It’s not just loneliness which induces people to get a kentuki: Enzo is pushed into getting one for his son, Lucca, for therapeutic reasons by his ex-wife and the boy’s psychologist. Schoolboy Marvin in Antigua escapes his nagging father, and the gap left by his mother’s death, by becoming the dweller of a dragon in a household appliance shop in a snowy Nordic country. Aline in Oaxaca, feeling lonely and neglected by her artist boyfriend, Sven, treats herself to a kentuki crow for company. So Emilia in Lima is gifted a dweller’s serial number by her son, forever at work in Hong Kong, to provide a focus and distraction. She also introduces us to the characters who become the keepers and dwellers of kentuki in a spare and succinct prose which gives away just enough for us to see why they’re open to the kentukis. If you’re finding it hard to get your head round what’s actually going on with these small toy animals-they could be moles, rabbits, crows.dragons and owls, or a simple and artless plush panda bear– never fear: in the course of the first few chapters the writer explains how they work in enough detail for us to get the hang of it. This is the premise of Samanta Schweblin’s most recent novel, Little Eyes, longlisted for the 2020 International Booker Prize. Neither keeper nor dweller can specify with whom they want to connect, but the possibilities opened up by this random relationship seem attractive and the kentukis begin to catch on.
The dweller can both see into the keeper’s household and move the kentuki around, by virtue of buying a card with a serial number, which when typed into a computer, establishes the connection with the kentuki. But here’s the thing: those little eyes contain a camera which links to a screen elsewhere in the world, controlled by a dweller. Requiring no more attention than to be regularly charged, the kentuki seem an easy and fun, if expensive, addition to the household. Available in a range of animal types, the kentuki is nothing more than a cross between a mobile stuffed animal and a cell phone, and offers a sort of cuddly companionship to the keeper. Those of us who’ve spent the last 5 months of lock down cuddled up on the sofa with a beloved pet will understand the pull of the kentuki.
0 kommentar(er)
