The Disappearance

Although the three pieces in this book are linked by some suspense, they are all well written. I especially liked the second Novella, which takes place during shiva, the seven days of Jewish mourning. It presented a well drawn cross section of Jewish life in Mexico.

In the preface to "The Disappearance: A Novella and Stories" (Northwestern University Press), the prolific and often provocative Ilan Stavans informs us that the "three stories in this volume are concerned, in one way or another, with silence--both earthly and divine." Hopefully Stavans will forgive those readers who discern a different thematic pattern in these well-crafted little mysteries which are -- in both tone and structure -- reminiscent of tales by Jorge Luis Borges and W. Somerset Maugham. One can argue that the heart of these stories concerns the question of identity: ethnic, religious, national and cultural. Stavans, a professor of Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College, has often explored this rocky but fascinating terrain drawn from his own experiences of being a Jew of Mexican birth who has moved within the languages of Spanish, English, Hebrew and Yiddish. Stavans is a true craftsman, a lover of language, a detective in search of what makes us similar to each other yet also unique. The stories in this slim but potent collection remind us that we belong to a complex and ultimately mysterious species for which there is no easy definition. [The full version of this review first appeared in the El Paso Times.]