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A review by booksnpunks
The Iliac Crest by Cristina Rivera Garza
3.0
This novel really needs to be read in its original Spanish and that is no insult to Sarah Booker as I think she is one of the most talented and unflinching translators around at the moment. The Iliac Crest is a surrealist novel that is always moving across borders - between the real and fantasy, masculine and feminine, land and see. The Spanish language uses textual clues to help you navigate this hellishly claustrophobic novel as you become trapped in what feels like a fever dream. Reading it in English felt confusing and as though it’s initial impact was a little lost.
An unnamed narrator is living in isolation and is working for some sort of medical institution. They are visited first by an ex lover who is sick, and then by a stranger who calls herself Amparo Dávila and takes it on herself to look after the ex lover and push the narrator out of the picture.
The book gets increasingly more surreal and makes you question the evolution of gender and gender roles over time. What is it that defines the feeling of being feminine? The imagery in the novel is really strong especially the imagery centring on the middle of the cisgender women’s body like the uterus and pelvic region. It critiques the way that gender is controlled by those in power and how the language of gender has been used to suit those in power.
I don’t think I can say I fully enjoyed this book as I couldn’t follow what was happening for the majority of it, but I know that there is a lot being said in its language and imagery. Sarah Booker is a really ambitious translator and her translation of this novel has succeeded in making it as strange and complex as the Spanish original, but I also think it has become slightly impenetrable and a lot of the language clues which help guide the reader are missing.
An unnamed narrator is living in isolation and is working for some sort of medical institution. They are visited first by an ex lover who is sick, and then by a stranger who calls herself Amparo Dávila and takes it on herself to look after the ex lover and push the narrator out of the picture.
The book gets increasingly more surreal and makes you question the evolution of gender and gender roles over time. What is it that defines the feeling of being feminine? The imagery in the novel is really strong especially the imagery centring on the middle of the cisgender women’s body like the uterus and pelvic region. It critiques the way that gender is controlled by those in power and how the language of gender has been used to suit those in power.
I don’t think I can say I fully enjoyed this book as I couldn’t follow what was happening for the majority of it, but I know that there is a lot being said in its language and imagery. Sarah Booker is a really ambitious translator and her translation of this novel has succeeded in making it as strange and complex as the Spanish original, but I also think it has become slightly impenetrable and a lot of the language clues which help guide the reader are missing.