Shorts

Ten years ago Fuguet burst onto the Latin American scene with a coming-of-age novel called Mal Onda, published in the U.S. as Bad Vibes (1997). He and like-minded confreres formed a literary movement called McOndo, another cheeky rip on Macondo, the imaginary kingdom of Garcia Marquez, and declared themselves resolutely anti-magical realism. (In an interview Fuguet snarls, ""My grandmother doesn't fly. Does yours?"") The initial shock of McOndo has passed, and Fuguet matured gracefully over his next few novels, including Movies of My Life, published here last year. In this series of shorts, his characters are still largely ""rich little kids from poor countries,"" roaming the U.S.A. on trust funds while seeking the grail of North American movie culture. The book is uneven, but the best of their tales are terrific. Listing the premises-e.g., in ""Truth or Consequences,"" a young Chilean embezzles funds from a family firm and flees to the American Southwest on a booze-filled journey of self-discovery after his stylish wife, Natalia, leaves him-can't convey Fuguet's mix of Chilean and Hollywood cultures, which gives these pieces a wonderful double vision-like quality. Like his hero Manuel Puig, Fuguet uses pop culture to draw out the deepest yearnings of his bumbling leading men.