Beauty Salon By Mario Bellatin

The Narrator's voice was very David Sedaris, but not as masterfully crafted. The 63 page story is simply about the narrator opening up his salon to the diseased of the town awaiting death, as a place to die. It frustrated me not knowing what the disease was, at first I thought it was AIDS, but then he states that one of the younger men died of tuberculosis. Then the narrator gets the disease (seemingly from wearing their clothes and not just from being around them) and has sores on his face, which didn't sound like tuberculosis, though I am not a tuberculosis expert. The tone is one of bitter detachment and seems to get joy from causing pain. He keeps the people at the salon almost as prisoners and won't take anyone who still has some life left in them. Interestingly enough the story of him caring for the sick is coupled with him caring for his fish. When he gets bored with the fish he stops feeding them and lets them die or eat one another. Disturbing read.