Latin American Boom

[Daniel del Real]

Many things have been said about this movement and his key participants, but what about some other excellent writers from the same region that were out shadowed by it?

First of all, we need to define who was part of the boom, and the easy answer is that the main 4 were, without a doubt, GGM, MVLL, Cortázar & Fuentes.
One step behind we have writers like Roa Bastos, Donoso, Carpentier, Cabrera Infante, Lezama Lima, Asturias and Onetti, names that weren't always in the show lights but took advantage of it to be recognized and read in translation.

Then we have the outsiders, writers that were writing at that same time but without the reflectors the boom authors had but with the same quality of this group. So here are the names that I propose:

Manuel Puig
Ernesto Sábato
Antonio Di Benedetto
Juan José Saer
Mario Levrero
Julio Ramón Ribeyro
Álvaro Mutis

If you have more names, do tell.

 

[Stevie B]

No female boom authors, Daniel? How about Rosario Castellanos?

 

[Daniel del Real]

There have been many complains that Boom was only focused on men, giving the impression of the Latin American macho with female & homosexual authors being neglected. That is the case with Rosario Castellanos, Elena Garro or Manuel Puig.

 

[OverTheMountains]

To be honest, it is one of my great frustrations about being in Colombia now. I want to read great books by great women in Spanish, but most of the writers who are regarded as the best from the Boom (and even now) are men. Specifically, very latino men. Which isn't to say that they aren't wonderful writers, but that they are largely incapable of imagining or working in a mindset that honours women outside of the bounds of traditional patriarchy. I love GGM, for example, but goodness me is that man bad at writing about and from the perspective of women. The same goes for MVL.

There are good voices, though, and they are gaining more and more prominence in latino communities. Laura Restrepo, for example, is one of the most popular and highly regarded writers in Colombia. Isabel Allende as well, but for Chile (though many here don't seem to like her much). But there aren't a ton of others.

Question - is the Latin Boom reserved for the Spanish speaking countries? If not, then Brazil has a few figures to add to the list I'm sure.

My additions to the list would be - Silvina Ocampo and her two contemporaries, Adolfo Bioy Casares and the less well-known but important Jorge Luis Borges.

 

[Daniel del Real]

Borges is a figure that precedes Latin American Boom. He was there before. The beginning of the Boom is generally associated with the publication of Cien Años de Soledad in 1967. By that time, Borges had already been nominated 6 times to the Nobel Prize. To be fair, that would apply as well with Asturias, nominated at least twice by that time. Ocampo and Bioy are for sure figures present at the Boom, pretty much guided by the omnipresent Borges.

You're right about the lack of women in literature at that time, but I think this is changing. From the new wave I've recently read I can recommend Guadalupe Nettel, Mariana Enriquez, Samanta Schweblin, Selva Almada and Valeria Luiselli, all of them very young.

 

[JCamilo]

To be honest, it is one of my great frustrations about being in Colombia now. I want to read great books by great women in Spanish, but most of the writers who are regarded as the best from the Boom (and even now) are men. Specifically, very latino men. Which isn't to say that they aren't wonderful writers, but that they are largely incapable of imagining or working in a mindset that honours women outside of the bounds of traditional patriarchy. I love GGM, for example, but goodness me is that man bad at writing about and from the perspective of women. The same goes for MVL.

There are good voices, though, and they are gaining more and more prominence in latino communities. Laura Restrepo, for example, is one of the most popular and highly regarded writers in Colombia. Isabel Allende as well, but for Chile (though many here don't seem to like her much). But there aren't a ton of others.

Question - is the Latin Boom reserved for the Spanish speaking countries? If not, then Brazil has a few figures to add to the list I'm sure.

The boom is not a literary movement per si, in the similar fashion of the modernist movements, you can tell by the differences between the most notorious names of the boom, styles, themes, political instance all different and it is more a occurance that marked a change on the european view on Latin American writers and the opening of the marketing for them. As such, the brazilians were not in the group (there is very little integration between brazilian culture and the rest of latin american culture) even if some of the authors (Llosa) had some ties with us. We had good literature, but when boom started we had a militar coup here and it hit hard our cultural production (ou movies from Glauber Rocha to porn-like comedy, our music took a heavy hit, our literature lost Guimarães Rosa and soon would lost Drummond but never replaced the big modernists) so we couldn't be part of this marketing even. Brazil also couldn't be put together in Argentina when you think in the number of readers and literate population. They were (and still are) way ahead of us.

Now, there is a "revisionism" that have the tendency to include among the magic realism writer (neither such organized movement, but more close to it) and a late bloom writers like Jorge Amado but this is pushing too hard.

My additions to the list would be - Silvina Ocampo and her two contemporaries, Adolfo Bioy Casares and the less well-known but important Jorge Luis Borges.

Funny enough, despite the lack of women, the boss of argentina's literatura was Silvina sister Victoria. Borges was the big writting name, but Victoria ruled the intelectual groups.

 

[Ben Jackson]

From Latin Boom generation, I have only read Fuentes, Marquez and Llosa. Still hope to tead The Tunnel, Kiss of the SpiderWoman, I, the Supreme, Cabral Infante, Elena Garro and the rest later. Some of the writers were nominated for the Nobel: Puig in 1982, Onetti in 1980 and Sabato in 1999 and 2009, Carpentier in 1967. The generation only produced Marquez, Vargas Llosa and Asturias for the Nobel Prize. Fuentes was shortlisted for years though.

A blessed generation I would say.

 

[Benny Profane]

Adding Brazilian authors:

1) Jorge Amado;
2) Graciliano Ramos;
3) Dias Gomes (author of "O Pagador de Promessas", the only Brazilian film which won "Palm d'Or" in Cannes);
4) Rachel de Queiroz;
5) Marques Rebelo;
6) Clarice Lispector (some works by her were classified as "Magical Realism");
7) Osman Lins (some works by him were classified as "Nouveau Roman");
8) Adalgisa Nery (some works by her were classified as "Nouveau Roman");
9) Brazilian Avant-Garde Drama in 1960s known here as "Teatro de Arena" [or Circular Drama] (Plínio Marcos, Oduvaldo Vianna Filho, Gianfrancesco Guarnieri, Augusto Boal, Leilah Assumpção, Consuelo de Castro, Alcione Araújo, Antônio Bivar, Jorge Andrade etc) - more names, @Leseratte ?;
10) Hilda Hilst;
11) Lygia Fagundes Telles;
12) Campos de Carvalho;
13) The poets: Carlos Drummond de Andrade, Jorge de Lima, Neo-Concrete Brazilian Poetry (Ferreira Gular, de Campos brothers), etc;

etc.

 

[Leseratte]

Adding Brazilian authors:

1) Jorge Amado;
2) Graciliano Ramos;
3) Dias Gomes (author of "O Pagador de Promessas", the only Brazilian film which won "Palm d'Or" in Cannes);
4) Rachel de Queiroz;
5) Marques Rebelo;
6) Clarice Lispector (some works by her were classified as "Magical Realism");
7) Osman Lins (some works by him were classified as "Nouveau Roman");
8) Adalgisa Nery (some works by her were classified as "Nouveau Roman");
9) Brazilian Avant-Garde Drama in 1960s known here as "Teatro de Arena" [or Circular Drama] (Plínio Marcos, Oduvaldo Vianna Filho, Gianfrancesco Guarnieri, Augusto Boal, Leilah Assumpção, Consuelo de Castro, Alcione Araújo, Antônio Bivar, Jorge Andrade etc) - more names, @Leseratte ?;
10) Hilda Hilst;
11) Lygia Fagundes Telles;
12) Campos de Carvalho;
13) The poets: Carlos Drummond de Andrade, Jorge de Lima, Neo-Concrete Brazilian Poetry (Ferreira Gular, de Campos brothers), etc;

etc.

I would include Chico Buarque´s operas and plays :

• 967/8: Roda Viva
• 1973: Calabar (coauthored with Ruy Guerra)
• 1975: Gota d'água
• 1978: Ópera do Malandro (based on John Gay's Beggar's Opera and Bertolt Brecht's Threepenny Opera)
• 1983: O Grande Circo Místico-

 

[wordeater]

To me these are the Big Six:

• Gabriel García Márquez (Colombia; novels and short stories)
• Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru; novels)
• Isabel Allende (Chile; novels)
• Jorge Amado (Brazil; novels)
• Jorge Luis Borges (Argentina; short stories)
• Pablo Neruda (Chile; poetry)

 

[Daniel del Real]

No Fuentes, Donoso, Onetti, Ribeyro, Cortázar but Isabel Allende...

 

[Liam]

To be fair, she IS a big name, ?

 

[tiganeasca]

To be fair, she IS a big name, ?

So is Barbara Cartland. And Jacqueline Susann. And Danielle Steele. Or Harold Robbins.

 

[Liam]

I don't disagree, but none of those authors was included in the Contemporary Classics series by Everyman's Library ?

 

[Stevie B]

No Fuentes, Donoso, Onetti, Ribeyro, Cortázar but Isabel Allende...

I just noticed a book of Julio Ramon Ribeyro's short stories was published several years ago by New York Review Books (Alejandro Zambra wrote the intro). Prior to this, I think only a couple of his books had been previously available in English (former WLF member John Penuel translated one of them). At least the NYRB book is reasonably priced.

 

[tiganeasca]

I don't disagree, but none of those authors was included in the Contemporary Classics series by Everyman's Library ?

Only a matter of time.

 

[tiganeasca]

I just noticed a book of Julio Ramon Ribeyro's short stories was published several years ago by New York Review Books (Alejandro Zambra wrote the intro). Prior to this, I think only a couple of his books had been previously available in English (former WLF member John Penuel translated one of them). At least the NYRB book is reasonably priced.

View attachment 2134

Absolutely correct; you can find a little more about the book (and his works in English) here.

 

[Stevie B]

Absolutely correct; you can find a little more about the book (and his works in English) here.

Thanks for the link, Dave. I missed your earlier post. I hadn't heard of this author prior to John referencing his translation, but I have read praise for his writing from several major authors, including Mario Vargas Llosa.

 

[Verkhovensky]

I really need to read Isabel Allende, just to see why there are such strong opinions about her

Also, has anyone here read Mario Benedetti, Uruguayan author who can be classified as a member of Boom at least by his date of birth (born in 1920)? I liked his charming novel about growing up La borra del cafe. One of his novels was made into Oscar-nominated movie.

 

[Stevie B]

I really need to read Isabel Allende, just to see why there are such strong opinions about her

Also, has anyone here read Mario Benedetti, Uruguayan author who can be classified as a member of Boom at least by his date of birth (born in 1920)? I liked his charming novel about growing up La borra del cafe. One of his novels was made into Oscar-nominated movie.

I've read some short stories in his collection Blood Pact, and I recently bought a copy of Springtime in a Broken Mirror. That "novel" deals with the challenges of living in exile. I believe The Truce is Benedetti's best known book. It was adapted to the big screen in the mid-70s and is considered to be one of Argentina’s greatest films. Have you seen it?