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4.09 AVERAGE
4.09 AVERAGE
challenging
reflective
fast-paced
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
Meandering, discursive, love the way Luiselli explores places, psychogeography, acute observations, our behaviours…
Ensayos entretenidos sobre la Ciudad de México, cementerios, bicilectas, arquitectura perdida. Temas hilados como un paseo.
She has such a beautiful way with language.
Also...
Also...
Searching for a grave is, to some extent, like arranging to meet a stranger in a café, the lobby of a hotel, or a public square [...]
...is a fucking banging way to start a book.
Lo voy a guardar para dentro de veinte años, a la mejor me gusta un poco más.
(Perdón por leer tan rápido, pero es que estoy en los últimos 12 días de mi suscripción a bookmate y necesito aprovecharla like crazy).
(Perdón por leer tan rápido, pero es que estoy en los últimos 12 días de mi suscripción a bookmate y necesito aprovecharla like crazy).
Valeria’s writing is so clear and bright and insightful while remaining down to earth, I want to be friends with her
When I was a Senior studying Sociology, a professor from Japan shared with our class that Americans do not write essays the same way the rest of the world writes essays. In Japan, it was considered rude to write a thesis statement, the point of the paper so frankly laid out insinuated that the reader would not be able to come to their own conclusion. I found this interesting because so many of my teachers had spent days of instructional time belaboring the thesis statement.
This book--translated from Spanish--also gives me the sense that Luiselli approaches story telling, truth telling, and essays from a different vantage than I do. Loose association and meandering bring her to interesting new conclusions and images. I appreciated her exploration of new ideas and new places and the way that her meandering seemed--at first--unintentional, but always brought the essay back to a place that was clearly a planned destination the whole time.
This book--translated from Spanish--also gives me the sense that Luiselli approaches story telling, truth telling, and essays from a different vantage than I do. Loose association and meandering bring her to interesting new conclusions and images. I appreciated her exploration of new ideas and new places and the way that her meandering seemed--at first--unintentional, but always brought the essay back to a place that was clearly a planned destination the whole time.
In the last of the short essays in this collection, Luiselli looks at a grave in Venice, and wonders if she dies at 37, like the entombed, what she will have left behind her. 10 years later we know - 2 collections of essays, 2 short works. And the stunning "Lost Child Archive".
It is rather amazing that she wrote these flaneurs before she was 27. Ever had the feeling that what you're reading is the work of a rather unique mind, a genius? I did here.
She drops the names of writers, and other artists, effortlessly - but at the same time adding some wonderful insight. Nice to see we are both fans of Wittgenstein, and his dictum on the inability of our human minds, and hence language, to express everything.
My favorite essay was "Alternative Routes" - on how the Portuguese word "saudade" is not translatable. And then on to a very quick history of melancholy, and its weak sister, nostalgia. Along with a bicycle ride to a bookstore, and back home.
I was suprised that Dutch writer Cees Nooteboom wrote the Introduction for this young Mexican writer (BTW, he was one of my favorite writers during the '90's - sadly I tried to go back to his works recently, and did not find the excitement and joy of reading his work that I had those 20-30 years ago). The connection is that he wrote on Brodsky in Venice as well - and it ends up that he really appreciates and understands her!
Christina MacSweeney does a fine job translating this and other Luiselli work. It is almost too bad that the author is now writing in English (or, is she self-translating, like she reminds us Samuel Beckett did?). There were a few word choices that took my breath away! Too bad they did not use the original title from its publicatioin in Spanish in 2010 - which translates as "False Papers".
It was also exciting to Luiselli mention other younger writers I hope to explore (Zambra, who was recently added to my "To Be Read" pile), and that on amazon I found some authors I have read under their ""Others Who Bought This Also Bought" (Lerner).
Looking forward to reading her other 3 short works/essay collections.
Brilliant.
It is rather amazing that she wrote these flaneurs before she was 27. Ever had the feeling that what you're reading is the work of a rather unique mind, a genius? I did here.
She drops the names of writers, and other artists, effortlessly - but at the same time adding some wonderful insight. Nice to see we are both fans of Wittgenstein, and his dictum on the inability of our human minds, and hence language, to express everything.
My favorite essay was "Alternative Routes" - on how the Portuguese word "saudade" is not translatable. And then on to a very quick history of melancholy, and its weak sister, nostalgia. Along with a bicycle ride to a bookstore, and back home.
I was suprised that Dutch writer Cees Nooteboom wrote the Introduction for this young Mexican writer (BTW, he was one of my favorite writers during the '90's - sadly I tried to go back to his works recently, and did not find the excitement and joy of reading his work that I had those 20-30 years ago). The connection is that he wrote on Brodsky in Venice as well - and it ends up that he really appreciates and understands her!
Christina MacSweeney does a fine job translating this and other Luiselli work. It is almost too bad that the author is now writing in English (or, is she self-translating, like she reminds us Samuel Beckett did?). There were a few word choices that took my breath away! Too bad they did not use the original title from its publicatioin in Spanish in 2010 - which translates as "False Papers".
It was also exciting to Luiselli mention other younger writers I hope to explore (Zambra, who was recently added to my "To Be Read" pile), and that on amazon I found some authors I have read under their ""Others Who Bought This Also Bought" (Lerner).
Looking forward to reading her other 3 short works/essay collections.
Brilliant.
I am a big fan of Luiselli, the way she can move between registers of journalism, scholarship, and personal disclosure from one sentence to the next. And she's got good taste, is well traveled, all kinds of things that make this book of sort-of-travel essays, or at least essays about the character of places and her encounters there really a treat. The early essay about finding Brodsky's grave is great, the one about doormen in NYC is at least interesting and fun, and this is a solid collection of writing.
It's a little light though, and at 110 pages, it could stand to have a couple more essays-- nearly every essay here is about Mexico City or Venice (with one about NYC and one about cucling that I don't remember really being about a particular place). I put this down wishing for an essay about Des Moines and one about Ulan Battor, or at least about Atlanta or Chicago or Rio....
It's a little light though, and at 110 pages, it could stand to have a couple more essays-- nearly every essay here is about Mexico City or Venice (with one about NYC and one about cucling that I don't remember really being about a particular place). I put this down wishing for an essay about Des Moines and one about Ulan Battor, or at least about Atlanta or Chicago or Rio....