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ian name (there's even a joke about an Argentine who comes to Italy and is amazed that Italians all have Argentine last names). However, there is very little distance between "parodi" and "parody." Is this a coincidence? 3
Having said this, however, it seems that there are very few reasons for rereading these stories today. It is difficult to grasp the colloquial references and to appreciate detective stories that only mimic the true detection stories . . . and so? Isn't it better to read firsthand the great detection stories (or fake detection), the ficciones such as "Death and the Compass"?
In fact, the first impression of the reader who approaches the Don Isidro stories is that, apart from the incomprehensible slang and cultural allusions, the chatter of the various characters is totally mindless. The temptation is rapidly to skim their unending monologues, treating them as if they were a musical commentary, in order to get to the end right away and to find pleasure in Don Isidro's (untenable) solution. The reader suspects, therefore, that these stories are the pleasing solution to false riddles, just as in the well-known joke:
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Problem: The ship is thirty meters long, the main mast is ten meters high, and there are four sailors. How old is the captain?
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Solution: Forty. (Explanation of the solution: I know because he told me.)
But no. The six stories all follow a fundamental rule of detective fiction: all the clues that the detective uses to solve the case are made available to the reader. The chatter of the characters is full of important information.
The difference with the classic detection stories is that, when we reread them from the beginning, after having learned the solution, we say to ourselves: "That's right. How come I hadn't noticed that detail?" But when we reread Don Isidro's stories, we are left wondering: "Why should I have taken note of that detail instead of others? Why did Don Isidro concentrate on that event or piece of information and consider the others irrelevant?"
Carefully reread, for example, the fourth story, "Free will and the Comendador." One evening after dinner, the Comendador claims to have a terracotta pumita in the third drawer of his desk. The young girl, Pumita, is amazed. There shouldn't be any reason to highlight this fact as a clue. It is natural that a girl named Pumita might display curiosity at the mention of a pumita. Later on, Don Isidro learns from another informer (and the reader also acquires this information) that the Comendador had a terracotta serpent in the drawer. What authorizes us

 
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