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A review by jaclyn_sixminutesforme
The Remainder by Alia Trabucco Zerán
4.0
The Remainder is another new release now available worldwide that you will want to pop on your TBR this month.It recently was a nominee for the Man Booker International Prize 2019. It is a road trip narrative told through the alternating perspectives of two friends, Felipe and Iquela. A childhood acquaintance, Paloma, comes back into Iquela’s life as an adult, and the three find themselves on this road-trip when Paloma’s mother dies overseas and her body goes missing on its journey back to her.
Structurally this is an immediately fascinating story as the first chapter that the book opens with is chapter eleven. These numerical chapters countdown as the novel progresses, and are told from Felipe’s perspective. They are brimming with lengthy, stream-of-consciousness style sentences, and feel incredibly immersive and hypnotizing to read. We then alternate with chapters told from Iquela’s perspective, with her chapters imply titled with open parenthesis. Both characters openly grapple with the trauma of their parents, and the experiences of Chile under the legacy of the Pinochet dictatorship. This is really well drawn in Felipe’s narrative, as his perspective is consumed with this count he is undertaking of bodies, both literal and imagined.
The narrative also expressly grapples with the translation process - Iquela works as a translator, and has many discussions (particularly regarding Paloma) about language and how meaning and nuance can be lost as people lose their touch with it over time. It makes for an interesting discussion to read, particularly given what a seamless translation this novel was itself!
Structurally this is an immediately fascinating story as the first chapter that the book opens with is chapter eleven. These numerical chapters countdown as the novel progresses, and are told from Felipe’s perspective. They are brimming with lengthy, stream-of-consciousness style sentences, and feel incredibly immersive and hypnotizing to read. We then alternate with chapters told from Iquela’s perspective, with her chapters imply titled with open parenthesis. Both characters openly grapple with the trauma of their parents, and the experiences of Chile under the legacy of the Pinochet dictatorship. This is really well drawn in Felipe’s narrative, as his perspective is consumed with this count he is undertaking of bodies, both literal and imagined.
The narrative also expressly grapples with the translation process - Iquela works as a translator, and has many discussions (particularly regarding Paloma) about language and how meaning and nuance can be lost as people lose their touch with it over time. It makes for an interesting discussion to read, particularly given what a seamless translation this novel was itself!