"The Dark" by Sergio Chejfec *****

• Open Letter publication
• Argentinian author
• Originally published in 2000, translation published in 2013 
• Quotes:
• p.8...."Accustomed to the world of the factory, where truth is measured, counted, and classified, she was confused by the thought of becoming the object of something at once definite and intangible, as emotions tend to be."
• p.11...."A unanimous lie turned into truth."
• p.17...."In the same way, just like at work, Delia surrendered a part of herself when she withdrew; someone observing her might think that at any moment she might cease to be herself, that she might succumb to a force that would isolate and take over her body.  But something kept her from crossing that threshold, and this was how Delia was able to maintain the delicate balance between absence and communion."...Are we all like this sometimes?
• p.48..."Reduced to acting on a few instincts, an animal of any species has a more tangible effect on time than man does."
• p.48..."A person closes a book and is surprised by the abyss of the day to day, with the varying scales and speeds of time, fast or slow, which leave a fine, invisible layer on the surface of things."..........wow
• p.51....."Each breath, every mouthful of air drawn deep, brought with it the scent of the dusk from his childhood."
• p.57...."She transported herself with her mind, just as she seemed to be somewhere else now, as she walked beside me.  And it was this gift, this ability to withdraw without absenting herself, to abandon me without leaving my side, that was most aligned with her nature."...loneliness
• p.59...."For obvious reasons, the night is more profound and more cosmic than the day, but it's also the moment when the scent of the earth, from elemental waste to the scents brought out by the dew, prepares to reveal itself.  And it's this combination of opposites--the breadth and impassivity of the celestial sphere, the galaxy following its distant course at full speed through the middle of the universe, and the singular labor of the earth, opening seeds and decomposing bodies, as persistent as an obsession--that is sometimes called the murmur, or the pulse, of the night."
• p.63..."At night we're the center of things, just as happens when we look into the past."
• p.67..."Because depth is found not in darkness, but in contrast."....he writes with his eyes closed.....
• p.77...."After the most extravagant and dramatic incidents, what remains with us of other people is always a face etched in the dark.  Not in real darkness, but in the dark of evocation.   Memories, strangely enough, have no light of their own."
• Notes:
• p.8 - workers having direct contact with the product of their labor, as opposed to the merchant who measures the abstract notion of change...interesting
• p.58..."proletarian disposition"...tendency to go elsewhere in the mind, habit developed in factories but carried forward into relationship
• p.72....the paradox of workers who had been in debt becoming the ferocious moneylenders....makes sense for the vulnerable to want to become the strong
• p.76...workers encouraged to "become one" with their machines....the agent of their production
• p. 80....workers will keep everything on the line functioning even in crisis....seemingly holding onto the routine for security
• p.140....It has often seemed to me that much of a person's life is filled with thoughts that have no future."......like my journal?
• Review:  Don't even consider reading this book unless you are prepared for a serious intellectual workout!  Personally, I think I pulled a few muscles during this one!  Enter the interior monologue of a man trying to understand the nature of relationship.  What relationship, you might ask?  Well, between man and woman, between social classes, and between man and machine.  The narrator dissects his relationship with the mysterious factory worker, Delia.  Throughout the dissection are allusions to the dark, the darkness, the night.  "...Definite and intangible..." are words he uses to describe relationship, and that is at the beginning of the book.  I think those are the two best words to describe the experience of reading this astute and intense novel.