Month: May 2024

Simpatia by Rodrigo Blanco Calderon

~ winstonsdad ~ 4 Comments

Simpatia by Rodrigo Blanco Calderon

Venezuelan  fiction

Original title – Simpatía

Translator Noel Hermandez Gonzales and Daniel Hahn

Source = personal copy

I move on to another from the Booker international longlist. I have a couple more after this to review over the month. This was one of the books from this year’s longlist that I knew very little about although I do have a copy of Bogota 39, which had Rodrigo in it is a long while since I read that book, but it is always great to see another writer from that list of the best Latin American writers under 39 that came out in 2007 he was one of two writers from Venezuela that made the list. The book deals with a time when all the people with money and talent were leaving the country. This is the story of one who was left behind when his wife left him. We see Ulise’s Kan world.

Only now did he register the book that was directly in his line of vision. Its thick white spine stood out among the dark blue row of other volumes. He took it out and looked closely at the cover. He climbed off the chair, sat down, and read the title again: Collected Works of Elizabeth von Arnim. He checked the index and found the title that Martín had mentioned: All the Dogs of My Life. He knew enough English to understand the title at least. Perhaps Nadine could read it. He took the book with him, returned to the bathroom, and stored it away on a shelf under the sink. He came out again and headed for the bedroom. Nadine and Martin turned to see him come in, then went on talking.

One of the little Easter eggs early on in the book welll I felt they were easter eggs

This was when there was a drain of those who could leave Venezuela during the Maduro government. Ulise’s wife has decided to escape the struggling country. So when his father-in-law dies, Ulises is shocked when he is challenged by his father-in-law in the will to get HIS mansion, Los Argonauts and to have it up and running as. Dogs home with a set amount of time. This is a tale of those left behind, and when all the owners have left, there are a lot of stray dogs out there for him to rehome at the dog home with a couple the General had chosen alongside Ulises to set up the foundation for the dogs home. If he doesn’t complete the task within a set time, he will lose it all, including his own flat to his ex-wife and be homeless himself. But he is helped by the fact his father-in-law was high up in the army, so he sets out on his quest to find and rehome the strays and left behind dogs from the exodus of Venezuela.

General Ayala left specific instructions on where to set up: the clinic; the food, cleaning, and medical storage facilities; the administrative and accounting offices; Jesús and Mariela’s permanent bedroom; and many details more. Despite all this, the description of the project still did not account for all the available space at Los Argonautas. The one thing General Ayala didn’t leave a single word about was the garden. Should they install the dog kennels inside the house or in the garden? If the garden, they would need to build a roof. Should they use all the land or just part of it? And what would happen to Sonny, Fredo, and Michael if they used the whole garden?

His will set out what he wanted them to do!

This is a book that I wanted to love, but it maybe has a lot of ideas and maybe should been longer or less thrown into it . I loved the nod to the Ulysess myth with the name, a modern-day quest to save the dogs. It’s about family ties how. Even though his daughter and his son-in-law have split, he is still more connected to his son-in-law, who stayed, than his own daughter, who fled the country so which gives Ulises a chance to have a better life and gives use to the mansion after his death. This is about the system that caused so many to flee. That is the problem. It is a very heartfelt book, but I felt he just wanted to do so much in the book it maybe fell short due to that. I loved using dogs as what was left behind when everyone went. There are also a few that, if they were in a film, would be easter eggs like Bovilar Dog, books about dogs from famous writers we meet along the way. i hope to try another book by him at some point as there was a few bits of this I liked it just needed something a little not quite sure what but thats just a feeling I had. Have you read this or ay other books from Venezula?

Winston’s score is B. It just needs to be a little less or a little longer, but I loved some bits of it.

 

 

 

The observable universe by Heather McCalden

~ winstonsdad ~ 2 Comments

The observable universe by Heather McCalden

American Memoir

Source – subscription edition

I took a small subscription out for Fitzcarraldo and this was one of the first books to arrive. I have always found there choices of white books interesting and refreshing ansd this one by the multi discplinary artist Heather McCalden where she wants to find out about Aids as it had killed both her parents when she was young . Tis book is the sort of book I love it is made up of lots little vignettes that form a book that looks not only at AIDS the rise of tech and her broken memories of her mother.This fragment series of wrting is from an artistic mind as she layers one piece over another in the book. like her other art which ses photos this is a book that could have only be written by a visual artist.

ORIGIN

I was born in Los Angeles in 1982. In June of 1981, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention observed the emergence of a new cellular-immune dysfunction passed via sexual contact. The findings, published in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, cited an unusual cluster of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) cases as the evidence for this new condition. The cluster, located in Los Angeles, was formed of five men aged between twenty-nine and thirty-six, all described as ‘active homosexuals’ with no ‘clinically apparent underlying immunodefi-ciency.’ This was the first official account of what would become known as AIDS. During the early nineties my parents died of ‘AIDS-related complications.’

The orgins of Aids when it was first mentioned .

This is one off those books when you turn and read the first page it is likely yoiu could be sat for the next so many hours working your way through it what seems random thinks the sound of seashell then the mention of her mother doing the LA Marthon many years ago . slowly start to become like little mosaic pieces in the hunt for answers from how Aids start and was discovered the hysteria and homophobia at the stat of the Aids crisis. Then we have a paralell narratives around computers and how virus became part of the computer world. from the first networks how the us goverment built there network of computers. Then as it becomes world wide the computers. The piece I love are about her mom and the loves she had of crime dramas maybe  it is the fact I love nothing more than some escapism in a crime drama. There is a wonderful mix of facts and littel stories in thiss book.

A PLOT OF ATMOSPHERIC IMPRESSIONS

The stories of noir fiction are bleak in vibe with plots that never quite materialize. The reader is so embedded within the detective’s subjective experience of a case that a plot will only ever appear as a series of atmospheric impres-sions, which is a lot like how a city first appears when you drive through it at night, at age sixteen, not knowing what to do with yourself. The style and the glamour and the horror and the promise all streak through your peripheral vision, but none of it solidifies, becomes anything of import. It just remains a landscape to pass through, to pass the time away.

A thred of crime and noir fiction and shows thagt connect to her mother also LA was in a lot of Noir.

The world is connected in so many ways and this is one of those bokoks that has you thinking about the rise of tech and the internet and alongside that the Aids crisis that was happening at the same time as the internet firt blew up add to this a daughter seeking answers and as she does reliving memories you have a book that is a work of art itself . I was remind fo Alexander Kluge and Sebald at times. But also female writer like Olga Tokarczuk Flights or Ester kinsky grove which was about the lost of her husband in that book. I love this sort of book i feel it is like an art work the little mosaic tiles of the vignettes build a bigger picture when you move back from the book and  form a greater work.  A book that is part history , part memoir and part those little tales that aren’t quite history but are remember long after they happened. alongside images of LA . I’d missed this if I hadn’t got the subscription and I like it in many ways it is possible the best book I have read this year. Have you read this book or seen any of the Art she has made ?

Winstons score – A a book of little pieces that takes you from Lal to how aids was discopver and her mothers favourite crime shows thrown in for good measure.