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A review by danacoledares
The Kingdom of This World by Alejo Carpentier
3.0
I feel all kinds of ways about this, most of it not related to the book, but to the author. It's a novel(la?) whose style the author referred to as the "real maravilloso," marvelous reality, and it strongly influenced magical realism as a style and even genre.
He was born in Switzerland, but his family emigrated to Cuba when he was very young, and he was raised in Havana. As an adult, he lived in Paris and in Venezuela for over a decade each. What was it that made him choose to write about Haiti, a country he'd only visited? It feels somewhat appropriative, and the style and tone reek of exoticism, particularly given the vivid description that is both luscious and putrescent.
I am skeptical of his ongoing apparent derision for earlier styles, his insistence particularly on abandoning European art, culture, and customs – or, rather, the idea that such would even be possible. Ignoring the influence of the ideas that shaped your own just strikes me as incredibly arrogant.
He was born in Switzerland, but his family emigrated to Cuba when he was very young, and he was raised in Havana. As an adult, he lived in Paris and in Venezuela for over a decade each. What was it that made him choose to write about Haiti, a country he'd only visited? It feels somewhat appropriative, and the style and tone reek of exoticism, particularly given the vivid description that is both luscious and putrescent.
I am skeptical of his ongoing apparent derision for earlier styles, his insistence particularly on abandoning European art, culture, and customs – or, rather, the idea that such would even be possible. Ignoring the influence of the ideas that shaped your own just strikes me as incredibly arrogant.