My Life With the Wave

The first-person narrator is a man who falls in love with a wave while visiting the sea. He lives in an apartment in Mexico City but otherwise does not describe himself or his life. He is initially pragmatic about the possibility of a relationship with the wave; he does not believe a life in the city for her is possible but gives in to her cries and threats. This initial dynamic sets the tone for the rest of their relationship. When he is accused of poisoning the drinking water on the train, he cannot defend himself and is sentenced to time in prison because no one believes his story. The narrator’s perspective blurs the lines between reality and fiction in this surreal world; the wave and their relationship are very real to the narrator but merely a fantasy to others.

The wave changes the narrator’s life: She first fills it with endless light and play, and their passionate intimacy is magical, always transforming the pair and the home around them. He is aware that this love is all-consuming, and even though he will never genuinely understand her, he allows himself to be “smothered” by her. Their relationship becomes unhealthy: Their mutual passion outweighs the wave’s drastic mood swings and violent outbursts, which he tries to pacify with gifts and other lovers (the colony of fish), at the cost of his own happiness. The narrator never blames the wave for his misfortunes and remains convinced that he alone can fix their problems, even when she turns violent—characteristic of victims of abuse. She almost kills him for attacking the fish he has become jealous of, which makes him “fear and hate her” (32). Still, he lets her stay, but he spends increasing amounts of time away from home to avoid her outbursts and finally flees to the mountains for a month. The time away allows him to decide to end the relationship, but when he returns, she has frozen into a statue. At this point, the narrator has lost all feeling towards her and indifferently sells the ice to a waiter.