Another excellent Latin American writer: Cesar Aira

Following up on a recent New Yorker story by a writer whom I'd never heard of, and by a subsequent recommendation from a reader of this blog (thanks!), I grabbed a copy of Cesar Aira's novella "How I Became a Nun." Should have probably finished it in one sitting, but didn't, so I'm not sure yet how to judge this novella or even understand it - but the first 30 pages or so are very compelling. Starts off as the narrator describes a childhood memory from age 6 when she (or he?) first encountered ice cream. She or he? The title of this novella would lead you to suppose the narrator is a woman, but in the first section, which is generally described in the most realistic, natural fashion - an account of the trip to the ice-cream shop, where child tastes strawberry ice cream, finds it repulsive, father brutally insists that child eat the ice cream, at last father tastes it, realizes it is awful, fights with the ice-cream vendor - the pronouns shift, sometimes narrator is he or son, sometimes she. At first I thought this was a translation of production issue (there are other typos in this edition), but no - its obviously Aira's way of making reality both concrete and shifty, elusive. Story builds as the ice cream, poisoned apparently, leads child to enter hospital for an extended, lonely stay, replete with observations of strange, surreal events, such as the dwarf who visits daily and offers prayers. So - here's another original, powerful Latin American writer, obviously working in the long shadow of Borges, but with an original voice.