Menippean satire is hard to define and traces back to the ancient satirist Menippus of Gadara, whose works are no longer extant. Some describe Menippean satire as an unconventional form, standing apart from typical genres. It sets itself apart with its intellectual depth, using erudition to mock the superficiality of knowledge. This type of satire is self-mocking, versatile, and notoriously challenging to produce. An excellent illustration from a Latin American perspective would be Carlos Fuentes’s Christopher Unborn (Cristóbal Nonato), and a more contemporary example is The Story of My Teeth by Mexican author Valeria Luiselli.
In contrast to Luiselli’s diverse background, the protagonist of The Story of My Teeth, Gustavo Sánchez Sánchez, nicknamed “Highway,” resides in Mexico City. He proclaims himself to be the finest auctioneer globally, able to auction any item – from cars to jewelry. In a peculiar turn of events, Highway auctions himself, aiming to accumulate wealth to fix his teeth, which he perceives as ‘windows to the soul.’ At an auction in Little Havana, he acquires a set of teeth that once belonged to Marilyn Monroe, which he plans to have implanted, deeming them as precious as Bernini’s St. Peter’s Colonnade.
Luiselli’s novel is a blend of intellectual and pop culture references, a typical feature of Menippean satire. For instance, Highway frequently cites lyrics from 1970s Mexican pop singer Napoleon, and one of his mentors in auctioneering is Leroy Van Dyke. His relatives carry literary names like Marcelo Sánchez-Proust, Fredo Sánchez Dostoyevsky, and Juan Pablo Sánchez Sartre, who humorously declares everyone around him to be in hell.
The novel revolves around a single auction, forming part of Luiselli’s exploration of art’s value and the commercialization of stories. These introspective discussions are pivotal in Menippean satires, as highlighted by Bakhtin’s concept of “dialogic search for truth.” Highway decides to auction off his original teeth, which he exchanges with Marilyn Monroe’s, but invents stories attributing them to ten revered figures like Petrarch, Borges, and Woolf. To Highway, these fabrications represent an elegant extension of truth, emphasizing the significance of tales in defining the worth of objects.
In an interesting twist, The Story of My Teeth itself becomes a tale to contemplate, inviting readers to ponder its self-reflective stance. Initially conceived as a catalog for an art exhibition near a juice factory in Mexico City, the book’s chapters were sent weekly to workers at the factory in serialized form. The workers, in collaboration with Luiselli, engaged in after-hours reading sessions discussing the text, shaping its evolution. Luiselli acknowledges the factory workers and her translator, Christina MacSweeney, underscoring the communal effort behind the novel’s creation.
Luiselli regards the English versions of her books, including The Story of My Teeth, as adaptations rather than literal translations. The final chapter of the English edition, titled “The Chronologic,” crafted solely by MacSweeney, serves as a timeline and glossary for the multitude of stories surrounding Highway’s narrative. This departure challenges the traditional view that a translator’s work should be transparent, emphasizing the translator’s presence in shaping the narrative. Despite the additional layers of storytelling, the central literary merit of The Story of My Teeth remains undiminished.
