© Israel Centeno. ©Carolina Arnal y ©Gisela Romero
We have a very particular book in front of us. I say in front of the eyes and not in our hands because this is a virtual book, that is, it can only be read on a screen. It is also particular because it is the product of the creative fusion of three artists: ACeRo (Carolina Arnal –graphic designer–, Israel Centeno –writer– and Gisela Romero –visual artist–). This group was established about fifteen years ago in Caracas with the idea of creating everything that art allows for the public to approach the artistic vision from any possible perspective.
Therefore, there were exhibitions, installations with the participation of the community, and now we have this book, with stories by Israel Centeno, illustrations by Gisela Romero and graphic design by Carolina Arnal.
As for its literary content, it is also generously varied. It is composed of six unpublished stories, from different moments of the work of the writer Israel Centeno and different topics that are pertinent to the reality that we are living at the moment. The book opens with a speculation about a painting from 1895 by French artist Edgard Degas. The author introduces the scene of the painting and imagines possible events that could have happened to a dancer who is seen coming out of the bathtub. This story was read at a gathering at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh a couple of years ago. It is followed by an excerpt from the novel «The Tower overturned».
The third story is «Lady Slippers,» a novel that narrates events starring Sherlock Holmes, the legendary character of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In this case, Sherlock Holmes returns alive, after Conan Doyle declared him missing after a confrontation with his archenemy, Professor Moriarty. Holmes, in this story by Centeno, participates and solves a police intrigue in New York and Pittsburgh, at the time of the steel strike, related to a granddaughter of the Venezuelan general José Antonio Páez.
It is also followed by «The Children’s Crusade,» a story about real events in recent Venezuelan history, in which a group of teenagers immolate themselves for ideals of freedom and justice. This literary work rescues the figure of detective Rubén Tenorio, a character we knew from other novels («Bajo
las hojas») by this author.
«Wetbacks» is a brief divertimento about the history of humanity marked by the migratory movements, from Adam to our days, with the impulsive and ancestral load that living leaving home means. The story that closes this volume is called «Fingers.» It is a police story starring Rubén Tenorio, and it takes place, of course, in Caracas, in recent times of social upheaval and confusion and unsolved murders. It is a police story and it is a riddle, a deductive exercise.
To conclude, we will say that this book is the achievement of the union of efforts of three artists, it has a soul and a face. Reading it has been a pleasure, because of its content, its form and the illustrations that accompany it.
Miss Antoinette Gunnez
