‘Lovers on All Saints Day’: Strange love story collection is a triumph

Love is not easy in Juan Gabriel Vasquez's latest collection of short stories 'Lovers on All Saint's Day,” but it is realistic: a man is shocked to observe how married friends behave in a crisis; a woman kills her sister's fiancee in order to protect the land she loves; a married couple care for the wife's ex-lover. Nothing is predictable in Vasquez's hands, and his stories are as beautiful, sad, and hopeful as our own strange everyday love stories. His latest work is a memorable triumph.

There's movement in Vazquez's stories: plenty of hunting and driving and love making. And while his stories can be complex, with a number of narratives and plot twists, Vazquez assuredly guides readers along, providing sharp, efficient character descriptions ('She ... never keeps things that need to be said to herself,”) and beautiful reflective passages to balance things out. As a result, finishing a story feels akin to finishing a short novel: complete and satisfying.

In 'At the Cafe de la Republique,” for example, Vazquez deftly combines a number of narratives that could well stand on their own: how a father's dishonesty and an absent mother affect a child; how illness brings two estranged lovers together; how achieving desired independence can be both freeing and terrifying. If a lesser writer chose to combine such complex storylines the result would be disastrous. But Vazquez carefully coaxes each narrative along like a seasoned conductor, knowing just when to increase and when to pull back to result in a beautiful song.

While the majority of Vasquez's stories take place in the European countryside, all seven carry with them the wide open sensation that comes from living in nature. There is a wildness to his characters, who are, by and large, lonely, searching people, such as the man who knows his marriage is over, but hopes his wife will say it first. It's easy to see ourselves in Vasquez's characters, and reading these stories is like unabashedly remembering who we used to be - and seeing who we may well yet become.