RRR's short-short stories register initially as fables or dark allegories: most from the two collections cited above are under 5 pages and written in a clean, spare prose style stripped of adornment, further creating the impression of a myth (or village legend) told so many times across so many generations only the general frame remains. In this way they also remind me of fairy tales - how few embellishments, upon consideration, there are in the adventures of Little Red Riding Hood or Hansel and Gretel . . . a red cape, big teeth, a house made of candy. In the same way Rosa dispenses with tone, atmospherics and character development.
In "The Rain and Other Children" the effect can be terrifying, as though the macabre, unreal horrors of fairy tales have somehow managed to intrude upon our real lives, or the overwhelming sensation is of a narrator so detached and disinterested he doesn't bother with anything but the bare facts. Either way you won't find an ounce of sentimentality in any of these stories and withholding such seems cruel in both collections. Overall the tales here are too ephemeral to possess any real power. Exceptions include the above-mentioned story and "Angelica" from Dust on her Tongue, whose title character is characteristically a killer, but one with elegant resignation . . ."An inner voice told her to cease thinking. Things happen; we are only the instrument."
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