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4.02 AVERAGE
4.02 AVERAGE
Interesting structure and while technically well crafted, I simply did not find a single thing to care about. More often the characters having boring fixations, typically sexual, and I know nothing about poetry. To me, at 30% or so in, it was a bunch of characters peacocking in the way that would make you leave the party they are at for a much better time, which is anywhere else.
challenging
dark
funny
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This is one of those cases where the rating I want to give can't be given. For me this is a 3.5 star book, but I don't feel like rounding it up to 4 stars because it's not where I think it should be.
This is a novel - a celebrated novel - that tells the story of two main characters: Arturo Belano and Ulises Lima. The novel is composed in the form of journal entries by a third character (these are in the begining and in the end), and a series of testimonial pieces of a wide array of other characters that tell their stories through a span of twenty-two years which follow Arturo and/or Ulises or characters directly related to them.
In often crude, mysogynistic language and literary imagery, interspersed with "big words", the book takes us into the world of a group of Latin American poets who want to bring forth a new literary or artistic movement they call "real visceral", which follows on the footsteps of an obscure poet, Cesárea Tinajero, a women who wrote poetry in the 20's (that's 1920's), who was exceptional and the origin of the movement, but who one day disappeared and none of her poems was ever found.
Time flows and there seem to be a search for Cesárea Tinajero and her poems, but often the scenes don't seem to suggest anything leading to this poet. A thread, like a flashback keeps tying together the story as time goes by until it is finally brought to the topic the book has been skirting about.
The writing is interesting, out of the norm, and the narrative is multi-voiced and particular, but it was not my thing. Sometimes the stories didn't seem to go nowhere, the connections were uninteresting or heavy with mysogyny and gratuitous in vulgarities.
This is a novel - a celebrated novel - that tells the story of two main characters: Arturo Belano and Ulises Lima. The novel is composed in the form of journal entries by a third character (these are in the begining and in the end), and a series of testimonial pieces of a wide array of other characters that tell their stories through a span of twenty-two years which follow Arturo and/or Ulises or characters directly related to them.
In often crude, mysogynistic language and literary imagery, interspersed with "big words", the book takes us into the world of a group of Latin American poets who want to bring forth a new literary or artistic movement they call "real visceral", which follows on the footsteps of an obscure poet, Cesárea Tinajero, a women who wrote poetry in the 20's (that's 1920's), who was exceptional and the origin of the movement, but who one day disappeared and none of her poems was ever found.
Time flows and there seem to be a search for Cesárea Tinajero and her poems, but often the scenes don't seem to suggest anything leading to this poet. A thread, like a flashback keeps tying together the story as time goes by until it is finally brought to the topic the book has been skirting about.
The writing is interesting, out of the norm, and the narrative is multi-voiced and particular, but it was not my thing. Sometimes the stories didn't seem to go nowhere, the connections were uninteresting or heavy with mysogyny and gratuitous in vulgarities.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book was given to me as a gift so it's not one I would have sought out myself. However, I am so glad I read it. It is one of the most incredible, mind-boggling and rewarding books I have read. It's always a good sign that I'm still thinking about the book days after finishing it. As well as painting a vital and visceral view of Mexican City literature scene in the 1970s, exploring the ideas of lost youth and idealism, disappointments with life, the book is tremendous in its construct of using multiple narrative voices spanning 20 years (apparently 56 but I didn't count!), across multiple countries to weave the story of the missing protagonists of Arturo Belano and Ulises Lima. I thought I would find it immensely confusing but somehow it works. The different voices come alive so it feels like I'm listening to a 'detective' interviewing all these characters to help paint a picture of what happened to Arturo and Ulises, while also discovering these characters foibles, adventures, disappointments in the middle of the changing landscape of literature, politics, society. Bolano has really made these voices come alive, in all their variations so much so the words jumped off the pages and into my ears. This is truly a remarkable book that deserves your patience and attention.