The Red Sea                                  Stories by Rafael Courtoisie            Translated by Patricia Dubrava

The Red Sea is the first book by the Uruguayan writer Rafael Courtoisie to be translated into English. Denver poet and short story writer Patricia Dubrava has done a marvelous job of translating these intricate literary tales which veer into science fiction and mathematics. Courtoisie is an award winning poet, and this story collection, THE RED SEA, is one of a trilogy of short fiction collections he has written.

While we associate magic realism with most of the famous South American writers, it is helpful to remember that Courtosie is from a younger generation with its own ideas. Add to this the fact that Courtoisie was educated as a scientist and holds degrees in Engineering and in Chemistry. His background and his gallows humor inform these short stories, prose poems and parables.

Characters in a Courtoisie story are often bleak figures in a frightening landscape slashed by war, and doused with chemical waste. Conflict arises between characters, but in the end it is the post-modern world and its horrors that have the greatest detrimental effects on their lives.

In one darkly comic story, "The Revolt," a family living on a small farm is confronted by a government insurrection which soon touches their own lives. Against this backdrop the family milk cow gives birth to a two-headed calf. Despite the odds, the calf survives and becomes a bull. The governmental factions continue to bicker, and soldiers change sides in the conflict. The story is a surreal take on the absurdity of war and rebellions.

"Casanova" is a curiously humorous story about the relationship between two men. One is a satyr-like hunchbacked man and the other is the village epitaph writer. Their friendship is a bizarre one, based on the relativity of carnality and death.

The title story, "The Red Sea," is about radioactive aftermath and its haunting effect on two lovers in Montevideo. The very water consumed in the story is contaminated, and it also causes hallucinations. The story is a bizarre comedy which embraces both death and desire.

There are thirteen stories in The Red Sea. Of them all, the most memorable is a very brief fiction, "Persistence Of The Weak," a powerful First Person narrative by a poet who has returned from Sparta 3000 years ago after being disposed of at childbirth because he did not measure up to Spartan standards. This tiny story has great power, depth and elegance, and is no less than a slice of soul.

Patricia Dubrava, whose poetry translations of the Mexican poet Elsa Cross have been published, has also published several poetry collections of her own. Dubrava’s gift for capturing another writer’s voice is on display in THE RED SEA, a carefully translated collection that will bring Rafael Courtoisie’s work and worldview to North America for the very first time.