Fantasmas de carne y hueso.

• Author: Mujica, Barbara

The eight stories that comprise Fantasmas de carne y hueso are among the best that Edwards has written over a forty-year career. In them he conjures up the "flesh and blood ghosts"--people, real or imaginary--who fill his memories. Highly autobiographical, these stories draw on the author's experiences as a diplomat and a writer in Chile, France and Spain. Each story is preceded by an introduction in which the author reveals relevant information about its creation. Most deal in one way or another with the eternal allure of the feminine mystique. They depict imperfect, confusing relationships between men and women of all ages and in all combinations: boys and girls, boys and women, men and girls, men and women in their forties, fifties or sixties. For Edwards' male protagonists, women have always been and continue to be unfathomable and problematical.

The first two tales feature adolescent protagonists. In "La sombra de Huelquinur," a poignant coming-of-age story, Edwards exposes the hypocrisy and corruption of the Chilean haute bourgeoisie. In "El pie de Irene", an adolescent's relations with the household maid leads to the girl's dismissal and to the boy's undying shame at having betrayed her. From the post-Pinochet perspective of the nineties, Edwards scrutinizes those elements in the Chile of his boyhood that made the establishment of an authoritarian regime so likely: a rigid, hierarchical social system; counterfeit morality; despotic heads of household (often epitomized by matrons or matriarchs, rather than patriarchs). The nucleus of both stories is the boy's awakening moral sensitivity, his realization that he is part of a privileged class that routinely exploits the less fortunate.

In "Creaciones imperfectas" Edwards delves into the relationship between Self and Other, a relationship that is complicated when the Other is a woman. The protagonist-narrator is a traveling Chilean who meets a fascinating woman named Cristina in Madrid and promises to call her when he returns to Spain. After a year of fantasizing about her--that is, reinventing her in his mind--he makes a date to meet her in a cafe, only to realize that he can't remember exactly what she looks like. Tormented by his uncertainty, he strikes up a conversation with a woman that may or may not be his friend...