The Enigmatic Eye by Moacyr Scliar is a collection of 26 short short stories, most stories just 3 or 4 pages long. The Brazilian author uses no fancy words or complex plots; rather, a reader will find straight-forward storytelling in everyday, informal language, so much so that it’s as if you are listening to your best friend tell you about a memorable happening as you share a cappuccino at your local coffee shop. But don’t be lured into thinking these stories lack depth; quite to the contrary, all 26 short-shorts could launch philosophical discussion, and herein lies their charm – wisdom of life and death presented in simple, accessible language.

Reading Moacyr Scliar is like listening to Mozart’s music, the sentences flow so easily, so smoothly; one is given the impression the author dashed off his stories in a few minutes, but I suspect this wasn’t always the case since such high quality literary writing takes time and effort. Here are two Scliar quotes on writing short stories: 1) “A short story is like this; it results from a sudden revelation, from an epiphany. It either succeeds or fails; and when it fails, it fails completely, irremediably.” 2)“Storytelling is an art that goes back a long way. We can imagine primitive men gathered around a fire in a cave. Outside, wild beasts prowl and a thousand dangers lie in wait, but it is not of dangers that they are thinking because someone is telling a story, and the story has the magic power of performing tricks with reality, of transporting listeners, or readers, to another world, at times wonderful, at time frightening, but always different.”

To provide a taste of what delight and charm a reader will discover in this collection, I offer the following on six stories:

Five Anarchists
A king imprisons five anarchists in a common prison cell, providing the five men five rolls and five mugs of water each day. After the first month, there’s a change: four rolls and four mugs of water. The anarchists deal with the reduction until they are forced to take extreme action. On the fortieth day the prisoners are given only three rolls and three mugs of water. More extreme action is courageously taken. And so it continues in this rhythm right up to the end of the story when there is an unexpected twist; one might say a cruel, regal twist.

The Prodigal Uncle
What does it mean to be part of a family? What is the nature of love? What is the nature of loyalty? How much value should we place on honesty? We find out how a wealthy entrepreneur uncle, by his actions, answers all these questions in his dealings with a young man claiming to be his nephew.

Burning Angels
What is an angel? The main character sees angels sitting in the small room he uses as a photographer’s studio. We read, “Angles begin to flutter around the candle. Diminutive, they are not more than two centimeters tall. It would be really difficult to fit them into the same category of the celestial creatures who, to the right and to the left of God, intone hosannas. It is well known, however, that when it comes to angels, there’s room for a great diversity in appearances, besides, their tiny white cotton robes and the lyres they carry affixed to their backs are unmistakable. Angles, yes. Miniature angels, but angels nevertheless.” Wait a minute! Is he really looking at angels or has he done something whacky with flying beetles?

Life and Death of a Terrorist
An futurist-absurdist tale where the first-person narrator and a man named Walter participate in trench warfare the way urban office workers go back and forth to a humdrum 9 to 5 office job. At one point, the narrator shares a slice of his experience: “The morning went by serenely, somebody from our side fired a shot, somebody from the other side fired back, and that was all. At noon we were served lunch.” Upon returning home the narrator and his wife do some serious cross-country cycling, on exercise bikes, that is. Goodness. What is the world coming to?

Genesis
A four-year old little girl asks her father how she was born. The father tells her in a matter-of-fact tone that after wishing, with her mother, for a little girl, he felt something strange on his back: a lump, something that looked like a mole. Then, over the weeks, the lump or mole continued growing until it was the size of a ball. He went to the doctor and had an X ray. The X ray, he tells her, revealed a tiny creature inside. When the ball became bigger it popped and out she came. ------ A reader can only imagine what effects such a tale had on this little girl!

The Enigmatic Eye
A most imaginative tale of a wealthy old man who becomes infatuated with a portrait of an aristocratic gentleman in the town's museum. And what makes this portrait so infatuating? Why, of course - the gaze of the right eye, which is truly enigmatic. The old man has his close friend steal the portrait from the museum so he can put it in his attic and sit in front of the painting, pondering the enigmatic gaze round the clock. The servants think the old man mad but he could care less - he has exactly what he wants - the portrait with its enigmatic eye right in his very own attic. Unfortunately, something unexpected happens. Due to the attic's heat and light, the painting begins to fade and then, over time, vanishes. The old man concludes there is only one thing for him to do - he buys some brushes and oils and begins re-painting the portrait, starting with the enigmatic eye.








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The Enigmatic Eye by Moacyr Scliar is a collection of 26 short short stories, most stories just 3 or 4 pages long. The Brazilian author uses no fancy words or complex plots; rather, a reader will find straight-forward storytelling in everyday, informal language, so much so that it’s as if you are listening to your best friend tell you about a memorable happening as you share a cappuccino at your local coffee shop. But don’t be lured into thinking these stories lack depth; quite to the contrary, all 26 short-shorts could launch philosophical discussion, and herein lies their charm – wisdom of life and death presented in simple, accessible language.

Reading Moacyr Scliar is like listening to Mozart’s music, the sentences flow so easily, so smoothly; one is given the impression the author dashed off his stories in a few minutes, but I suspect this wasn’t always the case since such high quality literary writing takes time and effort. Here are two Scliar quotes on writing short stories: 1) “A short story is like this; it results from a sudden revelation, from an epiphany. It either succeeds or fails; and when it fails, it fails completely, irremediably.” 2)“Storytelling is an art that goes back a long way. We can imagine primitive men gathered around a fire in a cave. Outside, wild beasts prowl and a thousand dangers lie in wait, but it is not of dangers that they are thinking because someone is telling a story, and the story has the magic power of performing tricks with reality, of transporting listeners, or readers, to another world, at times wonderful, at time frightening, but always different.”

To provide a taste of what delight and charm a reader will discover in this collection, I offer the following on six stories:

Five Anarchists
A king imprisons five anarchists in a common prison cell, providing the five men five rolls and five mugs of water each day. After the first month, there’s a change: four rolls and four mugs of water. The anarchists deal with the reduction until they are forced to take extreme action. On the fortieth day the prisoners are given only three rolls and three mugs of water. More extreme action is courageously taken. And so it continues in this rhythm right up to the end of the story when there is an unexpected twist; one might say a cruel, regal twist.

The Prodigal Uncle
What does it mean to be part of a family? What is the nature of love? What is the nature of loyalty? How much value should we place on honesty? We find out how a wealthy entrepreneur uncle, by his actions, answers all these questions in his dealings with a young man claiming to be his nephew.

Burning Angels
What is an angel? The main character sees angels sitting in the small room he uses as a photographer’s studio. We read, “Angles begin to flutter around the candle. Diminutive, they are not more than two centimeters tall. It would be really difficult to fit them into the same category of the celestial creatures who, to the right and to the left of God, intone hosannas. It is well known, however, that when it comes to angels, there’s room for a great diversity in appearances, besides, their tiny white cotton robes and the lyres they carry affixed to their backs are unmistakable. Angles, yes. Miniature angels, but angels nevertheless.” Wait a minute! Is he really looking at angels or has he done something whacky with flying beetles?

Life and Death of a Terrorist
An futurist-absurdist tale where the first-person narrator and a man named Walter participate in trench warfare the way urban office workers go back and forth to a humdrum 9 to 5 office job. At one point, the narrator shares a slice of his experience: “The morning went by serenely, somebody from our side fired a shot, somebody from the other side fired back, and that was all. At noon we were served lunch.” Upon returning home the narrator and his wife do some serious cross-country cycling, on exercise bikes, that is. Goodness. What is the world coming to?

Genesis
A four-year old little girl asks her father how she was born. The father tells her in a matter-of-fact tone that after wishing, with her mother, for a little girl, he felt something strange on his back: a lump, something that looked like a mole. Then, over the weeks, the lump or mole continued growing until it was the size of a ball. He went to the doctor and had an X ray. The X ray, he tells her, revealed a tiny creature inside. When the ball became bigger it popped and out she came. ------ A reader can only imagine what effects such a tale had on this little girl!

The Enigmatic Eye
A most imaginative tale of a wealthy old man who becomes infatuated with a portrait of an aristocratic gentleman in the town's museum. And what makes this portrait so infatuating? Why, of course - the gaze of the right eye, which is truly enigmatic. The old man has his close friend steal the portrait from the museum so he can put it in his attic and sit in front of the painting, pondering the enigmatic gaze round the clock. The servants think the old man mad but he could care less - he has exactly what he wants - the portrait with its enigmatic eye right in his very own attic. Unfortunately, something unexpected happens. Due to the attic's heat and light, the painting begins to fade and then, over time, vanishes. The old man concludes there is only one thing for him to do - he buys some brushes and oils and begins re-painting the portrait, starting with the enigmatic eye.








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