Tue 2009/Feb/24

• On my trip to Chile, last November, I bought a small bunch of books from the Latin American authors I've been interested to read for a while but never managed. During the idle time in A Coruña (which was much more than what I would normally like), the vacations in Germany, and now in the Helsinki winter, I managed to read them almost all.

  One of the most interesting ones was El Roto, by Joaquín Edwards Bello. This novel from the beginning of the XX century describes in a very direct way the Chilean society and the enormous social differences (something that unfortunately is still a problem), while criticizing the role the Catholic Church had on this. It is not a big surprise that this book was censured on its first publications, in times when the Church had a huge influence in the Chilean society.

  Also read Llamadas Telefónicas, by Roberto Bolaño. The short stories are quite interesting to read, nothing really brilliant, but somehow the writing style of Bolaño caught me. Most of the main characters in these stories share an inability to remember somewhat important details on what they are telling, so phrases like "she told me her last words, or maybe not really her last words but something important, the point is that I don't remember anymore" are quite common. I wonder if that's a reflection of Bolaño's personality.

  Anyway, I also read a couple of compilations by Cortázar (Bestiario and Todos los fuegos el fuego), and I'm currently reading a compilation of poems by Nicanor Parra and Vargas Llosa's La Fiesta del Chivo. It had been a while since I last felt so passionate about reading, so that partly explains why I've been a bit away from computers in my free time.

Syndicated 2009-02-24 13:18:00 from Claudio Saavedra's ChangeLog