A review by partypete
An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter by César Aira

5.0

Fantastic book. Really one-of-a-kind. Has a cool way of referring to things, like the fictional history he wrote for a non-fictional artist, through clever metaphors that refer to reality without mirroring it. One of the most interesting things he does is break from the moment of the story to bring in our present - he might compare a moment from now to a moment in the story in which no context would be historically available, such as a dinner party or modern medicine, but he does this in an extremely subtle way.

I read part of Aira's "The Musical Brain" and hated it. It was clear from that book that the author is brilliant, but I got annoyed by the puzzle-like format and having to play a new game every time a short story ended. I'm guessing this is resolved in his novellas in no small part due to the fact that he has more space to develop the story and frame his ideas in context.