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baldingape's review
3.0
I don’t know what to say about this book....
There was an existential theme to it, I felt. A sort of endless stream of pointed meaningless.
If it were possible blacker and blacker clouds would have escaped the pages like ghosts. Or that’s how it felt to me.
The suffocating boredom with life that the unnamed narrator felt was clear to see, read and feel.
It reminded me of days, weeks, months, years that have gone by when my Depression has me gripped by the balls.
It’s an easy read in terms of how it’s written, but the content is not as easy to digest.
I’ve come away from this book not sure if I really enjoyed it or not. In fact that may be the pointless point of it?
There was an existential theme to it, I felt. A sort of endless stream of pointed meaningless.
If it were possible blacker and blacker clouds would have escaped the pages like ghosts. Or that’s how it felt to me.
The suffocating boredom with life that the unnamed narrator felt was clear to see, read and feel.
It reminded me of days, weeks, months, years that have gone by when my Depression has me gripped by the balls.
It’s an easy read in terms of how it’s written, but the content is not as easy to digest.
I’ve come away from this book not sure if I really enjoyed it or not. In fact that may be the pointless point of it?
adrianasturalvarez's review against another edition
5.0
In the afterword of my edition, Oscar Guardiola-Rivera writes: "The story remains in the surface, like smoothe snow to the skier, who glides expertly over it oblivious to the fact he is heading towards a precipice. You have in your hands a masterpiece." It's hard to disagree.
I found this novel truly stunning both bc of its impressive structural metaphors as well as its restrained prose. What begins as a damaged dreamscape of seemingly disconnected events experienced by the protagonist, gradually builds into a network of thematically congruent narrative elements that are never gimmicky and always surprisingly grounded in reality, however surreal that reality may appear.
Havilio has actually written an enormous but unassuming work here and I look forward to reading more from him as it is translated into English.
I found this novel truly stunning both bc of its impressive structural metaphors as well as its restrained prose. What begins as a damaged dreamscape of seemingly disconnected events experienced by the protagonist, gradually builds into a network of thematically congruent narrative elements that are never gimmicky and always surprisingly grounded in reality, however surreal that reality may appear.
Havilio has actually written an enormous but unassuming work here and I look forward to reading more from him as it is translated into English.
sarah_e_j's review against another edition
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? No
2.0
inspiredbygrass's review against another edition
3.0
Read this book as part of #invisiblecities2020 project where we are reading books from Argentina in Jan 2020.
I had picked this as it suggested an exploration of loss , life on the margins and the ignored but in a rural setting instead if the usual urban one. The unnamed protagonist's life in Buenos Aires is upended by the disappearance of her lover ( a narrative rich with meaning in Argentina ) in an apparent suicidal jump from a bridge , which she witnessed without realising it's personal meaning . She holes up in a rural backwater with a much older man and the portrait of her passivity and the subsequent flat disengaged story is both the strength and weakness of the novel . It reminded me of Morvan Callar ( Alan Walker ) where a story is told without emotion , the protagonist using sex and drugs as if they are as neutral and meaningless as television, shopping or breathing . The story is directionless, related as a series of scenes , time drifts like dust around a poor and decaying landscape.
We learn that Open Door is the name of an experimental psychiatric settlement founded a century before with a policy of freedom and lack of intervention . The novel looks at these issues sideways and elliptically, allowing the reader to ask questions about where the boundary of sane and insane , freedom and incarceration lies .
While at times the prose is stunning at other points I was simply bored and the book falls away until the last few pages .. primarily it's hard to engage with such a flat, passive and apathetic narrator even as I can admire her deliberate determination not to become what society expects of her. There is liberal use of the word " loonies " which I found old fashioned and jaring.
I had picked this as it suggested an exploration of loss , life on the margins and the ignored but in a rural setting instead if the usual urban one. The unnamed protagonist's life in Buenos Aires is upended by the disappearance of her lover ( a narrative rich with meaning in Argentina ) in an apparent suicidal jump from a bridge , which she witnessed without realising it's personal meaning . She holes up in a rural backwater with a much older man and the portrait of her passivity and the subsequent flat disengaged story is both the strength and weakness of the novel . It reminded me of Morvan Callar ( Alan Walker ) where a story is told without emotion , the protagonist using sex and drugs as if they are as neutral and meaningless as television, shopping or breathing . The story is directionless, related as a series of scenes , time drifts like dust around a poor and decaying landscape.
We learn that Open Door is the name of an experimental psychiatric settlement founded a century before with a policy of freedom and lack of intervention . The novel looks at these issues sideways and elliptically, allowing the reader to ask questions about where the boundary of sane and insane , freedom and incarceration lies .
While at times the prose is stunning at other points I was simply bored and the book falls away until the last few pages .. primarily it's hard to engage with such a flat, passive and apathetic narrator even as I can admire her deliberate determination not to become what society expects of her. There is liberal use of the word " loonies " which I found old fashioned and jaring.
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