávila. -from The Parisian Review- included is a link to today’s story but it can be read in full only by Parisian Review subscribers 

The story can be read in full on the Kindle sample of The Houseguest and Other Stories 

The Crying Cat- a very interesting article on The background and history behind the stories of Amparo Dávila by Matthew Gleason - one of her translators 

Amparo Dávila, a Major figure in Mexican literature, is just now becoming recognized as a Major writer of stories of dark fantasies and horror outside her homeland.

“Moses and Gaspar” is a story about two Brothers, both bachelors, whose only real emotional tie is with each other.  One works for a bank, the other an insurance company.  They spend every Sunday together until one gets transferred to a far away  city.  They stop spending their vacations together as one brother cannot leave his pets, Moses and Gaspar alone very long. When the pet owning brother dies, his brother takes them in.  

I really hope others Will read this story so I Will not say much more.  It is about deeply felt Family bonds, about a Life ruined by two very strange pets.  At first I thought they were cats but for sure they are not.  About what can happen when your only loved one dies.  The surviving brother did have a long term relationship with a woman he paid to have sex with him at his apartment but Moses and Gaspar scared her away. 

There are elegant descriptions of food in the story.  

I look Forward to Reading more of her stories