The Touch System

Touch System / Alejandra Costamagna
trans. from the Spanish by Lisa Dillman
Berkeley, CA: Transit, 2021, c2018.
200 p.

I've been meaning to read this for a while. It's actually a little odd how many books I'm reading lately have typewriters in them. This one uses typing and a typing course as part of the storyline, though; our main character Ania is asked to go from Chile across the Andes to Argentina, to visit her dying uncle Agustin. 

In the home he lived in, one half was his and one half was his parents', and has been left unused for many years since their deaths. Ania is thrown back into memories of spending long summers with her grandparents, with cousins, in Argentina, through her stay in the house. She also sifts through piles of ephemera -- from family photos to letters, old etiquette guides, and yes, dictations from typing classes which Agustin took. 

It's a bit circular, with memory overlapping with current day realities, and with many realizations about her family arising through Ania's isolation. It's about her own alienation from her Argentinian family, and from her own father, as well as his own from his family when he left Argentina for Chile -- so close and yet a world away, for him. 

There is of course the presence of dark political history in this story, as both countries suffered from repressive governments during the timeline of the novel. But there's also the stories of families breaking apart, of stagnation in those who didn't make a move, and issues for those who did. 

I thought it was well done, with a writing style that captures the content well. I admired it but I did find it a little harder to get into this story than others I've been reading recently. Ania wasn't a strong lead, for me, I didn't feel much for her or her quest for understanding and acceptance. There were definitely parts that were more engaging than others, and I did skim a little from time to time. But it is a rather claustrophic family story that has strengths, the writing style and setting among them. I guess it's that I didn't fall in love with it, but still found a lot to appreciate.