The Story of My Teeth

Valeria Luiselli’s contemporary novel The Story of My Teeth (2015) follows an award-winning auctioneer as he moves around Mexico City.

The protagonist is Gustavo “Highway” Sánchez Sánchez, an antiques collector and auctioneer. Although he sometimes buys expensive and rare items, he also collects ordinary things and makes up stories about them to increase their value. Highway freely admits that he exaggerates, because it is part of his trade. He wouldn’t sell things if he didn’t make them as attractive as possible. Other traders dupe him, too—he’s only doing what everyone else does.

Highway’s specialty is teeth. He recently bought teeth allegedly belonging to Marilyn Monroe. He doesn’t know if this is true or not, and he doesn’t care. Instead of selling the teeth to make a profit, he gets a dentist to implant them into his mouth. He then tells everyone he meets about his infamous teeth.



Thriving on storytelling, Highway makes up more stories. He tells potential buyers that he has teeth belonging to everyone from Plato to Virginia Woolf, tricking them into purchasing one of his own teeth. By the novel’s end, no one knows the true story behind the teeth, and their value is irrevocably changed forever.

The Story of My Teeth begins with Highway telling readers his life story. The objects’ stories are part of this larger narrative, because Highway cannot separate himself from auctioneering. An elderly man looking back at his younger years, he sometimes wonders what is true and what is false. He has told so many stories over the years that it is hard to know the difference.

Highway grows up in Pachuca before moving to Ecatepec with his family. As a young man, he works as a security guard at the Jumex Juice Factory. The job bores him, but he enjoys working with the other factory men. One of his colleagues, an epileptic, suffers a seizure one day; Highway is the only man who knows what to do. He comforts the man and keeps him safe. From this day on, he is the local factory hero. He is promoted and marries a woman called Flaca.



Highway falls out of love with Flaca after their son, Siddhartha, is born. He believes that Flaca is abusive and cruel; she has taken his self-confidence away. Highway wants more for himself, and so, he divorces her. He leaves his job and retrains as an auctioneer under the careful supervision of men he calls his “uncles.” He ignores Siddhartha, leaving him with Flaca.

Highway believes that he is the best auctioneer in the world. He is convincing, knowledgeable, and personable. Hosting an auction for a local church, he sells off his special teeth to enthusiastic bidders. One bidder, however, doesn’t want the teeth; he wants Highway. Finding this amusing, Highway auctions himself off.

What Highway doesn’t know is that he has just sold himself to Siddhartha. Siddhartha knocks him out, steals his teeth, and leaves him tied up at an unknown location. Highway wonders if anyone will believe this story and if it will affect his value in any way. He is not angry with Siddhartha—instead, he is proud of him for showing some courage.



Highway escapes the room and goes home. He discovers that Siddhartha works for an art gallery. Siddhartha is the curator and he plans to display Highway’s teeth. Highway visits the show and sees his teeth in a display case. When the show is over, Highway breaks into the art gallery and steals his own teeth back. He doesn’t feel that he’s committing a crime; Siddhartha stole the teeth in the first place.

Now, Highway can’t remember which tooth supposedly belonged to which historical figure. The teeth look too similar. He decides that he will make up new stories for each tooth and resell them. As Highway’s relationship with the teeth changes, so, too, does his relationship with himself. Just as he loses track of their value, he loses his own sense of self.

Deciding to punish Siddhartha, Highway steals art from his gallery. These are priceless paintings; Highway knows he can make a fortune off them. However, he decides there is a better idea. He plants the paintings in a junkyard and frames Siddhartha for stealing them. Now the paintings really do have an illustrious history. Symbolically, the paintings represent finding diamonds in the rough.



The Story of My Teeth ends with revelations. Highway is a failed auctioneer who barely made any money. His wife left him because he left a stable job to train as an auctioneer. He doesn’t have any valuables, and the teeth are gone. Siddhartha, however, did end up in prison. Framing his son is the only thing at which Highway succeeded.

Receiving multiple award nominations, The Story of My Teeth won the 2015 Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Critics praise Luiselli for her ability to capture the forgotten spaces in Mexico City, bringing them to life in her books. Luiselli’s third novel, she collaborated with workers in a Jumex juice factory to write The Story of My Teeth. Before writing, Luiselli worked as a librettist and a teacher.