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A review by thebobsphere
Resistance by Julián Fuks
4.0
In the great vein of Bukowski and Fante, Julián tells his stories using an alter ego, Sebastian. Like the two authors mentioned Fuks also talks about his childhood and the political environment, however, whereas Bukowski and Fante focused on the more sordid aspects of their lives, almost verging into comedic territory, Julián Fuks takes a more philosophical bent.
The majority of Resistance questions sibling relationships. Before Sebastian and his sister were born, his parents adopted a boy and his validity as a brother puzzles Sebastian. Should someone adopted be called a brother? are the parents of an adopted child really parents? At what point should an adopted child be accepted and should the adopted child accept?
The backdrop of the book is the Argentina Junta and how it affected his family, thus a theme of separation and adaptation runes throughout the book, which ties in with the adopted theme; when one is in a new country aren’t they ‘adopted’ as well? – to accentuate Fuks goes into the roots of his surname, which are European, which means his forebears were migrants as well.
In this brief novel, Fuks brings up more concepts and themes: memory, displacement, even the act of telling a story are part of the book’s focus. As this is part of a planned trilogy , the second part, Occupation will be reviewed tomorrow, I am curious to see how Julián Fuks will continue this interesting slice of autofiction.
The majority of Resistance questions sibling relationships. Before Sebastian and his sister were born, his parents adopted a boy and his validity as a brother puzzles Sebastian. Should someone adopted be called a brother? are the parents of an adopted child really parents? At what point should an adopted child be accepted and should the adopted child accept?
The backdrop of the book is the Argentina Junta and how it affected his family, thus a theme of separation and adaptation runes throughout the book, which ties in with the adopted theme; when one is in a new country aren’t they ‘adopted’ as well? – to accentuate Fuks goes into the roots of his surname, which are European, which means his forebears were migrants as well.
In this brief novel, Fuks brings up more concepts and themes: memory, displacement, even the act of telling a story are part of the book’s focus. As this is part of a planned trilogy , the second part, Occupation will be reviewed tomorrow, I am curious to see how Julián Fuks will continue this interesting slice of autofiction.