Reviews

En episode i en landskabsmalers liv by César Aira

cinzia's review against another edition

2.0

Gosh, I don’t know if it’s me, the book or the translator, but I found the last two novellas of his to be vapid and dry. Perhaps his tone of writing is just not my taste.

toroyaguila's review against another edition

adventurous challenging funny informative reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

jodyjsperling's review against another edition

3.0

The lightening strike scene is ten-stars good. The rest is engaging but not urgent enough.

forever_amber's review against another edition

4.0

Като казва „епизод“, Сесар Айра наистина има предвид епизод.

Книжката е малка и на всичкото отгоре е първата ми среща с този писател. Мисля, че инстинктът ми не ме подведе за това, защото, колкото и да е странна, ми хареса, понеже говори за изкуство, а в тази сфера мога да понеса безкрайно много откачени неща.

Не съм чела нещо аналогично досега, но съм сигурна, че хората, които имат вкус като моя - които обичат да се движат и да ги водят по границата на неразбираемото, но без да става дума за празнословия и малостойностна литература - ще харесат книгата. Трябва повече да се размисли върху нея и то в контекста на самия автор, когото аз не познавам. Има нещо много дълбоко, което си струва да бъде изговорено.

Стилът на Айра ми хареса много, включително размислите за изкуството и за всичко останало, което още се случеше да спомене. Епизодичността, резкият край - всичко това напълно се вписа в основната му идея - съсредоточаването на големия миг в малкия; плътната маса на живота, родена от отрязъка от деня, нощта, ежедневието. Това е и хубава теория за изкуството, но най-вече за съзнанието, в която тоталността може и да бъде изфантазирана дори ако разполагаме само с един фрактал от нея (което вече е и физика и математика де :-) Тъй или иначе е безсмислено да пиша повече, защото книгата трябва да се прочете и от другия, за да може да се беседва върху нея.

Препоръчвам на хора като мен, които обичат да осмислят заобикалящто ни чрез по-абстрактни идеи.

anushree's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny reflective medium-paced

4.0

He was like a drunk at the bar of a squalid dive, fixing his gaze on a peeling wall, an empty bottle, the edge of a window frame, and seeing each object or detail emerge from the nothingness into which it had been plunged by his inner calm. Who cares what they are? asks the aesthete in a flight of paradox. What matters is that they are.

With precise and concise language, Aira's novella envisions a bizarre, sublime landscape that thwarts the staminas of the rugged colonial adventurer. Through Rugendas's physiognomic ruin, it posits that one cannot be a mere observer, a simple painter in search of harmonious and depopulated vistas devoid of any fraught histories. No, the land bites back in this story. There's also a tension running through the story: Rugendas claims that art is a tool that allows a kind of transcendence from the teleology of history, making history unnecessary in the understanding of the past. But as we approach the end of the narrative in all its psychotic, gruesome detail, we realize that the the artists bring with them everything they know into their paintings, making the histories they've heard about indigenous peoples inseparably intertwined with their own work. There are no first encounters, no blank slates here.

ben_t_g's review against another edition

adventurous informative tense medium-paced

4.25

What a fascinating historical fiction - the key incident infuses what starts as a well-explained painting course into an actual freaking adventure. Really felt inhabited and true to the characters and the country - no mean feat. 

feastofblaze's review against another edition

adventurous challenging reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

theeternaldodo's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

ridaakhtar_'s review against another edition

4.0

Read this on my trip to Skardu. I'll remember segments from her: on S-1, the noise of the Indus, my family complaining about how tiring sitting in a car for eleven hours is. That segment where I was sitting in our lobby with two cold cups of tea, the Shangrila lake right in front, the rain.

100reads's review against another edition

adventurous informative reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Magnificent. Need to reread this to appreciate it more. Need to read more Aira.