An Incomplete Catalog of Disappearance

Missing: The Statue of Liberty. A lost Raphael self-portrait last seen with a military unit named Hellfish. A manuscript by the artist Sophie Calle. Your local scorpion population. An astronaut-parent. A housekeeper. A leg. Unfiled files. D.B. Cooper. That volcano erupting behind you. The present tense…

These are just a handful of the many disappearances Diana Oropeza explores in her startling debut book, An Incomplete Catalog of Disappearance, a hybrid work of flash fiction and creative nonfiction that haunts at every turn. Many voices, named and unnamed, document the unresolved nature of disappearance and unending grief that follows in its wake. As you read, the book itself disappears in your hands.

“A monarch of the short form, Diana Oropeza has achieved the seemingly impossible: she has pulled a Jorge Luis Borges rabbit from a lexical hat. Rooted and anchored in research and fictive veracity, she intentionally confiscates academic surrealism with wit and pith. With each piece, Oropeza, much like Dorothy Dietrich catching a narrative bullet with her mouth, bends time and collapses stars, surprising the reader with every twist and turn of phrase, and bestowing phantom limbs to their chiropteran and lagomorph thoughts. These mesmerizing stories in An Incomplete Catalog of Disappearance hold people, (meta)things, and nonexistent beings hostage with their concise economy, whimsical non-linearity, and highly imaginative, nomadic narratives. Her work is the most electrifying text I have read in such a long time.” – Vi Khi Nao, author of The Italy Letters

“Diana Oropeza’s An Incomplete Catalog of Disappearance is a marvel. Suspend your logic, allow yourself to be pulled into the labyrinth, trust “a certain unfocusing of the eyes,” and you’ll be fascinated by what, gently and quietly, appears through the blur. I already can’t wait for Diana’s future books.” – poupeh missaghi, author of Sound Museum