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For a long time, I have believed that a truly great novel is one which contains a sliver of divinity, something which makes me want to believe in the power and glory of God. As an atheist, that feels like...
Spanish
The Savage Detectives
Ema, The Captive
This book is a bit difficult to describe. I think the author’s note said something about it being an “inverted gothic romance,” which, like, fair, I guess. Ema, the captive, experiences the inverse of gothic romance, experiences the worst that...
The Journey
I mean, a personal predilection for just a little bit of pretension, for the fluency with literature and the literati, definitely does have an impact on my opinion of Sergio Pitol - lists of names and works and influences and...
Don Quixote
A bit awkward at times, a bit of a mouthful, as perhaps waranted given centuries of separation. Like a young deer struggling to walk, there are moments of grace and wit that are astounding - but of course my metaphor...
House of Spirits
The thing is, Gabriel García Márquez is tough competition. This is One Hundred Years of Solitude with worse writing and better politics, I am not likely the first to say, but the writing is in fact still briliant. The story...
The Art of Flight
Part autobiography, part literary criticism. I was a bit skeptical at first, and maybe to a certain extent throughout the entirety - while most of it is beautifully wrought, there is a tendency for Pitol just to simply start listing...
Chronicle of a Death Foretold
Ficciones
Love in the Time of Cholera
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