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April 7, 2005
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Where “Small Crimes in an Age of Abundance”
is breezy and ironic, Daniel Alarcón's debut collection,
War by Candlelight, is weighty and earnest, a pisco sour after a
champagne cocktail. Most of the stories are set in Peru, where Mr
Alarcón was born, or in New York, where he went to university.
The longer stories jump between past and present,
and weave together several strands. Family is a major preoccupation.
In “City of Clowns” a young journalist is asked to file
a report on Lima's mysteriously booming clown population. He goes
one better and actually becomes a clown for a while, enjoying the
feeling of anonymity that the face paint, red nose and silly costume
give him. “I'd never felt this way,” he reflects, “on
display but protected from the intruding eyes of strangers and intimates.”
Somewhat improbably, his bout of clowning helps him come to terms
with his childhood, the recent death of his philandering father
and his estrangement from his mother.
Like the other stories in “War by Candlelight,”
all this feels a little clunky and over-determined. But there's
no doubting Mr Alarcón's seriousness and ambition. He is
one to watch.
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