The Last Philosopher in Texas

The Last Philosopher in Texas

Fictions and Superstitions

  • Autor: Chacón, Daniel
  • Editor: Arte Público Press
  • ISBN: 9781558859937
  • eISBN Pdf: 9781518508042
  • eISBN Epub: 9781518508028
  • Lloc de publicació:  Houston , United States
  • Any de publicació: 2024
  • Pàgines: 169

Illusion and the possibility of magic coexist with the pain and joy of daily life in these compelling pieces mostly set in the Texas-Mexico border region. In one, a girl desperately wants to know more about her mother, who died when she was four years old. Did she like being a mom? Would she have preferred partying with her friends? When her eccentric aunt says she can teach her how to travel back in time, the girl is skeptical. Is it really possible to visit the past and communicate with the dead? Each story is a celebration of the narrative’s power to transport, enlighten and connect the reader to the myriad facets of the human experience. In “Borges and the Chicanx,” a Chicano professor’s imposter syndrome worsens when he is asked to teach a course on a famed Latin American writer he has never read and whose work he doesn’t understand. And in “Sara’s Chest of Drawers,” a young man’s parents insist he go through his dead twin sister’s things even though he doesn’t think she would want him to—until she sends him a sign from the beyond. Dreams, memories, visions and superstitions permeate this collection of short fiction that blends the ordinary with the extraordinary, making the fantastical feel surprisingly tangible. Considering themes of outsider status and displacement, cultural representation and authenticity, identity and collective memory, award-winning author Daniel Chacón once again crafts troubled characters searching for salvation from sorrows they often cannot even articulate.

  • Cover
  • Title page
  • Copyright page
  • The Order of Things
  • My Crazy Tía
  • The Chicano Time Traveler
  • Sara’s Chest of Drawers
  • If Tonantzin Worked at Cracker Barrel
  • Finding Home
  • Santa Muerte
  • Superstition: The Day of the Dead
  • Borges and the Chicanx
  • Authentic Mexican Food
  • Magick Spider
  • If Jesus Worked at Starbucks
  • Vinegar Flowing Under the Chairs
  • As Above, So Below
  • Calabi Yau
  • Wednesday Night
  • Let the Angels Talk
  • The Flickering Quasar
  • Not a Pandemic Love Story
  • Santa Claus Is Dead
  • Superstition: Love at First Sight
  • Superstition: Photos of People Who Hated Each Other
  • Superstition: Dropping Silverware
  • Wild Apple Trees
  • Weird Dream
  • Wonder Bread
  • The Last Pilot
  • Superstition: Ice
  • Velocity of Mass
  • Chinga-Hickey
  • Superstition: Getting Near the End of the Book
  • The Last Philosopher in Texas

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