Crossings: Varied Imagination and Living Between Languages

Literary critic Molloy (Dislocations) offers an ornate investigation of memory, history, and language. Born in 1938, Molloy grew up in Argentina speaking English, French, and Spanish—an experience that serves as the guiding framework for the writings collected here. Editor Taylor notes in her introduction that these essays are not direct translations of their Spanish counterparts but rather “crossings and re-articulations of texts” that were formed in email exchanges between Taylor and Molloy before Molloy’s death in 2022—an approach echoed in the work that follows, which is full of layered and recursive iterations. For example, the book opens with a reflection on how the story of the destruction of Molloy’s parents’ home in Buenos Aires was relayed to her piecemeal as a child; later, she ties this familial miscommunication to the tension of realizing as an adult that she was not accurately told as a child about the destruction wrought by WWII. Molloy’s ruminations on language range from aphoristic (“One always writes from an absence, the choice of a language automatically signifying the postponement of another”) to more psychological, like a description of a friend with Alzheimer’s who is still conversant in two languages but can’t follow switches between them. Throughout, Molloy points to “the inherent strangeness of all communication.” This impressive study makes anodyne details of daily life feel grand and historical. (May)