SOURCE: "A Realistic Fantasy of Vivid Ideas, Shrouded in Gray Words," in The Boston Globe, January 5, 1993, p. 65.

[In the following brief review, Gonzalez discusses Taratuta and Still Life with Pipe.]

This new book by Chilean writer José Donoso comprises two short works: Taratuta, which spins from the name of an obscure figure in the Russian Revolution, and Still Life With Pipe, the story of a bank clerk's fascination with the work of a minor painter. From these modest starting points, Donoso attempts nothing less than a meditation on the power of the word and the role of fantasy in everyday reality, the renewing energy of art.

The results are mixed. Donoso is a master craftsman, but his tone here is so muted, his arguments built on such small details, that when he succeeds he can only succeed modestly.

When his revelations emerge they feel undefined, almost like the...