Chilean Childhoods
Review of the Daunt Books paperback (June 2022) translated by [author:Natasha Wimmer|723942] from the Spanish language original [book:Space Invaders|18770438] (2013)

This book invites us to work on memory. Not an easy job for children who grew up facing the incessant attack of invaders from space. Nobody wants to remember nightmares. But, inevitably, as it is said towards the end of this text, we are submerged there. We don't know how to wake up. This book helps us do just that job. Remember to get out of that dream with no apparent way out. One life, another and another, in a cyclical massacre with no possibility of an end. Escape from that bad dream to which we are subjected.
Our own story.
Learn to wake up. - A translated excerpt from the Epilogue by Jaime Pinos to the Spanish language edition (not included in the English translation editions).

This recent UK edition of Nona Fernández's Space Invaders (orig. 2013) does not improve on the original 2019 US edition of the same translation as published by Graywolf Press. Again, no Introduction of Afterword is provided for context, which to me seems a real requirement for an historical fiction based on events ranging from 50 to 30 years ago. So it is another case of researching and then writing your own Afterword or Interpretation (in your mind perhaps). Even the original Spanish language edition contained an Epilogue, although it was more of an appreciation and an encouragement to exorcism than a background history.

So unless you already have a thorough knowledge of recent Chilean history, you will likely have to look up the Military Dictatorship of Chile (1973-1990) and Human Rights Violations in Pinochet's Chile in general, and the Caso Degollados (Spanish: Slit-Throat Case) in particular.

Fernández's titular use of the early video game Space Invaders is a recurring metaphor for the incessant persecution of people under the Pincochet's regime from what seems like countless waves of attackers. The author presents this from the point of view of children growing up under the dictatorship, which she did herself, having been born in 1971. There is the impression that some of the characters may be based on her own childhood friends e.g. one named Maldonado is thanked in the acknowledgements. Most of that background remains a mystery however.

I found myself confused at times by various aspects, mixing up the father with the uncle etc. The main character whose fate haunts the dreams of her childhood friends is described in the synopsis with the name of Estrella González Jepsen, but midway in a reproduced letter says her middle name is Marisella. You then deduce that her name must have been Estrella Marisella González with a later married name of Jepsen. So it is the synopsis leading you astray... Anyway, various aspects just didn't satisfy me about the presentation of this translation. Not the original author's fault though.

I read Space Invaders as the August 2022 selection from the Republic of Consciousness Book of the Month (BotM) club. Subscriptions to the BotM support the annual Republic of Consciousness Prize for small independent publishers.

Trivia
I accessed the original Spanish language edition through Scribd. If you want to check my translation the original excerpt quoted above reads as:

Este libro nos invita al trabajo de la memoria. Un trabajo nada fácil para los niños que crecieron enfrentando el ataque incesante de los invasores del espacio. Nadie quiere recordar las pesadillas. Pero, inevitablemente, como se dice hacia el final de este texto, Ahí estamos sumergidos. No sabemos despertar. Este libro nos ayuda justamente a hacer ese trabajo. Recordar para salir de ese sueño sin salida aparente. Una vida, otra y otra más, en una matanza cíclica sin posibilidad de fin. Escapar de ese mal sueño al que estamos sometidos.
Nuestra propia historia.
Aprender a despertar.

( )

Brilliant, dreamlike... and way too short. ( )

This short novel is quite interesting, though I am not sure I completely understand it. Set mostly in 1980s Chile, it focuses on a few middle school pupils who deal with the trauma of growing up under Pinochet, surrounded by murder, terror, protests, and being friends with one girl whose father is in the National Guard. ( )

This is a short novella about the collective dreams of adults remembering their childhood in Chili during Pinochet's regime. The memories center on one of their classmates named Estella who one day had to leave school and never came back.

Some memories are ordinary, some are sad, angry, and confused. Some memories are violent and terrifying. All seem to revolve around Estrella. She was a mysterious jewel in a strange world and the memories of Chili revolve around the memories of her. ( )

A novella, short by definition, but despite this I found this book to be very powerful. I'm always amazed when an author can say so much with so few words. This is not a straightforward story, and it's told in a dreamlike fashion. In fact, dreaming itself is a big part of this novella.

A group of school children, children whose school uniforms must always be worn perfectly. Who walk in lines, their hand on the shoulder of the student in front, so as to keep perfect distances from each other. Perfection and order is demanded. This is Chile under Pinochet, and these children are trying to find a way to understand what they see, but can't comprehend. They play space invaders where they capture and watch the invaders in this make believe world. Then a school girl disappears, doesn't return to school. They each remember different things, dream of her and wonder what has happened. As they grow older they understand much more and wish they didn't, because unlike the space invaders world, in the real one they are powerless.

The author does a great job with pacing in this story. The tension rises incrementally as one reads and the dreams and fears continue.

"We are the most important piece in a game, but we still don't know what game it is."

"No one is exactly sure when it happened, but we all remember that coffins and funerals and wreaths where suddenly everywhere and there was no escaping them, because it had all become something like a bad dream. Maybe it had always been that way and we were only realizing it." ( )