A consulting colleague of 20+ years ago, mentioned that he always tried to read authors from places you visit to get a sense of the culture that you will encounter. I’ve found that to be good advice, especially when I have time on the journey to think about where I’m going
So, in the summer of 2024, I found myself on an ocean passage to Portugal from North America. It’s customary for mariners to stop in the Azores - remote volcanic islands some 2,500 miles from new York and almost 900 miles from the coast of Portugal
Looking for literary works about the Azores I found Daniel Kastin
Born in California, but with an Azorian mother, he spent a lot of time in the islands as he was growing up and clearly is proud of his mid-Atlantic island heritage
Of the 18 short stories in this award winning 2012 collection, all but 2 are set in the 9 islands that make up the archipelago
Ronald Dahl’s Tales of the Unexpected, which I enjoyed reading back in the 1980’s is a similar collection of stories that have an unexpected twist in their tale. But there is a Kafkaesque element to Kastin’s efforts - think Metamorphosis, when Gregos Sansa wakes up to discover he’s become a giant insect. The ‘out there’ premise upon which some of these stories are based is marvelous
It’s a good read, but 1 tale in particular jumped out at me
Dona Leonor’s Dress is a whimsical tale about a young man’s obsession with a local girl’s dress. It’s not so much about what’s in the dress, more the dress itself that attracts our nameless protagonist
The opening sentence offers a hint of what’s to come:
“Dona Leonor’s irrepressible dress swept down the Avenida Diogo de Teive”
The dress conveys a language to him and his heart, “fanned by this language of articulate gestures, grew delirious”, and urged him “to gallop in mad pursuit.”
He follows the dress, less interested in Dona, although he has admired this young lady from afar for many years.
Dona goes about her business in town, and, as she emerges from a doorway, our infatuated friend “…stood frozen, unable to breathe or think or move, but the dress, with an exaggerated gesture, boldly brushed against my leg as it swept past me.”
With Dona unaware, the pursuit continues to her home where the chaser keeps vigil all night long, in sight of the dress which is hung up in her bedroom. Through the night, imagination takes over, as he dreams of being shipwrecked with the dress, “afloat on some planks of timber, wherein the dress, in order to save me, formed itself into a taut sail.”
Morning comes and he continues his pursuit, becoming even more enamored with the dress, and that evening he makes his move. Peering over the fence of her home, he spies the newly washed dress hanging on the clothesline, “waving wildly, trying desperately to get my attention.”
He quickly goes into the yard and takes the dress from the line, and, unnoticed, he quickly folds it and makes his way home. Buying a dressmaker’s dummy, he displays the dress in his bedroom and declares the it is “obviously proud and happy” to be with him.
They live happily ever after, “just the two of us, Dona Leonor’s dress and me dancing on air.”
Quite simply this is an absurd tale about an obsessive, thieving, peeping Tom.
However Kastin delightfully relates the story with such skill that it is easy to overcome one’s natural reaction to what many might describe as the perverted behavior of our protagonist
I smiled at the happily ever after…