La vida breve

La Vida Breve (literally The Brief Life; published in English as A Brief Life) is a 1950 novel by Uruguayan novelist Juan Carlos Onetti. The novel takes place in Buenos Aires and in the mythical town of Santa Maria - a fictional town "between a river and a colony of Swiss workers", which first appears in this novel, but is also the main setting for many of Onetti's later novels. The plot follows Juan María Brausen, the "founder" of Santa Maria, and Diaz Grey, a countryside doctor and Brausen's fictional character. Plot Juan María Brausen, a 40-year-old copy writer from Buenos Aires, is experiencing a midlife crisis when his wife of 5 years, Gertrudis, overgoes mastectomy. Brausen's longtime friend, Julio Stein, tells him the agency's boss, MacLeod, is about to fire him. In an attempt to save himself from financial ruin, Brausen, advised by Stein, attempts to write a movie script he could sell. Brausen, alone in his apartment in Calle Chile 600 (and later with his recovering wife) starts imagining the 40-year-old doctor Diaz Grey, in his clinic in the fictional town of Santa Maria, as he is visited by the seductive Elena Sala de Lagos, seeking morphine prescriptions for her addiction. Meanwhile, a prostitute nicknamed La Queca moves into the neighboring apartment. Brausen start listening to her conversations from across the wall and begins to imagine her apartment and life, until he eventually breaks in to her apartment and leaves without being seen. Brausen's life begins to dissolve as he keeps imagining Grey and Elena Sala in Santa Maria; his marriage falls apart and his wife, Gertrudis, leaves him, he is fired from the agency and slowly wastes his compensations. As his sanity fades away, Brausen enters La Queca's apartment and starts posing as Arce, a man who is a friend of La Queca's ex-boyfriend and later, using a different lie, as a man who saw La Queca at a bar and followed her home. The two begin a violent affair, during which they get drunk on gin and "Arce" beats La Queca. At some point, Ernesto, one of La Queca's lovers, finds him in her apartment and beats him up. Throughout their romance, Brausen's true identity as her neighbor is not revealed to La Queca. At some point, he hires an office space, steals one of La Queca's family photos and asks his friends to call him there during the day. A fictional "Onetti", modeled after the real author, briefly appears as an office-mate.