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Navidad & Matanza
It’s the summer of 1999 when the two children of wealthy video game executive Jose Francisco Vivar, Alicia and Bruno, go missing in the beach town of Matanza. Long after their disappearance, the people of Matanza and the adjacent towns of Navidad consistently report sightings of Bruno—on the beach, in bars, gambling—while reports on Alicia, however, are next to none. And every story and clue keeps circling back to a man named Boris Real . . .
At least that’s how the story—or one of many stories, rather—goes. All of them are told by a journalist narrator, who recounts the mysterious case of the Vivar family from an underground laboratory where he and six other “subjects” have taken up a novel-game, writing and exchanging chapters over email, all while waiting for the fear-inducing drug hadón to take its effect, and their uncertain fates.
A literary descendent of Roberto Bolaño and Andrés Neuman, Carlos Labbé’s Navidad and Matanza is a work of metafiction that not only challenges our perceptions of facts and observations, and of identity and reality, but also of basic human trust.
“Carlos Labbé’s [Navidad & Matanza] begins to fuck with your head from its very first word—moving through journalese, financial reporting, whodunit, Joseph Conrad, Raymond Chandler, Nabokov to David Lynch.”—Toby Litt
At least that’s how the story—or one of many stories, rather—goes. All of them are told by a journalist narrator, who recounts the mysterious case of the Vivar family from an underground laboratory where he and six other “subjects” have taken up a novel-game, writing and exchanging chapters over email, all while waiting for the fear-inducing drug hadón to take its effect, and their uncertain fates.
A literary descendent of Roberto Bolaño and Andrés Neuman, Carlos Labbé’s Navidad and Matanza is a work of metafiction that not only challenges our perceptions of facts and observations, and of identity and reality, but also of basic human trust.
“Carlos Labbé’s [Navidad & Matanza] begins to fuck with your head from its very first word—moving through journalese, financial reporting, whodunit, Joseph Conrad, Raymond Chandler, Nabokov to David Lynch.”—Toby Litt
92 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
April 6, 2015
Be sceptical about such hyperbole as “literary descendant of Roberto Bolaño”, meaning “expect him to mine similar territory with the same success as Bolaño”, and “expect this hyperbole to simultaneously launch and hound his career like an erogenously pleasing boil”, and “lower your expectations as to this being sufficiently Bolaño-like to feed your insatiable Puma-strength cravings for new Bolaño”. This novella offers up a novel-game, containing 33/100 chapters, poking the reader into filling in the blanks. The problem with this potentially decent Oulipian experiment is there isn’t any particular motive for the reader to play along with this novel-game . . . it’s rather like wandering into a friends’ poker game, where none of your friends can be bothered explaining the rules to you, forcing you to sit there wondering why this dreary tight-lipped activity attracts attention outside the promise of winnings, hastening your eventual huffish retreat from the table to read by yourself in some corner, hoping your friends may wrap things up before midnight, and your melancholy realisation that they intend to play all night, forcing you to take the night bus, or spend over £20 on a taxi home. That’s how this novella leaves you: frustrated, in need of a helping hand, considerably out of pocket.
September 8, 2014
it is a game. not a novel. there is no story. only rules.a metafictional, heady tale of disappeared children, a novel-game coauthored by laboratory subjects, and a hatred/fear-inducing drug called hadón, navidad & matanza (navidad y matanza) is the first of chilean-born writer carlos labbé's works to be published in english. excerpted previously in granta's the best of young spanish-language novelists 2010 issue (as "the girls resembled each other in the unfathomable"), navidad & matanza's labyrinthine story within a story is both sinister and foreboding.
labbé, a novelist and screenwriter (who penned his master's thesis on roberto bolaño), deftly weaves an intricate, enigmatic story into and around itself. navidad & matanza could be the hallucinogenic amalgamation of a césar aira plot with setting and characters conceived by bolaño - if written using oulipo-style constraints. though less than 100-pages in total, labbé's novel has an inebriating effect that persists well after the book's conclusion. with ample imagination and commanding style, navidad & matanza certainly marks labbé as a young author from whom we ought to anticipate great, fascinating things to come.
to that end, five friends of similar interests and i had come up with a system that, in the beginning, seemed like an original and fascinating discovery. a novel-game. in short, it involved rolling dice, moving your token to a space with prefigured plotlines and formal constraints, writing a text according to those constraints and, that night, mailing this text to the other participants. everyone had been assigned a day of the week, except sunday, a day of rest. it was a game of complex rules and seduction. and the result was out of control.
*translated from the spanish by will vanderhyden
November 2, 2012
A group of scientists hired to work on "hadon," a drug bringing about an "ecstasy of hate," also write a story, a novel-game, about a journalist investigating the disappearance of two kids during a crazy secret-society vacation in Navidad and Matanza. This is a book of 100 chapters, of which only 33 are included (the chapter numbers jump--as does the content--from 1 to 2 to 7 to 10 . . . in a ways that's evocative and curious) that toys with expectations in a way that rivals Cortazar, Bolano, etc. Labbe is primed to be the Next Big Thing out of Latin America.
April 21, 2020
Interesting little Latin American noir from Chile from a writer who is being considered as a fitting inheritor of the shoes of Onetti and Bolano. The story is brief and told from the viewpoint of a third person narrator who is a journalist running an underground lab for a novel fear inducing drug. It is metafiction, without a doubt, and is the conglomeation of multiple narratives and thoughts. However it fails to arrest one's attention like some other noir fiction from Open Letter, especially one published last year 77. It is confusing in several parts and the ending seemed inconclusive with a lot left to be ascertained. And all the pretentious wankery of the author being touted as the next Roberto Bolaño or Andrés Neuman is merely an overstatement. Yes, I think so.
February 17, 2014
A star is rising in Latin American literature, and its name is Carlos Labbe. In Navidad & Matanza, translated with wicked brio by Will Vanderhyden, the Chilean novelist offers up a tasty confection of good old-fashioned postmodern gestures, brightly refreshed so all is new again.
Many of the novel’s materials will strike a familiar chord with readers of Vladimir Nabokov, Julio Cortazar, or Georges Perec (among others). Alicia Vivar, a sampled and remixed Lolita, has gone missing, along with her brother Bruno. Her course through the novel is shadowed by a Humbert Humbert named either Boris Real, or Patrice Dounn, or Francisco Virditti. Their twisty journey is reconstructed for us through the unreliable narration of an unnamed journalist. Along the way we are introduced to a drug experiment gone awry, a mysterious conspiracy, and a “novel game” with Oulipian affinities (but not with all that annoying math). Oh, and the chapter numbering would seem to indicate that many portions of the novel itself have gone missing, inviting the reader to fill in the implied blanks. (Did I mention the author’s cameo appearance in this metafiction?)
Which is not to suggest that Labbe has simply produced an excellent cover version of melodies by an earlier avant garde. He may wear some of his influences on his sleeve, but up that same sleeve are enough tricks of his own to carry this whole magic show by themselves. Slim as the novel is, every one of its 92 pages will stimulate your imagination and rattle the doors of your perception.
Not to all tastes, but for its likeliest readers, this will be the literary equivalent of a 72% chocolate bar. Taste and see.
Many of the novel’s materials will strike a familiar chord with readers of Vladimir Nabokov, Julio Cortazar, or Georges Perec (among others). Alicia Vivar, a sampled and remixed Lolita, has gone missing, along with her brother Bruno. Her course through the novel is shadowed by a Humbert Humbert named either Boris Real, or Patrice Dounn, or Francisco Virditti. Their twisty journey is reconstructed for us through the unreliable narration of an unnamed journalist. Along the way we are introduced to a drug experiment gone awry, a mysterious conspiracy, and a “novel game” with Oulipian affinities (but not with all that annoying math). Oh, and the chapter numbering would seem to indicate that many portions of the novel itself have gone missing, inviting the reader to fill in the implied blanks. (Did I mention the author’s cameo appearance in this metafiction?)
Which is not to suggest that Labbe has simply produced an excellent cover version of melodies by an earlier avant garde. He may wear some of his influences on his sleeve, but up that same sleeve are enough tricks of his own to carry this whole magic show by themselves. Slim as the novel is, every one of its 92 pages will stimulate your imagination and rattle the doors of your perception.
Not to all tastes, but for its likeliest readers, this will be the literary equivalent of a 72% chocolate bar. Taste and see.
April 22, 2014
In the summer of 1999 two teenage siblings, the children of a successful game designer and a journalist, disappear from the Chilean coastal village of Matazana. Over the ensuing years countless sightings of the eldest, Bruno (19) are reported in the nearby plateau commune of Navidad, while almost no mention is made of his younger sister Alicia (14). What really happened to the pair all those years ago? One journalist seems determined to expose the truth behind their vanishing act, but he quickly discovers that you can’t always place your faith in reality, especially when you’re seeking answers to the unknowable.
Of course it doesn’t help matters much that this journalist, whose name is Domingo, no it’s not, that’s his password to the laboratory where’s he’s currently being held, no it’s not, that’s the codename he’s using obscure his true identity from the reader, isn’t exactly the most reliable of narrators. Apparently he’s writing from deep underground where he and six other people that he met while taking a creative writing class back in 1996 at the Universidad de Chile are being held captive as part of an experimental drug trial. This drug, known as Hadón, is said to incite feelings of fear and hatred in those who take it. It’s here, in this prison of sorts, that Domingo and his six acquaintances embark upon an experiment of their own, creating a board game that’s driven by storytelling, with each of them responsible for providing different text for the squares based on which day of the week they’ve been assigned. Confused yet? Good. Because obfuscation is clearly the point.
READ MORE:
http://www.typographicalera.com/navid...
Of course it doesn’t help matters much that this journalist, whose name is Domingo, no it’s not, that’s his password to the laboratory where’s he’s currently being held, no it’s not, that’s the codename he’s using obscure his true identity from the reader, isn’t exactly the most reliable of narrators. Apparently he’s writing from deep underground where he and six other people that he met while taking a creative writing class back in 1996 at the Universidad de Chile are being held captive as part of an experimental drug trial. This drug, known as Hadón, is said to incite feelings of fear and hatred in those who take it. It’s here, in this prison of sorts, that Domingo and his six acquaintances embark upon an experiment of their own, creating a board game that’s driven by storytelling, with each of them responsible for providing different text for the squares based on which day of the week they’ve been assigned. Confused yet? Good. Because obfuscation is clearly the point.
READ MORE:
http://www.typographicalera.com/navid...
September 13, 2016
I received Navidad & Matanza as part of a Goodreads giveaway.
In 1999, the two teenage children of video game magnate Jose Francisco Vivaro go missing while on vacation. A journalist and a team of his fellow subjects explore the mysterious possibilities and possible whereabouts of the two young people as they await their own fate, trapped in some sort of dystopian research study.
I wanted to like this novella--the premise sounded fascinating. However, I think it was trying to do too much in too little space (less than 100 pages). I was confused much of the time. If Labbé had more time to develop and deepen the plot, I think it could have been a very interesting dystopian mystery, but what's here is just a little too short and undeveloped for me.
In 1999, the two teenage children of video game magnate Jose Francisco Vivaro go missing while on vacation. A journalist and a team of his fellow subjects explore the mysterious possibilities and possible whereabouts of the two young people as they await their own fate, trapped in some sort of dystopian research study.
I wanted to like this novella--the premise sounded fascinating. However, I think it was trying to do too much in too little space (less than 100 pages). I was confused much of the time. If Labbé had more time to develop and deepen the plot, I think it could have been a very interesting dystopian mystery, but what's here is just a little too short and undeveloped for me.
March 14, 2014
Received as Goodreads Giveaway.
"A literary descendent of Roberto Bolaño..."
I didn't really like the Robert Bolano I read; I felt it was pretentious and deliberately obscure. I just finished "Infinite Jest" by David foster Wallace, and that could be similarly accused, but with the key difference, I was drawn in by the characters.
This book is an intricate puzzle, a glittering jewel of compact post-modern techniques that is admirable but ultimately empty because I wasn't attached to any character.
There is no time to develope the characters in 90 pages, but anyway the main theme is the mutability of identity,so maybe character wasn't the point and in the end I was glad it was as short as it was.
Not bad but not really for me.
"A literary descendent of Roberto Bolaño..."
I didn't really like the Robert Bolano I read; I felt it was pretentious and deliberately obscure. I just finished "Infinite Jest" by David foster Wallace, and that could be similarly accused, but with the key difference, I was drawn in by the characters.
This book is an intricate puzzle, a glittering jewel of compact post-modern techniques that is admirable but ultimately empty because I wasn't attached to any character.
There is no time to develope the characters in 90 pages, but anyway the main theme is the mutability of identity,so maybe character wasn't the point and in the end I was glad it was as short as it was.
Not bad but not really for me.
October 14, 2014
Metafiction. Labbe keeps tearing the story down by letting us peek at exactly which parts are unreliable (all of them?), but each time he pulls back and convinces us this is the real thing. A short book, but one that requires some thought once you've finished. I was intrigued throughout.
April 28, 2014
By far the stupidest book I've ever read. Either that, or I am too ignorant to get why it is considered worth translating into English. There is no THERE, there. Good thing it was only 92 pages and they left out 2/3 of the chapters. A just plain strange book.
December 24, 2015
"The only way to save the head is to train it. In the Lacanian sense of the term, Montes would say, because, he claims, the mind is only language.
Or an invention of language."
Or an invention of language."
March 26, 2017
You know those experimental/gamey novels? Yeah this is one. It doesn't quite work.
April 19, 2021
Tanta experimentación, simulacro, reproducción, juego, diseminación, alegoría, inconclusión...la convierte en una de aquellas obras ambiciosas escritas por los estudiantes de la escritura creativa.
March 8, 2014
I received this novel as a Goodreads First Read prize. My rating is more towards a 3.25 or 3.5 out of five stars.
Which story is true: that of the trapped test subjects writing a novel-game as they await an unknown fate, or that of the journalist on the trail of disappearances? This experimental mystery centers around the mysterious rage drug “hadón,” which gives it a vague genre edge. Aside from the deadly fits of fury, other desires amongst characters are comparably repressed, hinted at with images and speculated upon by the narrator(s).
Subtle perspective and voice changes sneak up on the reader, although whether they come from separate characters is up for debate. The voice(s) also seem overwhelmingly male, middle-class, and educated; which has basis in the plot but can be limited in how the female characters are portrayed. Each chapter is numbered, with jumps in numbers suggesting missing installments. As translated from Spanish by Will Vanderhyden, the prose is also spare, describing with strong voice and momentum in some passages. These empty drops and inconclusiveness in stories echo the holes and lack of complete knowledge surrounding real-life disappearances in Chile.
There’s another theme about how games, imagination, and recreation can become tools for serious conspiracy or disruption. Some readers would find the book frustrating, and I’m not sure this experiment is 100% successful. However, the puzzle as well as the atmosphere of Navidad & Matanza lingered in my mind long after reading this slim book.
Which story is true: that of the trapped test subjects writing a novel-game as they await an unknown fate, or that of the journalist on the trail of disappearances? This experimental mystery centers around the mysterious rage drug “hadón,” which gives it a vague genre edge. Aside from the deadly fits of fury, other desires amongst characters are comparably repressed, hinted at with images and speculated upon by the narrator(s).
Subtle perspective and voice changes sneak up on the reader, although whether they come from separate characters is up for debate. The voice(s) also seem overwhelmingly male, middle-class, and educated; which has basis in the plot but can be limited in how the female characters are portrayed. Each chapter is numbered, with jumps in numbers suggesting missing installments. As translated from Spanish by Will Vanderhyden, the prose is also spare, describing with strong voice and momentum in some passages. These empty drops and inconclusiveness in stories echo the holes and lack of complete knowledge surrounding real-life disappearances in Chile.
There’s another theme about how games, imagination, and recreation can become tools for serious conspiracy or disruption. Some readers would find the book frustrating, and I’m not sure this experiment is 100% successful. However, the puzzle as well as the atmosphere of Navidad & Matanza lingered in my mind long after reading this slim book.
February 22, 2014
I won this book as part of the Goodreads First Read program. This has no impact on the following review.
At 92 pages, Navidad & Matanza is a short read. However, it does not mean that this book is a fast or easy read. At about four pages in I realized that I'd have to read actively rather than passively, and I found myself constantly pausing and taking time out to reevaluate what I thought was happening. The numerous plot lines (that include a pair of missing teenagers from a family that seems strangely close, a group of isolated people playing a novel-writing game, a mysterious drug that induces fear, and a bizarre celebration) are forwarded through a series of short chapters. The chapters are numbered, but some have been skipped, leaving gaps in story. Much of the book is spent trying to figure out what's currently happening, what's happened in the past, and what's actually real. While this might sound frustrating, I thought it was more like trying to solve an interesting puzzle. At the very least, I was never bored.
I've decided to give this book four stars. I enjoyed the way the story was told and the overall mystery aspects. That said, I would have liked the book to be a bit longer. I wanted to explore this world just a little more. If you're not put off by the somewhat disjointed storytelling, you'll find that Navidad & Matanza is a good book for a mental workout.
At 92 pages, Navidad & Matanza is a short read. However, it does not mean that this book is a fast or easy read. At about four pages in I realized that I'd have to read actively rather than passively, and I found myself constantly pausing and taking time out to reevaluate what I thought was happening. The numerous plot lines (that include a pair of missing teenagers from a family that seems strangely close, a group of isolated people playing a novel-writing game, a mysterious drug that induces fear, and a bizarre celebration) are forwarded through a series of short chapters. The chapters are numbered, but some have been skipped, leaving gaps in story. Much of the book is spent trying to figure out what's currently happening, what's happened in the past, and what's actually real. While this might sound frustrating, I thought it was more like trying to solve an interesting puzzle. At the very least, I was never bored.
I've decided to give this book four stars. I enjoyed the way the story was told and the overall mystery aspects. That said, I would have liked the book to be a bit longer. I wanted to explore this world just a little more. If you're not put off by the somewhat disjointed storytelling, you'll find that Navidad & Matanza is a good book for a mental workout.
May 6, 2015
Navidad y Matanza warrants a second read in Spanish. Although I have no reason to doubt the quality of Will Vanderhyden translation, there must be more in Carlos Labbé's original prose to flesh out the well composed wreckage that is this post modern, metafictional work. I too was reminded of Nabakov's Lolita, which I read so many years before I could fully understand it. After reading this book, it's as if I have to live more before I can fully appreciate the destructive and corrosive happenings of this aftermath. But that's the ultimate lesson: the oppressive, willfully fractured, priveleged world of these abstractly rendered characters is nothing I want to experience.
July 20, 2015
DISCLAIMER: I am the publisher of the book and thus spent approximately two years reading and editing and working on it. So take my review with a grain of salt, or the understanding that I am deeply invested in this text and know it quite well. Also, I would really appreciate it if you would purchase this book, since it would benefit Open Letter directly.
September 6, 2014
This book is a puzzle and the reader needs to figure out how the pieces fit together. And some of the pieces are missing. I really appreciate what the author is doing, but I didn't quite connect with the book as much as I would have hoped. Still, it was a compelling read with very interesting characters. Perhaps if I read it again ...
April 2, 2016
Wow! I've never read a book like this! The plot of the book seemed rather simple at the beginning - two rich kids that disappear at the beach but that is the start of it.. Throw in some lab rats, experiments, parties aka like 'benign man festival', illicit drugs and Boris Real... I enjoyed it as each page was something unexpected. I think this book might be a modern classic in the making!
June 25, 2014
Everything in me wanted to like this book. The entire idea behind it was something I haven't really encountered in books. Unfortunately, it was a little too confusing at times and just plain hard to follow.
May 25, 2014
Well....I am all in favor of experimental formats, stream of consciousness narration, and other non-traditional formats, however, this novel failed to engage me at all. It is the first Open Letter Publication that I just did not like. Oh well!
November 17, 2014
I took a little too long from start to finish--the book definitely deserves (and can be read in) one sustained sitting to appreciate how the disjointed parts of the narrative fit together emotionally (and narratively?). I look forward to rereading.
August 3, 2016
multiple perspectives on one 'story' all told by the same narrator--experimental yet readable--probably warrants another reading for deeper understanding ...
March 2, 2014
Review to follow.
December 16, 2014
With the obscure menace of Bolaño and the sense of unwinding improvisation of Aira, Labbé's novel traces the mysterious disappearance of two children of wealthy parents.
July 8, 2015
Algunas ideas interesantes pero me perdió en ocasiones. Mi interés fluctuaba.
January 13, 2026
todavía uno de mis fav y me da una pena infinita cada vez q lo leo 💅
July 25, 2015
Interesante, pero me decepcionó. Pensé que habría más "libro-juego" para el lector en vez que del propio autor. Cosa extraña, sólo el final me gustó.
June 24, 2014
One sitting. Could not put it down. Have to read it again soon.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews