A review by dvlavieri
The Art of Flight by Sergio Pitol

3.0

Sergio Pitol, who I admit I've never heard of, was maybe an insightful thinker and maybe a wonderful novelist, but to me this "memoir" wasn't a great read. For one, marketing it as a book that "defies genre" is simply a cover for what felt like a hodgepodge of totally miscellaneous writing (diaries, articles on literature, some travelogues, some misc. thinking) put together haphazardly and sorted in only a semi-meaningful way. If you're reading this book to gain insight on the life of Pitol, you're likely to be disappointed. Besides a few episodic notes from his travels in Poland, Spain and Italy, there isn't much introspection into Pitol as a character - more his musings on Mexican and European culture. Furthermore, much of the literary articles are focused on works that are too obscure to the American reader to make sense of or appreciate in any meaningful way.

There's one short essay about the development of his ideas for his novel Love Parade - but of course that is not published in English, so it was of little value in relation to my readerly life.