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La vida breve (novel)La Vida Breve (literally The Brief Life; published in English as A Brief Life) is a 1950 novel by Uruguayan novelist Juan Carlos Onetti. The novel takes place in Buenos Aires and in the mythical town of Santa Maria - a fictional town "between a river and a colony of Swiss workers", which first appears in this novel, but is also the main setting for many of Onetti's later novels. The plot follows Juan Mar�a Brausen, the "founder" of Santa Maria, and Diaz Grey, a countryside doctor and Brausen's fictional character.

Plot
Juan Mar�a Brausen, a 40-year-old copy writer from Buenos Aires, is experiencing a midlife crisis when his wife of 5 years, Gertrudis, overgoes mastectomy. Brausen's longtime friend, Julio Stein, tells him the agency's boss, MacLeod, is about to fire him. In an attempt to save himself from financial ruin, Brausen, advised by Stein, attempts to write a movie script he could sell. Brausen, alone in his apartment in Calle Chile 600 (and later with his recovering wife) starts imagining the 40-year-old doctor Diaz Grey, in his clinic in the fictional town of Santa Maria, as he is visited by the seductive Elena Sala de Lagos, seeking morphine prescriptions for her addiction. Meanwhile, a prostitute nicknamed La Queca moves into the neighboring apartment. Brausen start listening to her conversations from across the wall and begins to imagine her apartment and life, until he eventually breaks in to her apartment and leaves without being seen. Brausen's life begins to dissolve as he keeps imagining Grey and Elena Sala in Santa Maria; his marriage falls apart and his wife, Gertrudis, leaves him, he is fired from the agency and slowly wastes his compensations. As his sanity fades away, Brausen enters La Queca's apartment and starts posing as Arce, a man who is a friend of La Queca's ex-boyfriend and later, using a different lie, as a man who saw La Queca at a bar and followed her home. The two begin a violent affair, during which they get drunk on gin and "Arce" beats La Queca. At some point, Ernesto, one of La Queca's lovers, finds him in her apartment and beats him up. Throughout their romance, Brausen's true identity as her neighbor is not revealed to La Queca. At some point, he hires an office space, steals one of La Queca's family photos and asks his friends to call him there during the day. A fictional "Onetti", modeled after the real author, briefly appears as an office-mate. Brausen begins to have more violent thoughts, imagining how he would kill Gertrudis and La Queca. He buys a gun and waits for the right time. However, before Brausen gets the chance to execute his plan, Ernesto kills her first. For an unknown reason, Brausen decides to help Ernesto escape, and the two flee Buenos Aires by train. However, Brausen leaves a note in La Queca's apartment, implicating Ernesto in the murder. The two escape to the fictional Santa Maria, where police agents find them. In an open ending, it is unclear what happens to Brausen.

In the meta-diegesis, Diaz Grey is convinced to help Elenea Sala and her husband, Lagos, find her missing paramour Oscar (The English), who escaped with their money. The two embark on a month-long journey, visiting a hotel, a country house and a bishop's house where Oscar has been. Grey lusts Elena, who taunts him and then sleeps with him for the first time the night before she mysteriously dies in bed. Following her death, Grey joins Lagos and Oscar in a plot to revenge her death by selling morphine prescriptions. The 3, accompanied by a young violinist, the daughter of the country house owner, finally appear in Buenos Aires the night before the carnival, using disguises to flee the police. Eventually, they are discovered and realize Lagos has not planned for their boat escape as he promised. Grey and the violinist, Annie, walk away into the night together, hinting at a possible new love affair. This conclusion, where Brausen loses himself in the fiction he created, and Grey takes his place in the real Buenos Aires, completes Brausen's desire to "become fiction".

Other characters include Julio Stein's longtime lover, the ex-prostitute Mami (Miriam), Gertrudis' sister, Raquel, and the "others"; fictional citizens of Santa Maria who appear at the end of the novel. The history of the characters is slowly revealed throughout the novel; Stein and Mami's life in Paris, a possible affair between Brausen and Gertrudis' younger sister Raquel in Montevideo, etc.

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