Exist Ghost - Philip Roth

Roth is without a doubt one of the greatest living American writers, if not the greatest, yet, throughout his career, he has been the target of noisome and often misguided criticism. The complaints often boil down to Roth being anti-Semitic (ludicrous), misogynistic (overstated) and onanistic (what writer ultimately isn't?). In particular, criticism coming out of commentary in the '70s and '80s dismissed Roth's work as hyped, self-absorbed and not reaching the highest literary standard of being worth reading again. But I believe that most of Roth's work, and certainly "Exit Ghost," gain greater emotional depth and yield further literary richness with each subsequent reading.

Philip Roth's last book, Everyman, was a brief, bleak masterpiece about dying. It begins with the funeral of its nameless protagonist and then rapidly, unsparingly, takes us back through his life, as he loses everything that has ever mattered to him, through ageing, illness and the nearing of death.

It was a crushing statement of mortality, and some readers reacted to it with shock as it seemed to leave Roth with nowhere to go. Nowhere forward, perhaps. His new novel, Exit Ghost, his 28th book, thus goes back, into mere old age, not actual extinction. It is his ninth work of fiction employing his chief alter ego, the writer Nathan Zuckerman, who first appeared in My Life as a Man (1974) and was the centre of such novels as The Counterlife (1986), before playing a more tangential role in the likes of American Pastoral and The Human Stain.

Exist Ghost, o novo romance de Philip Roth.

A polémica em torno da biografia de Günter Grass (Descando a Cebola) e o seu 80.º aniversário, com uma boa recolha de links para artigos sobre o impacto mediático deste tema nos últimos tempos.

Expiação - Ian McEwan

A acção de Expiação (Gradiva) passa-se em 1935, na altura em que Briony Tallis uma rapariga de 13 anos está à beira de se tornar mulher. A partir de acontecimentos que vê mas que não entende, ela torna-se responsável pela prisão de um homem inocente, (Robbie, o namorado da sua irmã mais velha).
Anos mais tarde, durante a Segunda Guerra Mundial, Briony tenta expiar a sua culpa trabalhando como enfermeira, cuidando das pilhas de homens feridos que chegam de Dunquerque, onde o próprio Robbie se encontra.
Expiação foi nomeado para o Booker Prize e para o Whitbread Award 2001.

O Homem dos Autógrafos - Zadie Smith

O Homem dos Autógrafos (Dom Quixote) de Zadie Smith conta a história de Alex-Li Tandem, um jovem, meio judeu, meio chinês obcecado por celebridades dum suburbio de Londres. É um ávido coleccionador de autógrafos que procura desesperadamente obter um de Kitty Alexander, uma obscura atriz dos anos 50. Apesar da companhia do seu melhor amigo e da sua bela namorada, Alex concentra-se apenas em si próprio e no que não tem. Uma interessante incursão pelos temas da fama, mistura de culturas, amigos, familia e do valor que damos ao que não temos enquanto ignoramos o que realmente temos, O Homem dos Autógrafos é um livro que acaba por não ser tão cativante como "Dentes Brancos".

Na Praia de Chesil - Ian McEwan

Na Praia de Chesil (Gradiva) conta a noite de núpcias de Florence e Edward num hotel perto da praia de Chesil, na costa de Dorset. É uma noite de ansiedade e medo para ambos. Edward é um historiador de provincia que se casou acima do seu estatuto social quando escolheu Florence. Os poucos momentos de quase intimidade que partilharam foram momentos de angustia. Edward está ansioso por poder finalmente possuir a sua noiva, mas ela tem um medo desesperado do sexo. Partilham uma desconfortável refeição antes de se retiram para o quarto, antecipando a noite de núpcias numa época em que qualquer conversa ou conhecimento sobre as dificuldades do sexo eram raras.

O Fantasma de Hitler - Norman Mailer

Je crois simplement que le patriotisme est une émotion dangereuse car essentiellement antihumaniste.

Norman Mailer em entrevista ao Figaro Littéraire, a propósito de O Fantasma de Hitler (Dom Quixote).

O Fantasma de Hitler (The Castle in the Forest)conta a história da infância de Hitler vista por Dieter, o demónio enviado para o guiar no seu caminho de destruição. Mailer explora a ideia de Hitler não ter herança judia mas ser o produto de incesto.

Cinema Brasileiro no Festival de Hamburgo

A 15.ª edição do Festival de Cinema de Hamburgo apresenta quatro novos filmes brasileiros.
Baixio das Bestas, realizado por Cláudio Assis.

O Cheiro do Ralo, realizado por Heiter Dhalia

A Via Láctea, realizado por Lina Chamie

e o documentário "Fabricando Tom Zé", realizado por Décio Matos Jr.

Os juris dos prémios Femina e Médicis divulgaram já as listas dos candidados deste ano.

Para o Femina concorrem:
Na categoria de Romance Francês:

• Gilles Leroy, Alabama Song (Mercure),
• Éric Fottorino, Baisers de cinéma (Gallimard),
• Christophe Donner, Un roi sans lendemain (Grasset),
• Dominique Barbéris, Quelque chose à cacher (Gallimard),
• Olivier et Patrick Poivre d'Arvor, J'ai tant rêvé de toi (Albin Michel),
• Claude Pujade-Renaud, Le Désert de la grâce (Actes Sud),
• Marie Darrieussecq, Tom est mort (P.O.L),
• Jean Pérol, Le soleil se couche à Nippori (La Différence),
• Dominique Schneidre, Ce qu'en dit James (Seuil),
• Jean Clausel, Cherche mère désespérément (Rocher),
• Nathacha Appanah, Le Dernier Frère (L'Olivier),
• Amanda Devi, Indian Tango (Gallimard),
• David Foenkinos, Qui se souvient de David Foenkinos ? (Gallimard),
• Linda Lê, In memoriam (Christian Bourgois).
• Na categoria de Romance Estrangeiro.
• Daniel Mendelsohn, Les Disparus (Flammarion),
• Milena Agus, Mal de pierres (Liana Levi),
• Arto Paasilinna, Le Bestial Serviteur du pasteur Huuskonen (Denoël),
• Alessandro Baricco, Cette histoire-là (Gallimard),
• Dinaw Mengestu, Les Belles Choses que porte le ciel (Albin Michel),
• Joseph O'Connor, Redemption Falls (Phébus),
• Marisha Pessl, La Physique des catastrophes (Gallimard)

Para o Médicis concorrem:

• Charles Dantzig, Je m'appelle François (Grasset),
• Vincent Delecroix, La Chaussure sur le toit (Gallimard),
• Olivier Adam, À l'abri de rien (L'Olivier),
• Philippe Forest, Le Nouvel Amour (Gallimard),
• Antoine Volodine, Songes de Mevlido (Seuil),
• Jean Hatzfeld, La Stratégie des antilopes (Seuil),
• Charif Majdalani, Caravansérail (Seuil),
• Éric Reinhardt, Cendrillon (Stock),
• Jean-Paul Kauffmann, La Maison du retour (Nil),
• Jean-François Haas, Dans la gueule de la baleine guerre (Seuil),
• Jeanne Labrune, L'Obscur (Grasset).

Os vendedores vão ser conhecidos a 12 de Novembro.

Junot Díaz

11 anos depois de Submerso - "Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao". Mais

"Epifanias" dá D. Diniz a Fernando Echevarria. Mais
E Ana Teresa Pereira, Deana Barroqueiro e Theresa Schedel de Castello-Branco ganham os Prémios Máxima 2007. Mais

Isabel Allende

Com novo livro "La suma de los días", em entrevista.

O Dominicano Junot Díaz autor do excelente livro de contos Submerso (Difel 1999), publicou o seu primeiro romance "Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao".

Segue a crítica publicada no NY Times.

A Dominican Comedy: Travails of an Outcast
By Michiko Kakutani

Junot Díaz’s “Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” is a wondrous, not-so-brief first novel that is so original it can only be described as Mario Vargas Llosa meets “Star Trek” meets David Foster Wallace meets Kanye West. It is funny, street-smart and keenly observed, and it unfolds from a comic portrait of a second-generation Dominican geek into a harrowing meditation on public and private history and the burdens of familial history. An extraordinarily vibrant book that’s fueled by adrenaline-powered prose, it’s confidently steered through several decades of history by a madcap, magpie voice that’s equally at home talking about Tolkien and Trujillo, anime movies and ancient Dominican curses, sexual shenanigans at Rutgers University and secret police raids in Santo Domingo.

Mr. Díaz, the author of a critically acclaimed collection of short stories published in 1996 (“Drown”), writes in a sort of streetwise brand of Spanglish that even the most monolingual reader can easily inhale: lots of flash words and razzle-dazzle talk, lots of body language on the sentences, lots of David Foster Wallace-esque footnotes and asides. And he conjures with seemingly effortless aplomb the two worlds his characters inhabit: the Dominican Republic, the ghost-haunted motherland that shapes their nightmares and their dreams; and America (a k a New Jersey), the land of freedom and hope and not-so-shiny possibilities that they’ve fled to as part of the great Dominican diaspora.

Oscar, Mr. Díaz’s homely homeboy hero, is “not one of those Dominican cats everybody’s always going on about — he wasn’t no home-run hitter or a fly bachatero, not a playboy” with a million hot girls on the line. No, Oscar is a fat, self-loathing dweeb and aspiring science fiction writer, who dreams of becoming “the Dominican Tolkien.” He’s one of those kids who tremble with fear during gym class and use “a lot of huge-sounding nerd words like indefatigable and ubiquitous” when talking to kids who could barely finish high school. He moons after girls who won’t give him the time of day and enters and leaves college a sad virgin. He wears “his nerdiness like a Jedi wore his light saber”; he “couldn’t have passed for Normal if he’d wanted to.”

Two of this novel’s narrators, Oscar’s beautiful sister, Lola — a “Banshees-loving punk chick,” who becomes “one of those tough Jersey dominicanas” who order men about like houseboys — and Yunior, Oscar’s college roommate and Lola’s onetime boyfriend, do their best to try to get him to shape up. They exhort him to eat less and exercise more, to leave his dorm room and venture out into the world.

Oscar makes a halfhearted effort and then tells Yunior to leave him alone. He goes back to his writing, his day-dreams, his suicidal thoughts. Yunior (who seems very much like the Yunior who appeared in some of Mr. Díaz’s short stories) begins to think that Oscar may be living under a family curse, “a high-level fukú” not unlike the curse on the House of Atreus, which has doomed him, like his mother, to lasting unhappiness in love.

In due course we also hear the story of Oscar and Lola’s mother, Beli, a tough, tough-talking woman whose hard-nosed street cred is rooted in a childhood of almost unimaginable pain and loss: her wealthy father, tortured and incarcerated by the Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo’s thugs; her mother, run over by a truck after her husband’s imprisonment; her two sisters, dead in freak, suspicious accidents.

The orphaned Beli herself was abused and beaten before being rescued by her father’s kindly cousin, and as a teenager she has a disastrous affair with a charismatic and dangerous man known as the Gangster — one of Trujillo’s men, who happens to be married to Trujillo’s sister. That affair culminates in a savage beating in the cane fields, a beating that nearly ends Beli’s life and that will propel her toward a new life in exile in the United States.

Mr. Díaz writes about the Trujillo era of the Dominican Republic with the same authority he writes about contemporary New Jersey, the slangy, kinetic energy of his prose proving to be a remarkably effective tool for capturing the absurdities of the human condition, be they the true horrors of living in a dictatorship that can erase a person or a family on a whim, or the self-indulgent difficulties of being a college student coping with issues of weight and self-esteem.

Here is Mr. Díaz writing about Trujillo: “Homeboy dominated Santo Domingo like it was his very own private Mordor; not only did he lock the country away from the rest of the world, isolate it behind the Plátano Curtain, he acted like it was his very own plantation, acted like he owned everything and everyone, killed whomever he wanted to kill, sons, brothers, fathers, mothers, took women away from their husbands on their wedding nights and then would brag publicly about ‘the great honeymoon’ he’d had the night before. His Eye was everywhere; he had a Secret Police that out-Stasi’d the Stasi, that kept watch on everyone, even those everyones who lived in the States.”

It is Mr. Díaz’s achievement in this galvanic novel that he’s fashioned both a big picture window that opens out on the sorrows of Dominican history, and a small, intimate window that reveals one family’s life and loves. In doing so, he’s written a book that decisively establishes him as one of contemporary fiction’s most distinctive and irresistible new voices.

Fonte: NY Times

Foi desclassificado o dossier do MI5 sobre George Orwell.

George Orwell's left-wing views and bohemian clothes led British police to label him a communist - but the MI5 spy agency stepped in to correct that view, the writer's newly released security file reveals.

The secret file that MI5 kept on the author from 1929 until his death in 1950 is being declassified today by the National Archives.

It reveals that in contrast to the fictional "Big Brother", the cruel and all-seeing secret police of Orwell's classic 1984, MI5 took a surprisingly benign view of the writer.

Orwell savaged the totalitarianism of Stalin's Russia in Animal Farm and 1984.

But he was also a socialist who railed against inequality in earlier works such as Down and Out in Paris and London and The Road to Wigan Pier.

The documents show Orwell - whose real name was Eric Arthur Blair - attracted the attention of police in 1936 for alleged "communist activities in Wigan."

Then 33, he had gone to the mining town to research a book about working-class life in northern England.

MI5 had already been watching Orwell since 1929, when he was a struggling journalist in Paris, attempting to write for left-wing publications.

In 1942, Orwell drew police interest again while working for the Indian service of the British Broadcasting Corp.

A report by a sergeant named Ewing of Special Branch, the British police intelligence wing, said Orwell had "advanced communist views, and several of his Indian friends say they have often seen him at communist meetings."

"He dresses in a bohemian fashion both at his office and in his leisure hours," police noted.

The file shows that MI5 took no action against Orwell over Ewing's report.

In a note, an MI5 officer named W Ogilvie reveals that he phoned Special Branch to ask why Ewing had described Orwell as having "advanced Communist views."

A police inspector replied that the sergeant felt Orwell was an "unorthodox communist."

"I gathered that the good Sergeant was rather at a loss as to how he could describe this rather individual line," Ogilvie wrote.

"It is evident from his recent writings ... that he does not hold with the Communist Party nor they with him," he added.

The Special Branch files on Orwell were released by the archives in 2005. MI5's response had been secret until now.

It was declassified as part of a phased release of MI5 files under the Freedom of Information Act, which was passed in 2005.

Other documents in the file reveal MI5 did not consider Orwell a security risk.

In 1943, it was asked whether Orwell should be accredited as a journalist with Allied armed forces headquarters.

"The Security Service have records of this man, but raise no objection to his appointment," was the reply.

A year earlier MI5 had approved Orwell's wife Eileen as suitable for employment with the Ministry of Food.

Despite his lifelong socialist views, in 1949, a year before his death at 46, Orwell gave the government a list of people he thought were Stalinist sympathisers or "fellow travellers."

The declassified file includes photographs, Orwell's passport application and a 1936 Special Branch summary of his career, which began conventionally - education at the elite Eton College and service as a colonial police officer in Burma - before taking a radical turn.

Special Branch notes that he "eked out a precarious living" as a freelance journalist and moved to France to research Down and Out in London and Paris.

The last entry in the file notes simply that "George Orwell ... died on the 21st January 1950."

Fonte: The Sydney Morning Herald

Prémio FIL 2007

O escritor mexicano Fernando del Paso obteve ontem o prémio FIL 2007, atribuido anualmente no âmbito da Feira Internacional do Livro de Guadalajara.

O prémio conhecido anteriormente como da "Literatura Latinoamericana y del Caribe Juan Rulfo", não é atribuído há dois anos com o nome do autor de "Pedro Páramo" (Cavalo de Ferro, 2004) devido a divergências entre a família de Juan Rulfo e a Feira de Guadalajara acerca dos direitos de utilização do nome.

Fernando del Paso nasceu no Distrito Federal, México.
Publicista, locutor, jornalista, desenhador, pintor e diplomata o autor de "Noticias del Imperio" recebeu já outros prémios ao longo da sua carreira nomeadamente, o Xavier Villaurrutia em 1966; o Rómulo Gallegos em 1982; o Casa das Américas em 1985; e o Prémio Nacional de Letras e Artes em 1991, além de ter sido um dos candidatos ao Prémio Príncipe das Astúrias de Letras deste ano, ganho pelo israelita Amos Oz.

A lista de galardoados com o prémio desde 1991 incluí nomes como: Nicanor Parra, Nélida Piñón, Juan Marsé, Sergio Pitol, Juan Gelman, Rubem Fonseca, Juan Goytisolo, entre outros.

Tanto quanto sei Fernando del Paso não está ainda publicado em Portugal.

Ainda no rescaldo da lista dos 100 melhores livros. Javier García recorda Roberto Bolaño.

Regresó para instalarse entre los primeros del listado de las 100 mejores obras en español de los últimos 25 años. En los nuevos libros le dedica un poema "al señor Teófilo Cid", otro dice escribirlo "a lo Raúl Zurita", y México vuelve a estar presente. ¿Qué pasó con el movimiento infrarrealista? Acá sus deudos reavivan las cenizas del mítico grupo.

Por Javier García

España. Es de noche y el cielo está despejado en Castelldefels, mientras un chileno vigila el camping Estrella de Mar en donde a las seis de la mañana "sólo la radio cruza el silencio". Es 1977 y Roberto Bolaño escribe sus versos a mano, recuerda a los amigos que dejó en México, también a Mario Santiago, quien le ha enviado una foto desde Israel, a Efraín Huerta, al Café La Habana, donde alguna vez estuvieron Fidel y el Che Guevara.

"No nos publicarán libros ni incluirán muestras/ de nuestro arte en sus antologías (Plagiarán/ mis versos mientras yo trabajo solo en Europa)", apunta Bolaño en poemas que ahora ven la luz a más de tres años de su muerte, y a no más de diez de comenzar a ser publicado y reconocido como uno de los grandes escritores latinoamericanos.

Dos libros póstumos confirman su vigencia: "La universidad desconocida", volumen de más de 400 páginas, y "El secreto del mal" (184 páginas), que acaban de ser editados por el sello Anagrama. Títulos que a mediados de mes estarán en Chile. Además, esta semana el autor de "Los detectives salvajes" se ubicó en los lugares tercero y cuarto del listado de las 100 mejores obras en español de los últimos 25 años, según el ranking de la revista colombiana "Semana", siendo superado sólo por García Márquez y Vargas Llosa.

Y como corolario, el escritor peruano Alfredo Bryce Echenique inaugurará el 15 de mayo, con una conferencia magistral, la cátedra que llevará el nombre del autor, en la Universidad Diego Portales.

ZURITA Y LAS PORNOS

"Raro oficio gratuito. Ir perdiendo el pelo/ y los dientes. Las antiguas maneras de ser educado/ Extraña complacencia (El poeta no desea ser más/ que los otros) Ni riqueza ni fama ni tan sólo/ poesía. Tal vez ésta sea la única forma/ de no tener miedo. Instalarse en el miedo", se lee en un fragmento de "La universidad desconocida". Un arte poético y un desafío, donde sus páginas muestran el retrato más explícito de su autobiografía. Ahí están sus padres, sus amigos mexicanos, los amores fracasados y la lucidez que le permitió ordenar su obra sabiendo que el futuro era incierto y frágil como su hígado.

"La presente edición corresponde con exactitud al manuscrito encontrado. El propio Roberto lo fecha en el año 1993. Fueron años de trabajo y de lucha, pero por encima de todo de escritura", escribe su esposa, Carolina López, en el inicio de "La universidad".

Volumen donde se pueden hallar poemas escritos bajo diversos registros, breves como haikus y otros extensos de prosa poética, que no son sino los fragmentos de su libro "Amberes". Textos que abren la segunda parte del libro. Luego, vendrá "Prosa de otoño en Gerona", publicado originalmente en "Fragmentos de la universidad desconocida" (1992), recogido después en "Tres" (2000), y también hay poemas de "Los perros románticos".

Pero asimismo se reúne gran parte de su obra impresa sólo por revistas mexicanas y españolas. En uno titulado "Dos poemas para Lautaro Bolaño", escribe: "Lee a los viejos poetas, hijo mío/ y no te arrepentirás". Luego, el padre explicará que los poemas "fueron escritos inmediatamente después de salir del Hospital Valle Hebrón, en Barcelona, en el verano de 1992, con los viejos de hígados destrozados, con los enfermos de sida y con las muchachas que ingresaron por una sobredosis de heroína".

El ejemplar cierra con "Notas del autor", donde apunta que el poema "La pelirroja" "es un intento de escribir a lo Raúl Zurita "las musas me perdonen", pero en el territorio de las películas pornográficas".

Mientras, en "El secreto del mal", Ignacio Echevarría, encargado de ambas ediciones, señala: "Reúne este volumen un puñado de cuentos y de esbozos narrativos espigados entre los numerosos archivos de texto que se encontraron en el ordenador de Bolaño tras su muerte".

El autor de "2666" no se olvidó de Chile. De su venida en 1999 a la Feria del Libro, dice sobre los escritores que lo atacaron: "Lo increíble de esto es que me lo decían chilenos, tanto de izquierda como de derecha, que no paraban de lamer culos para mantener su exigua parcelita de renombre".

Pero también hay personajes, relatos de orden descriptivo, ensayísticos, la antesala de lo que podría ser un cuento o una novela. Lo que Echevarría llama "una poética de la inconclusión", las puertas abiertas que deja siempre el infierno, pero escribiendo "en el país de los imbéciles", escribiendo bajo las estrellas donde quizá "sólo la radio cruza el silencio".

Fonte: La Nación

Nem só de tango vive Buenos Aires. Borges é uma presença constante na cidade.

When Jorge Luis Borges died, a distinguished Buenos Aires art collector, Jorge Helft, began a scholarly project, the assembling of little-known or unknown Borges material. That was in 1986, and so far he's gathered more than 15,000 items --private letters, unpublished manuscripts, long-forgotten pamphlets, obscure literary magazines carrying Borges poems that probably even Borges had forgotten. In recent years, scholars from around the world have quarried this mountain of words to produce 10 books.

No doubt many more will appear. The Borges reputation seems to grow even faster now than when he was alive. Helft's loving attention to every detail of the work typifies the attitude of intellectuals in Buenos Aires. As Helft says, "He has influenced every part of our culture."

In Argentina he's as much an emblem of national excellence as an author. Even those who haven't read his work find uses for him. Three years ago the maid who served his family for decades (without reading his books or any other books) put her name on a ghosted memoir, El Senor Borges. Among other revelations, she reported that (contrary to what he told the world at the time) Borges gravely regretted that he was never chosen as the Nobel laureate. She says that every year the announcement of someone else's triumph inaugurated a period of sadness for him, not at all lightened by journalists calling to ask for his comments. He joked about it, but the jokes were painful for him.

Today in Buenos Aires he's inescapable. Since the city now raises money by giving donors the right to put their logos on street signs, it's possible to turn a corner and find yourself looking up at "Telecom Jorge Luis Borges," a clever advertiser having simultaneously identified the corporation with both the street and the author for whom the street has been renamed.

Fonte: National Post

Marquéz vs. Llosa

Ainda a propósito da lista anterior, pergunto-me se a escolha dos dois primeiros será inocente.

À cerca de um mês o jornal mexicano La Jornada, publicou duas fotografias de Gabriel García Márquez, tiradas em 1976 por Rodrigo Moya, que as manteve durante 31 anos.Resolveu agora por ocasião dos 80 anos de García Márquez torná-las públicas e contar a história por detrás das imagens. As fotos mostram Gabriel Gárcia Márquez com um portentoso hematoma provocado dois dias antes por Vargas Llosa, por razões que aparentemente pouco tiveram que ver com literatura. Certo é que desde dessa data nunca mais se falaram.
Segue a história contada por Rodrigo Moya.

Casi 10 años después, el 14 de febrero de 1976, Gabriel García Márquez volvió a tocar el timbre de mi casa, ya por distintos rumbos, en la colonia Nápoles, para que le tomara otras fotografías. Esa vez lo notable no era el saco de cuadritos, sino el tremendo hematoma en el ojo izquierdo y una herida en la nariz, causada por el puñetazo que dos días antes le había propinado su colega y hasta ese momento gran amigo Mario Vargas Llosa.
El Gabo quería una constancia de aquella agresión, y yo era el fotógrafo amigo y de confianza para perpetuarla. Claro que pregunté azorado qué había pasado, y claro también que Gabo fue evasivo y atribuyó la agresión a las diferencias que ya eran insalvables en la medida que el autor de La guerra del fin del mundo se sumaba a ritmo acelerado al pensamiento de derecha, mientras que el escritor que 10 años después recibiría el premio Nobel, seguía fiel a las causas de la izquierda. Su esposa Mercedes Barcha, quien lo acompañaba en aquella ocasión luciendo enormes lentes ahumados, como si fuera ella quien hubiera sufrido el derechazo, fue menos lacónica y comentó con enojo la brutal agresión, y la describió a grandes rasgos: En una exhibición privada de cine, García Márquez se encontró poco antes del inicio del filme con el escritor peruano. Se dirigió a él con los brazos abierto para el abrazo. ¡Mario...! Fue lo único que alcanzó a decir al saludarlo, porque Vargas Llosa lo recibió con un golpe seco que lo tiró sobre la alfombra con el rostro bañado en sangre. Con una fuerte hemorragia, el ojo cerrado y en estado de shock, Mercedes y amigos del Gabo lo condujeron a su casa en el Pedregal. Se trataba de evitar cualquier escándalo, y el internamiento hospitalario no habría pasado desapercibido. Mercedes me describió el tratamiento de bisteces sobre el ojo, que le había aplicado toda la noche a su vapuleado esposo para absorber la hemorragia. Es que Mario es un celoso estúpido, repitió Mercedes varias veces cuando la sesión fotográfica había devenido charla o chisme.
Según los comentarios que recuerdo de aquella mañana, mientras ambas parejas vivían en París los García Márquez habían tratado de mediar los disturbios conyugales entre Vargas Llosa y su esposa Patricia, acogiendo sus confidencias. Como suele suceder, los consejos o comentarios de la pareja colombiana rebotaron hacia Vargas Llosa cuando éste volvió al redil y se reconcilió con su esposa. Y lo que sea que se hubiese dicho o sucedido, el caso es que el peruano se sentía gravemente ofendido, y su furia la resolvió de aquella manera expedita y salvaje. Guarda las fotos y mándame unas copias, me dijo el Gabo antes de irse. Las guardé 30 años, y ahora que él cumple 80 años, y 40 la primera edición de Cien años de soledad, considero correcta la publicación de este comentario sobre el terrífico encuentro entre dos grandes escritores, uno de izquierda, y otro de contundentes derechazos.

Literatura Contemporânea em Espanhol

A revista colombiana Semana publicou há alguns dias uma lista dos melhores livros escritos em espanhol dos últimos 25 anos.

1. El amor en los tiempos del cólera, Gabriel García Márquez (Colombia, 1985)
2. La fiesta del Chivo , Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru, 2000)
3. Los detectives salvajes, Roberto Bolaño (Chile, 1998)
4. 2666, Roberto Bolaño (Chile, 2004)
5. Noticias del imperio, Fernando del Paso (México, 1987)
6. Corazón tan blanco, Javier Marías (Espanha, 1992)
7. Bartleby y Compañía, Enrique Vila-Matas (Espanha, 2000)
8. Santa Evita, Tomás Eloy Martínez (Argentina, 1995)
9. Mañana en la batalla piensa en mí, Javier Marías (Espanha, 1994)
10. El Desbarrancadero, Fernando Vallejo (Colombia, 2001)
11. La virgen de los sicarios, Fernando Vallejo (Colombia, 1994)
12. El entenado, Juan José Saer (Argentina)
13. Soldados de Salamina, Javier Cercas (Espanha, 2001)
14. Estrella distante, Roberto Bolaño (Chile, 1996)
15. Paisaje después de la batalla, Juan Goytisolo (Espanha, 1982)
16. La ciudad de los prodigios, Eduardo Mendoza (Espanha, 1986)
17. El jinete polaco, Antonio Muñoz Molina (Espanha, 1991)
18. El testigo, Juan Villoro (Mexico, 2004)
19. Salón de belleza, Mario Bellatin (Mexico, 2000)
20. Cuando ya no importe, Juan Carlos Onetti (Uruguay, 1993)
21. La tejedora de coronas, Germán Espinosa (Colombia, 1982)
22. El paraíso en la otra esquina, Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru, 2003)
23. Cae la noche tropical, Manuel Puig (Argentina, 1988)
24. Doctor Pasavento, Enrique Vila Matas (Espanha, 2006)
25. Herrumbrosas lanzas, Juan Benet (Espanha, 1983)
26. Empresas y tribulaciones de Maqroll el Gaviero, Álvaro Mutis (Colombia, 1993)
27. El invierno en Lisboa, Antonio Muñoz Molina (Espanha, 1987)
28. Verdes valles, colinas rojas, Ramiro Pinilla (Espanha, 2005)
29. Mal de amores, Ángeles Mastretta (Mexico, 1996)
30. Donde las mujeres, Álvaro Pombo (Espanha, 1996)
31. El pasado, Alan Pauls (Argentina, 2003)
32. El rastro, Jorge Gómez Jiménez (Venezuela, 1993)
33. Santo oficio de la memoria, Mempo Giardinelli (Argentina, 1991)
34. Los años con Laura Díaz, Carlos Fuentes (Mexico, 1999)
35. Plenilunio, Antonio Muñoz Molina (Espanha, 1997)
36. Todas las almas, Javier Marías (Espanha, 1989)
37. Cartas cruzadas, Darío Jaramillo (Colombia, 1995)
38. La casa del padre, Justo Navarro (Espanha, 1994)
39. La visita en el tiempo, Arturo Uslar Pietri (Venezuela, 1990)
40. La historia de Horacio, Tomás González (Colombia, 2000)
41. La grande, Juan José Saer (Argentina, 2005)
42. El arte de la fuga, Sergio Pitol (Mexico, 1996)
43. La velocidad de la luz, Javier Cercas (Espanha, 2005)
44. Olvidado rey Gudu, Ana María Matute (Espanha, 1997)
45. La gesta del marrano, Marco Aguinis (Argentina, 1991)
46. Un viejo que leía novelas de amor, Luis Sepúlveda (Chile, 1989)
47. Plata quemada, Ricardo Piglia (Argentina, 1997)
48. El vuelo de la reina, Tomás Eloy Martínez (Argentina, 2002)
49. Diablo guardián, Xavier Velasco (Mexico, 2003)
50. Igur Neblí, Miquel de Palol (Espanha, 1994)
51. La nieve del almirante, Álvaro Mutis (Colombia, 1986)
52. Vigilia del almirante, Augusto Roa Bastos (Paraguay, 1992)
53. Un campeón desparejo, Adolfo Bioy Casares (Argentina, 1993)
54. Los pichiciegos, Fogwill (Argentina, 1993)
55. La burla del tiempo, Mauricio Electorat (Chile, 2004)
56. Una novela china, César Aira (Argentina, 1987)
57. El inútil de la familia, Jorge Edwards (Chile, 2004)
58. Lumperica, Diamela Eltit (Chile, 1983)
59. La otra mano de Lepanto, Carmen Boullosa (Mexico, 2005)
60. En estado de memoria, Tununa Mercado (Argentina, 1990)
61. Veinte años y un día, Jorge Semprún (Espanha, 2003)
62. Ladrón de lunas, Isaac Montero (Espanha, 1999)
63. La cuadratura del círculo, Álvaro Pombo (Espanha, 1999)
64. No me esperen en abril, Alfredo Bryce Echenique (Peru, 1995)
65. Luna Caliente, Mempo Giardinelli (Argentina, 1983)
66. Una sombra ya pronto serás, Osvaldo Soriano (Argentina, 1990)
67. El cuarto mundo, Diamela Eltit (Chile, 1988)
68. La silla del Águila, Carlos Fuentes (Mexico, 2003)
69. Temblor, Rosa Montero (Espanha, 1990)
70. Historia del silencio, Pedro Zarraluki (Espanha, 1995)
71. Los fantasmas, César Aira (Argentina, 1990)
72. Angosta, Héctor Abad Faciolince (Colombia, 2003)
73. La muerte como efecto secundario, Ana María Shua (Argentina, 1997)
74. La orilla oscura, José María Merino (Espanha, 1985)
75. La vida exagerada de Martín Romaña, Alfredo Bryce Echenique (Peru, 1981)
76. Sin remedio, Antonio Caballero (Colombia, 1984)
77. El tiempo de las mujeres, Ignacio Martínez de Pisón (Espanha, 2003)
78. Al morir Don Quijote, Andrés Trapiello (Espanha, 2005)
79. Glosa, Juan José Saer (Argentina, 1986)
80. Crónica de un iniciado, Abelardo Castillo (Argentina, 1991)
81. El traductor, Salvador Benesdra (Argentina, 2002)
82. Cumpleaños, César Aira (Argentina, 2001)
83. La sexta lámpara, Pablo de Santis (Argentina, 2005)
84. El embrujo de Shangai, Juan Marsé (Espanha, 1993)
85. El maestro de esgrima, Arturo Pérez Reverte (Espanha, 1988)
86. Carreteras secundarias, Ignacio Martínez de Pisón (Espanha, 1996)
87. Rosario Tijeras, Jorge Franco (Colombia, 1999)
88. La sombra del viento, Carlos Ruiz Safón (Espanha, 2001)
89. Camino a la perdición, Luis Mateo Díez (Espanha, 1995)
90. A sus plantas rendido un león, Osvaldo Soriano (Argentina, 1988)
91. Memorias de mis putas tristes, Gabriel García Márquez (Colombia, 2005)
92. Autómata, Adolfo García Ortega (Espanha, 2006)
93. Del amor y otros demonios, Gabriel García Márquez (Colombia, 1994)
94. Ella cantaba boleros, Guillermo Cabrera Infante (Cuba, 1996)
95. La novela luminosa, Mario Levrero (Uruguay, 2005)
96. La guerra de Galio, Héctor Aguilar Camín (Chile, 1994)
97. Arráncame la vida, Ángeles Mastreta (Mexico, 1998)
98. Arturo, la estrella más brillante, Reinaldo Arenas (Cuba, 1984)
99. La orilla africana, Rodrigo Rey Rosa (Guatemala, 1999)
100. Los vigilantes, Diamela Eltit (Chile, 1994)

Em Busca de Klingsor

O Jorge Volpi é uma das estrelas em ascensão da literatura latino-americana, embora por cá com o barulho dos Coelhos, vá passando discreto, ele e mais alguns (Crack e McOndo), que tentam fugir dos fantasmas do realismo mágico.

Além da história, um físico americano é enviado à Alemanha para tentar encontrar um suposto conselheiro de Hitler no desenvolvimento da bomba, uma entidade misteriosa de quem apenas se sabe que lhe chamam Klingsor, o autor oferece-nos uma viagem fabulosa pela História da Ciência do início do século XX e sobre a fase final da 2.ª Guerra Mundial.