Garden of dreams by Paulo da Costa

Garden of Dreams is the second short story in the book The Scent of a Lie.  This story was still not the one that told me that I was before an outstanding promissing writer. The writing is still great but there is something that just does not work.

The story is a small episode that introduces us to Felismina Alves, an enigmatic character who lives out in the hills away from other people and the village. Her company is the wolfs, the trees, the river and the stars. She is an animistic character that kind of takes the reader to the seventies in the US, communion with nature and that kind of idea. The odd thing is that she stands for the future: she is the one who sees more and is not bound to age old and meaningless traditions, but at the same time she is even older than that because she refuses all kinds of "modern" comforts like electricity and learning. The reader is confused by the character and it becomes hard to decide whether you like her or not. Personally, I liked the fact that she likes the dark: "Felismina enjoyed the dimness. It gave her peace of mind to realise the clouding of her ageing eyes brought no tragedy to her daily life. she moved confidently around the kitchen. What did she need from the glare of lights? Her fingers manoeuvred the sharp knives, fondling the memory of a thousand soups. Her bare feet read the wooden floor, avoided the water vessel, and anticipated a nail sticking its snobbish head above the others." After all, the blind man/woman who sees better is a very old idea.

What I did not enjoy as much is the "magic realism" in the story. Or may be it is just what makes the story stand out, I'm not sure. Felismina is capable of generating light herself: "Felismina snapped her thick callused fingers in a loud crack, producing a spark to light the wick". Was that really necessary? Is that credible in the story? I may have missed the whole point but I thought Felismina was a strong enough character to need the help of magic.

So much about Felismina and I haven't said that the story tells us of an episode where a woman and herdaughter who go from house to house spreading the word of the Lord get lost in the hills, it is getting late and they see Felismina's house. Here they are offered shelter and dinner. They try to give Felismina a bit of their beliefs but of course the religious pamphlets and the message they are trying to convey are very lost in this strange woman that they have met by chance in the hills. The end is an open one, as most of the endings in Paulo da Costa's book, we leave the scene as the women sit around a fire looking at "a constellation of stars". The two women are still firm in their different views of the world, it is the little girl that is taken by Felismina's "powers". I would like to say that I identify with the girl, but not yet, only by the third short story will I begin to feel puzzled and caught by the author. By the forth story, however, the story of Camila Penca, I will be subdued.

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