A review by rouge_red
The Obscene Bird of Night by José Donoso

challenging dark reflective slow-paced

3.5

How did I manage to read two books about alienation so close together? The idea of being divorced from one's body, to be removed from society, whether self-imposed or forced upon oneself, there are so many ways the characters in this book, from Mudito/Humberto Penaloza, Boy in La Riconanda, Ines, and the women living in the Casa- there's a feeling of being trapped in an endless cycle, of having your humanity stripped away by others but also losing your own sense of decency in the process. It's hard to explain, but the games these women and Mudito play are never innocuous; in fact, we escalate in such a depraved way by the end of the novel. IIt doesn't actually seem like the women of the Casa have lost their minds (at least not all of them), but it seems they've all agreed that their games are just that- games. And I guess we could say the same of Boy's behavior in La Riconanda and how Jeronimo's story ended.  We'll say Donoso knew what to do to make me uncomfortable...

What can I say? This was dark, disturbing and casually cruel. I'm not sure I got the magical realism of it because so much of it felt like reading the thoughts of a person unraveling or between that and lucidity. That is to say someone believed what they were saying...Boy, this was a strange and bleak novel. It was stimulating in many ways, although I wouldn't say I particularly enjoyed it.