Description

How do you keep a friendship intact, when Alzheimer’s has stolen the common ground of language, memory, and experience, that unites you?

In brief, sharply drawn moments, Sylvia Molloy’s Dislocations records the gradual loss of a beloved friend, M.L., a disappearance in ways expected (forgotten names, forgotten moments) and painfully surprising (the reversion to a formal, proper Spanish from their previous shared vernacular). There are occasions of wonder, too-M.L. can no longer find the words to say she is dizzy, but can translate that message from Spanish to English, when it’s passed along by a friend.

This loss holds Molloy’s sense of herself too-the person she is in relation to M.L. fades as her friend’s memory does. But the writer remains: ‘I’m not writing to patch up holes and make people (or myself) think that there’s nothing to see here, but rather to bear witness to unintelligibilities and breaches and silences. That is my continuity, that of the scribe.’

Publisher Review

"Argentine novelist and critic Molloy examines the nature and significance of memory in her gleaming English-language fiction debut. . . . A graceful study of memory, identity, and relationships, this is one to cherish." -Publishers Weekly, starred review "A masterclass in writing, with a brevity and clarity which is both rare and welcome, and firmly situates Molloy as an outstanding talent." -The Skinny