Review 20: The Story of My Teeth by Valeria Luiselli

The Story of my Teeth by Mexican author Valeria Luiselli, is a post-modern funhouse in the style of a slightly less surreal The Third Policeman. Which means it might not be up everyone’s street, but it’s more up mine than my own front door is.

It follows the life of “Highway” Sanchez, a highly talented auctioneer who’s a yarn-spinner extraordinaire. He is also a collector of just about anything: fingernail clippings, paperclips, courses, stories.

It’s this last that the book is principally concerned with, although it does touch kaleidoscopically upon a whole rumination of philosophical questions (which is – or should be – the correct collective noun to use) along the way.

As we follow Highway’s progress, we understand not only his talent for storytelling, but also the importance of stories in general. After all, the items that he auctions only have worth as a result of their personal histories. The more impressive a story an item has, the more money it fetches. It’s his life’s ambition to sell just the stories and not have to bother with the items at all.

This is obviously taking its cues from surrealist fiction but it does a fantastic job of exploring this in an unpretentious way, unlike (it feels like) the majority of post-modern surrealist fiction. There are, of course, multiple layers, and I’m certain I missed the relevance of certain points, being the brain-dumb stump that I am. But that didn’t prevent me from enjoying it one bit – it just added richness, and made it a book I’ll probably revisit again in the future.

These might be heady ideas, and he might regularly drop in references to philosophers, ancient historians and niche musicians, but the character of Highway is mostly a pretty straightforward chap. He isn’t likeable – he’s a womaniser and a fraud – but his general optimism feels infectious.

Overall, if you can take a bit of absurdity in your books, this is a short, fun and thought-provoking one to pop in your pocket.

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