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fer_qc's review against another edition
5.0
"“Empujarnos unos a otros, piensa Watanabe es una forma particularmente sincera de comunicarnos".
"Observando los rostros izados por la extrañeza, el señor Watanabe toma conciencia de lo poco que suele mirar hacia arriba. El centro, razona, está diseñado contra la intemperie. Sin embargo, acaba de resurgir el instinto de orientarse mediante el firmamento: se ha abierto un hueco por donde espiarlo. El resplandor se debilita gota a gota. Un océano escapándose por una rejilla".
"Observando los rostros izados por la extrañeza, el señor Watanabe toma conciencia de lo poco que suele mirar hacia arriba. El centro, razona, está diseñado contra la intemperie. Sin embargo, acaba de resurgir el instinto de orientarse mediante el firmamento: se ha abierto un hueco por donde espiarlo. El resplandor se debilita gota a gota. Un océano escapándose por una rejilla".
admorobo's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
pvnmeh's review against another edition
challenging
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
readingrinbow's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
paul_marv's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
cronosmu's review against another edition
2.0
Complaciente. Comenta Zagajewski que "la miseria de la poesía consiste en una confianza excesiva en los pensadores de turno". El mismo juicio es válido para la novela. Para toda expresión artística, en realidad. Se trata de un servilismo a un discurso omnímodo mediante el cual se articula el espíritu de la época. Fractura es un eco, elegante eso sí (¿alguien dudaría de las reverberaciones sublimes en la voz poética de Neuman?), del murmullo de los tiempos. Como tal, la novela no solo no es rebelde sino que es profundamente correcta. Léase el apartado de Lorrie y las cicatrices, un monumento al pensamiento del hoy. El problema no es tanto el ángulo desde el cual el escritor, en el disfraz del personaje, emite los juicios y construye la narración, sino la idea, posible autoengaño, de que se alza contra algo. Contra qué exactamente, no lo sé. Un sistema político y económico, quizá. Lorrie va del Holocausto, a Vietnam, a Hiroshima, a Donald Trump y al cambio climático con una ligereza espantosa que, de hecho, es lugar común en el relato que de la actualidad hacen los medios y los personajes de nuestra endeble clase intelectual. ¿Por qué centrarme en estos aspectos y hacer de lado lo que concierne al oficio narrativo, la confección misma de la historia, los hilos sutiles que hilvanan el cuadro disgregado que es la historia del señor Watanabe? Es simple. Dada su naturaleza, en la que lo sutil y lo sugerente pasan a segundo término, Fractura invita a la toma de postura. Esta es la mía: creo que Neuman se ha esforzado demasiado para no decir nada nuevo en quinientas páginas. El espíritu disidente de sus múltiples narradores, al contrario del cerezo que fuera de temporada florece en las inmediaciones de Fukushima, es más bien una reiteración del relato preponderante del que ya he hecho mención. Es la tragedia de nuestros autores contemporáneos comprometidos: pensar que las palabras resisten cuando lo que hacen es reproducir.
agotakristof's review against another edition
4.0
First Neuman I completed, a Hiroshima survivor visits Fukushima after the accident, his past is remembered by 4 women from 4 different places cutting across language barriers - its an interesting technique to tell a deeply political story, but it doesn't always work. I didn't feel like there is an information overload like many other readers of the book, though.
mahalia's review against another edition
emotional
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
3.0
unboxedjack's review
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
drewbutler's review against another edition
5.0
A Study Of Memory
Andrés Neuman has delivered an incredible exploration of memory, both of the individual and the collective. In Fracture, he asks who is allowed to have memories, who can share them, and how we are all shaped by them. We learn of our main character through his own internal perspectives and observations, but also through interviews of lovers in his past, giving us a person who we understand not only through his own words, but how people he has known remember him to be. This fascinating character study is set against the larger landscape of nuclear apocalypse, bookended by the atrocious bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States, and the contemporary crisis of the Fukushima reactor meltdown and subsequent fallout. We see how these larger events shape not only individuals, but entire communities. The occupying US forces did not permit survivors of the atomic bombs to share their stories, and many survivors were shunned by their communities. This denial of a collective grief results in our main character's own internal suppression of the events he survived, and also the traumatic recollection and reckoning he undergoes as he experiences another nuclear crisis, again in his home country. The second time, however, he responds by going towards the disaster, rather than across the world to escape it, as before. All this time, we learn of him through the memories of others, and this actually gives us, in some instances, a greater insight into who he is than he himself can provide us. This is fantastic and unforgettable book, and the translation is beautifully done, creating a vivid world where the pieces of memory travel across time and borders to create something whole. It is a fascinating, heartbreaking, and incredible book, and already one of my all-time favorites. I look forward to reading it again and again.
Andrés Neuman has delivered an incredible exploration of memory, both of the individual and the collective. In Fracture, he asks who is allowed to have memories, who can share them, and how we are all shaped by them. We learn of our main character through his own internal perspectives and observations, but also through interviews of lovers in his past, giving us a person who we understand not only through his own words, but how people he has known remember him to be. This fascinating character study is set against the larger landscape of nuclear apocalypse, bookended by the atrocious bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States, and the contemporary crisis of the Fukushima reactor meltdown and subsequent fallout. We see how these larger events shape not only individuals, but entire communities. The occupying US forces did not permit survivors of the atomic bombs to share their stories, and many survivors were shunned by their communities. This denial of a collective grief results in our main character's own internal suppression of the events he survived, and also the traumatic recollection and reckoning he undergoes as he experiences another nuclear crisis, again in his home country. The second time, however, he responds by going towards the disaster, rather than across the world to escape it, as before. All this time, we learn of him through the memories of others, and this actually gives us, in some instances, a greater insight into who he is than he himself can provide us. This is fantastic and unforgettable book, and the translation is beautifully done, creating a vivid world where the pieces of memory travel across time and borders to create something whole. It is a fascinating, heartbreaking, and incredible book, and already one of my all-time favorites. I look forward to reading it again and again.