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War by Candlelight Stories PS Daniel Alarcon Books

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War by Candlelight Stories PS Daniel Alarcon Books

You could feel for the characters in their struggles for comprehension and understanding the world around them. You get a sense of what Lima is about.


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War by Candlelight Stories PS Daniel Alarcon Books Reviews

"In Lima," writes Daniel Alarcón, "dying is the local sport." The same is true of the Peruvian countryside, where one of the author's characters loses his wife in a fantastic mudslide that inundates his entire village.

Alarcón's Peru is a hard place to make a life. Nearly all of the short stories in this collection catalog the war torn country's violence, its corruption and its lack of opportunity for able-bodied citizens. At the same time, there is a gentle nature about many of the author's protagonists, most of who are simply trying to make the best of a bad situation.

The majority of these stories take place in Lima, a city that contains a large penitentiary for terrorists and street thugs. The local kids refer to the facility as the University "because it's where you went when you finished high school." In Alarcón's first story, Flood, every moment - every breath it seems - is dominated by the neighborhood turf war, the threat of incarceration and worst of all, death at the hand of a rival gang.

For the author's story, Absence, the scene shifts to post 9/11 New York City, where Wari, a painter, is having a showing of his work. Before leaving Peru, the painter is warned by a friend to shave, lest security officials mistake him for an Arab. The reader follows his experience at the American Embassy in Lima Even there, his situation is made more difficult. Hoping to obtain a ninety-day stay, Wari finds he can only get a one-month tourist visa. After a meeting with an abrasive embassy agent, he is limited to two weeks out-of-country.

Daniel Alarcón writes with such an authentic voice that it's hard to imagine the lives of the people of Peru being any different that what he describes. All of the stories here bring a new tragedy - the loss of a loved one, or the story of a laid off bank employee, Miguel, who has been pleading with his girlfriend, the mother of their child, for her hand in marriage for five years. The woman loves Miguel but tells him but that she is not sure that that is enough. Miguel muses that "in this city, there is nothing more useless than imagining a life... There is no work," he complains.

Born in Lima and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, Alarcón has written a beautiful, if sobering, collection of short stories. Strongly recommended for adult readers.
Globalization is a funny thing. Who would think that one of the best up and coming South American writers would be a Peruvian American from Birmingham, Alabama who writes in English. What makes him a South American is that Alarcon is a gifted chronicler of life in Lima, Peru. There is nothing nostalgic or romantacized about Alarcon's Lima. It's Lima, La Horrible. A grotesque, third world city that is for some odd reason is an almost charming city in its weirdness.

As an American going back to the city where he was born, Alarcon sees Lima in a way most Peruvians miss. Alarcon has no need for magic realism. Alarcon's protagonists are handyman thieves, unemployed bank clerks, dog killing revolutionaries and journalists who on occassion ride the city's buses dressed in clown outfits. Throw in a parade of shoe shine boys and a Senderista or two and you have that strange mix that is modern day Lima.

Alarcon's short stories are precise and well written. You can almost see the finger prints of the Iowa Writers Workshop. This is a very good first collection of short stories for a young writer. I am looking forward to seeing future books. It will be interesting to see whether he stays a South American writer or turns his talents to the Latino immigrant experience in the United States.
Before I landed on a Mario Vargas Llosa ‘s “Death In The Andes” as my book to represent Peru, I had already purchased “War By Candlelight” by Daniel Alarcon, a collection of his short stories. Once I learned that Alarcon had moved to the Untied States as a three year old I thought a better representation of the nation would be the Nobel Prize winner. But not to let a book go to waste I made my way through the his stories. My edition (published by Harper Perennial) contains a meaty section on the writer himself and although he left a troubled nation when only a small child, he did return to teach photography as a Fulbright Scholar and in his younger years did return each year for a visit. This collection of short stories all reflect on Peru so maybe I shouldn’t have been so hasty to make Mario Vargas Llosa my pin up boy for the month!!

This collection contains nine short stories.

First up we have “Flood” a tale of three youths who participate in a riot (after starting it by throwing a rock) in Lima during a downpour. The subsequent consequences of their actions and their visits to the local “university” (the jail) tell the story of a Capital in chaos. The city is divided by gangs, the jail by rebel forces and other criminals, the persecution as well as the disbelief that violence is not just a way of life. A simple story but one that reveals a melting pot of issues.

For my full review go to [...]
The first story in this collection might be the most powerful and profound short fiction I've read in years. Truly a gem of a book.
Jumping between the US and Peru, Daniel Alarcon's stories depict the harsh realities of life from an outside in perspective. My favorite stories in this collection are "City of Clowns" and "Third Ave Suicide."

Those who enjoy the writings of other 1st generation immigrants raised in the US such as Jhumpa Lahiri will enjoy the perspective that Daniel Alarcon brings.
Good writing and engaging stories. I will start to follow this writer.
Great short story collection
You could feel for the characters in their struggles for comprehension and understanding the world around them. You get a sense of what Lima is about.