Discussed in this essay:

A Dream Come True: The Collected Stories of Juan Carlos Onetti, by Juan Carlos Onetti. Translated from the Spanish by Katherine Silver. Archipelago Books. 547 pages. $26.

Hombre con Sombrero (Man with Hat), by Joaquín Torres-García © Christie’s Images/Bridgeman Images

All the men in Juan Carlos Onetti’s fiction wear hats: not caps, but proper Borsalinos, wide-brimmed and pinched and cocked at the top into Jean Arp sculptures, gray or black with a subtle silk band—no feathers—initials stamped in gold along the unseen interior sweatband. For today’s watchers of late-night…