I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: DAVILA 666-“Eso Que Me Haces” (2011).

The Davila 666 album Tan Bajo made NPR’s Best Albums of the Year list.  And they cite this song as an example. 

This is a fuzzy, kind of tinny guitar song (that reminds me a bit of Wavves).  It’s only two minutes long and the riff is simple and catchy.  The vocals are shouted and the chorus is gang shouted.   And there’s a big “Oh Oh!” to really grab you.

So basically it’s catchy but nothing original.  The novelty of the song is that the whole thing is sung in Spanish.  If you don’t speak Spanish the vocals sound distorted enough that you may not even realize they’re in Spanish.  This band is from Puerto Rico.  And this album has been a hit both in Puerto Rico and in garage rock circles in the States. 

I’m pretty intrigued, and I’m going to have to check out the rest of their album.  NPR says it’s kind of offensive–maybe I need to re-learn Spanish.

[READ: January 4, 2012] “Chechnya”

Karen Carlson also recommended this story.  She wrote: “I didn’t think I’d like this, but it grew on me, and by the end it had me in the palm of its… well, if a story had a hand, it would’ve had me there.” 

This was a dark story.  It was a little slow to get going but once it started flowing it was really gripping.  It was as if the story picked up adrenaline as it (and the danger) progressed.  While at first the story seemed pretty obviously about Sonja, it is really about Chechnya. 

As the story opens, we meet Sonja, a nurse in war-torn Chechnya.  We learn that she works in the only hospital in the area and that even they were bombed not too long ago.  All that is left is a maternity ward and a trauma ward, and they can’t spare any electricity because their generator can’t handle anything more.  Sonja is one of the few nurses on call.  She hasn’t been home in ages and she just sleeps at the hospital. 

When Sonja wakes up, she hears that a man is waiting to talk to her.  He asks if the hospital will take in an eight-year-old girl, since both of her parents were killed.  Sonja informs the man that they are not an orphanage.  But the man, whose name is Akhmed, says that he will work at the hospital (he was in training when his wife got sick) if they will help the girl.  he immediately gets to work. 

The story then follows the parallel lives of Sonja and Akhmed as they work at the hospital.  Akhmed’s wife is delusional and dying at home.  So he can be out for 16 hours at the hospital and she doesn’t realize how long he has been gone.   Sonja forgets immediately about the girl and just stets about healing the sick.  What else can she do?

The opening line of the story mentions Sonja’s sister, Natasha, and that she died.  Natasha actually winds up playing a pretty big part in the story as well.  Indeed, her death is why Sonja stays at the hospital (there is no one left for her at her house).  And while Sonja’s life is exhausting and more or less pointless (the amount of casuality they see is unimaginable), Natasha’s life was actually much worse.  For at least Sonja got to leave Chechnya for London, where she studied medicine.  Natasha, on the other hand, was only able to leave Chechnya through the help of a “friend.”  The friend found Natasha far more useful as a female body, and so he made arrangements for her to become simply a body to anyone who wanted her.  And through flashbacks, we watch as Natasha’s life is washed away in heroin and sex.  Until she finally makes it back home to her family home in Chechnya.

It also turns out that Akhmed is in trouble because he helped the young girl escape.  Her parents were not killed accidentally and there are men looking for the girl. 

There is really no hope, no redemption in this story.  Natasha begins working at the hospital and has a positive impact on people’s lives, but we already know her fate.  Even young Havaa, the eight year old girl, who pops up throughout the story doesn’t seem to have much hope left.  And her minor happiness seems overshadowed by reality.

The more I think about the story the more depressing it is.  However, while reading it, it didn’t seem quite so hopeless.  Marra skillfully avoids making his story nothing but bleakness.

Still, it’s not for the faint of heart.