Daniel del Real
20-Jul-2009, 21:55
This was my second trip into Aira?s deconstructed universe of short novels. My entry was with Ghosts a novel which basically left me without a flavor, being difficult to evaluate an author that many people praise and that even Carlos Fuentes dares to say in his novel The Eagle Throne?s he will be the first Argentinian to receive the Nobel Prize.
After finishing this second novel, quite better than Ghosts in my personal opinion, he still seems far away from being one of the top writers contending for the prize, not even among the best ones in Spanish language (Vargas Llosa, Fuentes, Mar?as, S?bato, Delibes are still better options).
This is a simple story about a boy named Cesar, who used to live in a small town named Pringles and at the age of six emigrates with his parents to the city of Rosario. In the first chapter his father takes him to get an ice cream for the first time. The unexpected result is that he hates it. His father cannot believe that he doesn?t like it, until he tastes it and confirms that, indeed the flavor is terrible and his son is telling the truth. After this, the father complains with the owner of the ice-cream parlor, and in this situation something happens that changes Cesar?s life forever.
After this episode, Cesar keeps on telling his life and the way he is always opposing to reality using different games to trick the people around him, including his mother, his friends at school, teachers and his own mind.
There were two things that intrigued me about the novel. The story is told by a first person narrator, Cesar. However he always refers to himself as a she. And of course it has to deal with the title, which I can?t find no direct connection with the story. Maybe some of you who have read the novel can tell me why this is.
After all this is a lineal story that flows much better than Ghosts and doesn?t get lost with side stories without importance like the before mentioned Aira?s novel. It is a very entertaining piece of literature, but again it falls short of showimg something really transcendent for Latin American literature.
Good but still ages away from Mar?as and Bola?o?s masterpieces.
***00+
After finishing this second novel, quite better than Ghosts in my personal opinion, he still seems far away from being one of the top writers contending for the prize, not even among the best ones in Spanish language (Vargas Llosa, Fuentes, Mar?as, S?bato, Delibes are still better options).
This is a simple story about a boy named Cesar, who used to live in a small town named Pringles and at the age of six emigrates with his parents to the city of Rosario. In the first chapter his father takes him to get an ice cream for the first time. The unexpected result is that he hates it. His father cannot believe that he doesn?t like it, until he tastes it and confirms that, indeed the flavor is terrible and his son is telling the truth. After this, the father complains with the owner of the ice-cream parlor, and in this situation something happens that changes Cesar?s life forever.
After this episode, Cesar keeps on telling his life and the way he is always opposing to reality using different games to trick the people around him, including his mother, his friends at school, teachers and his own mind.
There were two things that intrigued me about the novel. The story is told by a first person narrator, Cesar. However he always refers to himself as a she. And of course it has to deal with the title, which I can?t find no direct connection with the story. Maybe some of you who have read the novel can tell me why this is.
After all this is a lineal story that flows much better than Ghosts and doesn?t get lost with side stories without importance like the before mentioned Aira?s novel. It is a very entertaining piece of literature, but again it falls short of showimg something really transcendent for Latin American literature.
Good but still ages away from Mar?as and Bola?o?s masterpieces.
***00+