i love cristina rivera garza's prose and in a perfect world, this book would have been an ideal fit for me鈥攊'd just recently finished amparo d谩vila's i love cristina rivera garza's prose and in a perfect world, this book would have been an ideal fit for me鈥攊'd just recently finished amparo d谩vila's collection the houseguest so the late mexican writer's subject matter was fresh in my mind when i embarked on this. having said that.....i need to get better at reading weird, speculative, genre-defying work, especially the latin american strain. sometimes this book lost me but i appreciated the kooky concept and i feel like latin american writers in particular have this keen ability to cut through preconceived notions of novels/literature to create something you would never see an anglophone writer stand behind. this is that. amparo d谩vila, a real writer who represented a period of femicide/suffering emblematic of postcolonial mexican patriarchy, is a character in this slim book. i just love that. i didn't love the entire book, but that alone got me....more
LOVED the beginning of this. interest waned as i waded further into the stories. respect to liliana colanzi for covering so much ground though鈥攖his isLOVED the beginning of this. interest waned as i waded further into the stories. respect to liliana colanzi for covering so much ground though鈥攖his is truly an eclectic collection of stories. ...more
i loved the first story in this! i think after you've read one, you've essentially read them all. each story relies on the offscreen, dread-inducing ti loved the first story in this! i think after you've read one, you've essentially read them all. each story relies on the offscreen, dread-inducing tension of a "thing" (monster, animal, person) slowly closing in on the main character. often, the stories end before the "thing" is revealed or able to have a conclusive face-off with the main character in peril. the first three stories in particular followed a near identical format of a human having to figure out how to cohabitate with a monsterly creature in their house.
i think, for early twentieth century mexico (+ its relationship to patriarchy and gender-based violence), this format of dread/horror makes a lot of sense and i imagine packed more of a punch, especially in the local literary scene. today, i didn't find much to sink my teeth into. nonetheless, i appreciate the historical value of a collection like this and think amparo d谩vila was an undeniable darkhorse. 2.4/5....more
鈫� "first love": i was with this one for the first 2 pages while we set things up, then i realized the story was about seeing humanity in nazis because鈫� "first love": i was with this one for the first 2 pages while we set things up, then i realized the story was about seeing humanity in nazis because the war is over and they're 'just some guys' now, humbled by hard manual labor. i have to laugh. like specifically at all the scene work of wealthy people spitting on our main character for trying to fuck an aryan viking who was most certainly committing mass atrocities under hitler BITCH AM I SUPPOSED TO SHED A TEAR? he can die鉂わ笍
鈫� "look for my obituary": i enjoyed the atmosphere in this a lot. it's hard for me to buy into insta-love though, even when it's literary in nature, so the concept of a married man falling deeply in love with a girl on the run within moments of meeting her........girl you are not in love. you are just a man without self-control who hates his wife because she's the woman you chose. the writing here was much better than in "first love," however, specifically the stakes + pacing and the web of lies.
2.5/5. elena garro can write, i'm sure leagues beyond her infinitely more famous husband, the translation was great, but this was a questionable introduction to her. roberto bola帽o, i need to know what you thought of this woman. ...more
so much energy in this collection!!! not everything connected or cohered for me (this is wonderfully experimental in a lot of ways), but i loved 鈥渢hosso much energy in this collection!!! not everything connected or cohered for me (this is wonderfully experimental in a lot of ways), but i loved 鈥渢hose two鈥� 鈾ワ笍鈾ワ笍鈥硷笍...more
this was just okay....felt too disjointed to really sink into and the subject matter never connected for me (which is strange, because i love place-bathis was just okay....felt too disjointed to really sink into and the subject matter never connected for me (which is strange, because i love place-based writing!)...more
the girls that get it get it and i fear i am not one of those girls. what i will say about bola帽o is that he's a true visionary and represents for me the girls that get it get it and i fear i am not one of those girls. what i will say about bola帽o is that he's a true visionary and represents for me the best parts of latin american literature鈥攑articularly latin american literature in translation. he's unflinching and contentious, he takes risks in both content and form, he's not afraid to make enemies by bringing real writers and political figures + events into his work, his language is sprawling but ultimately accessible, and he has a polyvocal understanding of the novel that i think most anglophone writers (and readers) will find it difficult to navigate or even conceptualize, because we've grown up in such an individualistic culture + language.
that said, much of this was boring, it needed more gay sex, the garc铆a sections were laughably self-indulgent (part one reads a bit like self-insert Y/N fanfiction written by a 17-year-old boy, very authentically cringey, and maybe that's the point given garc铆a's existence is up for debate; his chosen one know-it-all role as a character would actually make this a very humorous writing choice), and the way bola帽o writes women leaves a lot to be desired.
the ending of the savage detectives was extremely mid鈥攜ou can barely call it a roadtrip interlude. there's very little sense of stakes during the third section, especially because we'd just gone through 40 odd newspaper-esque snapshots from other characters. now we're supposed to find our way back into caring about the original literary troupe, told through the eyes of a character we haven't seen or heard from in 300 or so odd pages. ultimately, the fate of a certain character pissed me off (iykyk) and confirmed my own feelings about the no stakes pacing.
this is a very "go forth and find meaning, then make literature while smoking and fucking and treading unfamiliar ground" male-coded novel, so i see why litfic bros regard it as their bible.
if you're a writer looking to tackle huge casts, bola帽o is an excellent master to learn from on a craft level. if not, this may be a slog. never let it be said, however, that this man wasn't having the time of his life while writing鈥攜ou can tell this project was a blast for him, full of heart and soul, and probably contains tons of (clandestine and not-so-clandestine) nods to his early life/experiences as a writer....more
the best part of this essay collection was how it started out like "i'm definitely a straight man btw no men for me!" and with each subsequent piece gthe best part of this essay collection was how it started out like "i'm definitely a straight man btw no men for me!" and with each subsequent piece got imperceptibly gayer over time...more
one of those books whose concepts/ideas far outweighed its execution, which i find is often the case with surrealism run astray. i loved the idea of lone of those books whose concepts/ideas far outweighed its execution, which i find is often the case with surrealism run astray. i loved the idea of la ropa usada, for example, and the set-up of that story, but the way it all came together left a lot to be desired. definitely a weird, enigmatic collection, and worth picking up if that's your thing. ...more
i was way more into the first one-third of this, and then it felt like the book lost momentum or became something else entirely. too much ground to coi was way more into the first one-third of this, and then it felt like the book lost momentum or became something else entirely. too much ground to cover with not enough restraint or style for me tbh. 2.9/5.
a few gorgeous standout moments though:
I worry that when birds take her into / themselves, / she鈥檒l become a fleck of their transience, but this is how we permeate / the cosmos, the twin of our breaths into wind, into / carbon, / into the tree鈥檚 colossal fingers reaching back from inside the earth.
mona was outrageous, controversial, sometimes silly, with long, cascading monologues and the sex-obsessed, dshe did what ottessa moshfegh couldn鈥檛鈥︹€︹€︹€�
mona was outrageous, controversial, sometimes silly, with long, cascading monologues and the sex-obsessed, drug-prone ennui characteristic of women leads in the domestic dread literary niche. but it worked for me. my god did it work!!!!!!! on a stylistic, aesthetic, satirical level, i was seated. even the plot set-up and swedish landscape worked for me. i enjoyed every second of the wild, boundary-bending ride. the ending only sealed the deal for me.
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