Talking to Ourselves, a sad little tale from Argentina, is told in three distinct voices: a mortally ill man, his adoring son and his adulterous but loving wife. The three narrators are all vulnerable, flawed, likable people who both hurt and love one another.
Mario's life is waning, but he's determined to go on a road trip with his son. His son, Lito, is convinced awesome things start happening when you turn 10, like this long-promised trip, making deliveries to remote villages. Deceived by his father's cheerful lies, the boy has no idea the man is dying. Young Lito is having the time of his life, drinking Fanta in a motel with hookers and using his magic powers (he believes) to make the weather change. Elena is not happy about her son going on this dangerous trip with her ailing husband. Though she loves Mario deeply, she no longer desires him. When she confronts his doctor to find out how sick her husband really is, the doctor asks her out to dinner and they begin a savagely passionate affair.
The main voice belongs to Elena, but the rapport between father and son is the heart of the novel--their exchanges are so full of loving humor that the joy of the episodes bleeds into the rest of this melancholy meditation on losing a loved one. It's excruciatingly sad stuff: honest, simple and non-manipulative. Neuman's novel has the double-edged emotional impact of all true loving--the joy of connection and the equal and inescapable anguish of saying goodbye. --Nick DiMartino, Nick's Picks, University Book Store, Seattle, Wash.