The Linden Tree

This latest addition to the growing number of English translations of works by the prolific Aira (The Little Buddhist Monk & The Proof) is a perhaps fictionalized reminiscence about growing up in the small Argentine town of Coronel Pringles during the Perón era. The basic elements of an autobiography are present: an only child raised in an enormous house by a black electrician father and a white mother with disabilities relates anecdotes about his childhood chums, his first job, and school outings. Though Aira is not quite as rambling here as in his other works, in deference to the memoir format, he maintains a stylistic quirkiness that leads him to jump from one topic to another, seemingly at random, in what comes across as a confessional tone. Touches of absurdity grace the pages, such as the family's living in only one room in a 25-room mansion. References to the Perón regime provide historic context. Above all, Aira refers to the role of an often selective memory in his life that brings him closer to the present.