‘Grandma, Do You Think You’re Good In Bed?’ and Other Questions

OLD SOUND
by Elisa Victoria
Translated by Charlotte Whittle

At the age of 9, Marina says “old lady” things in a “hoarse” voice, so the kids at school call her “Oldladyvoice”. However, Elisa Victoria’s debut novel focuses more on the narrator’s thoughts than on what he says out loud. For example, Marina wants to learn more about her mother’s mysterious illness, but instead of asking her grandmother if she can provide the treatments her mother received, “Grandma, do you think you were good in bed?” he asks.

Victoria deftly handles the child’s narration. Anne rarely appears, but when she does, she is as interesting to the reader as to Marina. There is something volatile about him. You never know what you will get. He is alive. We know as little about Marina’s condition as she does, but that’s what drives the story: That’s why Marina can be sent to Catholic school and therefore needs to be baptized. As she said, “The idea is to send me to the nuns if things get ugly.”

When her mother is taken to the hospital, Marina is left alone with her flamboyant grandmother, her days filled with unforgettable scenes, many spent in front of the television. “My grandma and I agree aloud and say we think like a few extra panelists at the table,” says Marina, who one day watches a talk show about love. Television is its own character in the novel: The year is 1993, “Baywatch” is on the air and the commercials are creating little events in their lives. At one point, her grandmother calls Marina into the living room and points to an advertisement for her perfume. While the two watched in admiration (“I wonder what passion has driven so many women out of their homes in these commercials,” Marina thinks), the reader, attention-absorbing a screen, was more likely to be socially experienced.

Based on short, declarative sentences, Victoria has the ability to bring characters to life in a few words (“She stutters and is also omniscient, that’s a tough combination”). But combined with the novel’s first-person, present-tense perspective, this style can make it difficult to find occasional takers amid Marina’s wandering thoughts.