E. L. Albán
Read the Review!
The book is a compilation of short stories about words. Some of the stories are biographical, some are fictional, and some are pure fantasy. The book makes the case that words are more mysterious and impressionistic than their precise definitions would have us believe. They embody experiences from our own lives in their makeup and they, like people, often leave an imprint of the time they came into our memory. Our relationship with them can become uniquely personal and worthy of a story. Some words come and go with the fickle acclaim of pop culture, enjoying their fifteen minutes of fame before being banished to oblivion. Others change through time, reinventing themselves, acquiring different connotations in order to survive and keep their live footing in the dictionary. Because words are inextricably tied to personal experiences, they get equal billing with the persons who misused them and confused them, with the young man whose lips could not utter words of love, with a mother’s hopes for her handicapped infant son to say the word ‘mama’, with a family’s quandary in choosing the words for a tombstone, and with the frustration of travelers needing to know the meaning of a word in a foreign tongue.
The author, born Luis Eduardo Albán, in Ecuador, S.A., came to the U.S. as a child in 1952. Savannah, Georgia, has been his adopted city since then. He received his A.B. degree and PhD in Economics from the University of Georgia. His professional life has been devoted entirely to Academe. He has traveled in Europe and in the Spanish speaking world, and tells of his experiences with language and the bridging of cultures in this collection of stories. After retiring from teaching Economics and Statistics, he has pursued his second love: languages and literature. Besides articles in professional journals, he has published poetry in regional literary periodicals. Married for 42 years, he and his wife divide their time between their homes in Georgia and Kansas. They have two children.
Words appear in dictionaries in neat alphabetical order from A to Z, giving the impression that they are disciplined little soldiers all in formation ready to obey commands. But in the blurry lobes of the mind, words are anything but orderly or subservient. They are more like misbehaving imps scattered wildly in the night. They take cover in the darkness; they play games; they hide; they don’t want to work; they refuse to help; and they don’t come when they are called. At other times they flirt with writers, especially when they want a role. Then they volunteer for duty and pester you to be used in a poem, or a story, aiming to be stars in the constellations of ideas.
Some words emerge not from the mind but from the heart, where they prefer to dwell. When these come out, they light up the mind’s firmament like the Milky Way, evoking memories, reanimating people, times, places, and events, and inspiring nostalgic reminiscences. It is as if words encapsulated the experiences we have lived, retaining in them the substance of their memories. They embody more than just lexicographic definition or description. A component of personal significance is woven into their fabric.
