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4.08 AVERAGE
4.08 AVERAGE
ماذا فعلتِ يا إيما خارج أبواب الدير!
قلقت على مصير الطفلة البائسة رغم معرفتي انها نجحت بالتحرر ومضت قدما لتجوب أوروبا وتحظى بحياة مختلفة أثناء كتابتها هذه الرسائل. أصبحت رسّامة لاتينية مبدعة، لكن لاتزال تسكنها روح إيما الصغيرة الخائفة وكل تفاصيل طفولتها القاسية بدقة بالغة ذلك لأنه حسب قولها "لم تعِش حياة طبيعية".
قلقت على مصير الطفلة البائسة رغم معرفتي انها نجحت بالتحرر ومضت قدما لتجوب أوروبا وتحظى بحياة مختلفة أثناء كتابتها هذه الرسائل. أصبحت رسّامة لاتينية مبدعة، لكن لاتزال تسكنها روح إيما الصغيرة الخائفة وكل تفاصيل طفولتها القاسية بدقة بالغة ذلك لأنه حسب قولها "لم تعِش حياة طبيعية".
Delicate but harsh and heart-achingly honest. Maybe memoirs are the best types of books.
ايما رييس فنانة تشكيلية كولومبية سطع نجمها في فرنسا .. عاشت طفولة صعبة لم تكن لتسطع أن تتحدث عنها بيسر . لكن صديقها خيرمان شجعها على أن تكتب ما تتذكره من حياتها على شكل رسائل له .
جاءت الرسائل تقطر رقة وعذوبة طغت على الألم والمعاناة وجعلته يبدو كالقصص الخيالية . وهذا إن دل على شيء فهو يدل على قوة وجمال روح صاحبة الرسائل.
جاءت الرسائل تقطر رقة وعذوبة طغت على الألم والمعاناة وجعلته يبدو كالقصص الخيالية . وهذا إن دل على شيء فهو يدل على قوة وجمال روح صاحبة الرسائل.
FURIOSO y encantador. En algún punto triste hasta el extremo, con algunos guiños de humor negro pero con la hazaña maravillosa de revelarnos partes de una vida que solo podemos entrever. Quién que haya leído el libro no tuvo ganas de regresar a esa infancia y abrazar a la niña Emma.
Pero creo que además de deleitarnos con el prodigio de su memoria y su escritura como lectores nos da la responsabilidad de buscar su obra y recuperar su legado como artista desde la contemplación. Me quedé con muchas ganas de más.
Pero creo que además de deleitarnos con el prodigio de su memoria y su escritura como lectores nos da la responsabilidad de buscar su obra y recuperar su legado como artista desde la contemplación. Me quedé con muchas ganas de más.
Fascinating series of letters by Colombian artist, Emma Reyes, about her destitute childhood, her upbringing in a convent where the girls had to work incredibly hard. The writing is extremely lively and engaging, and Reyes' lack of rancor and wide-eyed goodwill is frankly astonishing and inspiring.
This astonishing memoir of a childhood lived in extreme poverty in Latin America was hailed as an instant classic following its publication in Colombia in 2012, almost a decade after the death of its author.
Now translated into English, The Book of Emma Reyes describes in vivid detail, the remarkable courage and imagination of a young girl growing up with nothing. Illiterate until her teens and with no formal education, Emma Reyes escaped the extreme poverty of her early years to make a new life for herself. In the late 1940s she befriended a Colombian historian and critic and sent 23 letters sharing the mesmerising tale of her early life. It is these letters that make up the book.
She spent her early years living in a single room with her sister Helena with no toilet or running water, where she was underfed, locked in, and abandoned for long periods of time. The pair were ushered across barren plains and into strange towns as their mother, known to the pair as ‘Miss Maria’ looked for work.
She watched as her younger brother, who gave her so much hope, was abandoned on a doorstep in the early hours of the morning, before being shipped off again. Just a short time later she and her sister were abandoned too, left at a railway station where they were eventually taken in by a convent.
Her years spent at the convent were just as hard; the girls were separated from the outside world by numerous locks, chains and wooden bars. It would be almost two decades before Reyes stepped foot outside of the convent again.
Her account of her life is terrifying, horrifying and incredibly sad. Her time in the convent shows Reye’s courage and ingenuity. Despite the overwhelming sense of sadness and dread, there is a bright sense of hope as the book is really told through the eyes of a child. Far from self-pitying, the portrait that emerges inspires awe at the stunning early life of a gifted artist whose talent remained hidden for a long time.
The last letter Reyes sent documents her escape from the convent and I wished it wasn’t the end. I was left searching for more information about this incredible woman, and I hope more will be written about her later life.
Reyes died in 2013, aged 84, in France as a little known painter, let alone a writer. It is such a shame that her talent was hidden for so long.
Now translated into English, The Book of Emma Reyes describes in vivid detail, the remarkable courage and imagination of a young girl growing up with nothing. Illiterate until her teens and with no formal education, Emma Reyes escaped the extreme poverty of her early years to make a new life for herself. In the late 1940s she befriended a Colombian historian and critic and sent 23 letters sharing the mesmerising tale of her early life. It is these letters that make up the book.
She spent her early years living in a single room with her sister Helena with no toilet or running water, where she was underfed, locked in, and abandoned for long periods of time. The pair were ushered across barren plains and into strange towns as their mother, known to the pair as ‘Miss Maria’ looked for work.
She watched as her younger brother, who gave her so much hope, was abandoned on a doorstep in the early hours of the morning, before being shipped off again. Just a short time later she and her sister were abandoned too, left at a railway station where they were eventually taken in by a convent.
Her years spent at the convent were just as hard; the girls were separated from the outside world by numerous locks, chains and wooden bars. It would be almost two decades before Reyes stepped foot outside of the convent again.
Her account of her life is terrifying, horrifying and incredibly sad. Her time in the convent shows Reye’s courage and ingenuity. Despite the overwhelming sense of sadness and dread, there is a bright sense of hope as the book is really told through the eyes of a child. Far from self-pitying, the portrait that emerges inspires awe at the stunning early life of a gifted artist whose talent remained hidden for a long time.
The last letter Reyes sent documents her escape from the convent and I wished it wasn’t the end. I was left searching for more information about this incredible woman, and I hope more will be written about her later life.
Reyes died in 2013, aged 84, in France as a little known painter, let alone a writer. It is such a shame that her talent was hidden for so long.
Read in preparation for a trip to Columbia. Memoir of Reyes’ childhood told through letters. Inspiring how she retained her imagination and joyful spirit amidst such a chaotic backdrop.
An epistolary memoir of the early childhood of an artist who ended up living in Paris and rubbing elbows with Frida Kahlo and Jean-Paul Sartre among others but started her life living in Colombia almost literally on a trash heap before she and her sister ended up in a strict convent after the woman they lived with (they never really knew who she was) abandoned them. Even if some of the details are imagined (who can remember so much from when they were so little, an issue she does address), it is still a remarkable and gripping document and a testament to Reyes' formidable spirit.
This is a poignant look at what I can hardly call a childhood - certainly what she experienced from her earliest recollections (around age 4, I think) until age 19, the time period she chronicles in this book, was largely pretty horrid. Thankfully, there were bright spots, and it's certainly an interesting tale. It's a quick read, and I liked the format - she found it easier to just send a set of letters to a friend about her early years, rather than sitting down and trying to write a formal biography. That she emerged from this background (in Colombia) to become a successful artist in Europe and elsewhere is really nothing short of amazing. The style is somewhat flat and distanced, but it's still a good read.
Amigas, este libro me voló la peluca. No sabía nada de este libro. Nada de la autora. Nada del detrás ni quién dijo que esto se publique, ni el formato ni el género. Pero qué manera de narrar su vidaaaaaa, aunque sea un poquito: su vida en la infancia. Me partió el corazón pero también me hizo reír. Hay una sencillez y cercanía en cada una de estas cartas pero también el arte de la escritura es una cosa que cómo lo explico, no sé. Me puse a investigar y Emma Reyes aprendió a escribir a los 18 años.