What do you think?
Rate this book
The Fallen
A powerful, unsettling portrait of ordinary family life in Cuba, Carlos Manuel Álvarez’s debut novel The Fallen is a masterful portrayal of a society in free fall. Diego, the son, is disillusioned and bitter about the limited freedoms his country offers him. Mariana, the mother, is unwell and forced to relinquish her control over the home to her daughter, Maria, who has left school and is working as a chambermaid in one of the state-owned tourist hotels. The father, Armando, is a committed revolutionary who is sickened by the corruption he perceives all around him. In meticulously charting the disintegration of a family, The Fallen offers a poignant reflection on contemporary Cuba and the clash of the ardent idealism of the old guard with the jaded pragmatism of the young.
131 pages, Paperback
First published September 24, 2018
23 people are currently reading
1531 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 118 reviews
October 15, 2023
Again, a book I read in May and for which I struggle to remember the plot.
I loved Alvarez’ collection of Cronicas about Cubans in their different circumstances and I was looking forward to reading his novel. If I remember well, it is the story of a family and their struggles to survive in Cuba. I enjoyed the story and the writing but it was not at the same level as The Tribe. He is a young talented writer and I plan to follow his work in the future.
I loved Alvarez’ collection of Cronicas about Cubans in their different circumstances and I was looking forward to reading his novel. If I remember well, it is the story of a family and their struggles to survive in Cuba. I enjoyed the story and the writing but it was not at the same level as The Tribe. He is a young talented writer and I plan to follow his work in the future.
May 8, 2021
Maravilloso. Una familia reaccionando a la misma situación de maneras totalmente distintas. La enfermedad, el abandono, el desear algo que nunca llega. Muy duro y hermoso, con un lenguaje pausado que te lleva a imaginar cada cosa que dice. No hay diálogos, pero mucho simbolismo y belleza triste. Recomendadísimo.
October 28, 2022
"I'm alive and in my underwear and my skin is yellow."
A magnificent, disturbing novel, about a family that can no longer take care of itself, and that is trying to survive in a society that has left them with nothing to believe in. The inciting tragedy that the family must endure is the precipitous mental and physical decline of the matriarch, Mariana, whose story unfolds in these pages with heartbreaking detail. The narrative voice is staccato-perfect: a barrage of short declarative sentences gives the story a relentless forward motion, where from the first page I could feel the promise of tragedy and loss.
These characters are deeply human, even when they're at their worst, and this is great storytelling, about the most true things that fiction can reveal. A big yes.
A magnificent, disturbing novel, about a family that can no longer take care of itself, and that is trying to survive in a society that has left them with nothing to believe in. The inciting tragedy that the family must endure is the precipitous mental and physical decline of the matriarch, Mariana, whose story unfolds in these pages with heartbreaking detail. The narrative voice is staccato-perfect: a barrage of short declarative sentences gives the story a relentless forward motion, where from the first page I could feel the promise of tragedy and loss.
These characters are deeply human, even when they're at their worst, and this is great storytelling, about the most true things that fiction can reveal. A big yes.
January 31, 2020
Romanzo d’esordio del cubano Carlos Manuel Álvarez che parlando della crisi di una famiglia, si riferisce alla crisi dell’intera nazione cubana senza Fidel.
Cinque parti, in cui quattro voci narranti esplicite si alternano in una corale polifonica diretta dalla voce narrante esterna.
Il figlio, Diego, la madre, Mariana, il padre, Armando e la figlia Maria.
Tutti raccontano la loro versione della storia e sembra di leggere quattro storie diverse che hanno alcuni punti in comune.
Un romanzo verticale, così è stato definito dall’autore, come verticale è una caduta, che dall’alto va verso il basso.
“Mi ha detto che la questione delle emozioni e della memoria era una cosa tremenda. Io non la vedevo così. Non vedevo niente, in realtà, ma le cadute sì, quelle mi sembravano tremende. Il colpo, il sangue, la malattia, il deterioramento, e anche un po’ l’umiliazione. Un momento sei qui e il momento dopo succede qualcosa e ti ritrovi in un luogo pericoloso, come un viaggio obbligato dal paese dei sani al paese dei malati, no? Come se fossi esiliato. Era quella la cosa più pericolosa, non la memoria né le emozioni.”
A cadere è la madre, un’insegnante. Metafora del crollo di una nazione, che inizia sempre dalla cultura. La chemioterapia, in seguito a un’operazione a un tumore, le ha lasciato gli attacchi epilettici in eredità. Attacchi che non può prevedere. Arrivano. E la fanno cadere.
E ogni caduta genera una frattura, una crepa, nella famiglia.
E tutto degenera fino alla dissoluzione.
“Quando il dolore arriva prima di noi stessi, e proprio in quel momento che cominciamo a morire, ho pensato.”
E di metafora in metafora, la caduta della madre, sì intreccia con quella del cannibalismo tra polli.
“Le cause del cannibalismo tra poli possono essere diversi tre… Anche i polli deboli o scemi soffrono molto. Nella gabbia di acciaio, il vizio della noia è ereditario. E questa, la noia, è la ragione principale per cui i polli offensivi, i polli terribilmente inoffensivi, i polli mortalmente inoffensivi, finiscono per beccarsi tra loro, mangiandosi le viscere.”
Cinque parti, in cui quattro voci narranti esplicite si alternano in una corale polifonica diretta dalla voce narrante esterna.
Il figlio, Diego, la madre, Mariana, il padre, Armando e la figlia Maria.
Tutti raccontano la loro versione della storia e sembra di leggere quattro storie diverse che hanno alcuni punti in comune.
Un romanzo verticale, così è stato definito dall’autore, come verticale è una caduta, che dall’alto va verso il basso.
“Mi ha detto che la questione delle emozioni e della memoria era una cosa tremenda. Io non la vedevo così. Non vedevo niente, in realtà, ma le cadute sì, quelle mi sembravano tremende. Il colpo, il sangue, la malattia, il deterioramento, e anche un po’ l’umiliazione. Un momento sei qui e il momento dopo succede qualcosa e ti ritrovi in un luogo pericoloso, come un viaggio obbligato dal paese dei sani al paese dei malati, no? Come se fossi esiliato. Era quella la cosa più pericolosa, non la memoria né le emozioni.”
A cadere è la madre, un’insegnante. Metafora del crollo di una nazione, che inizia sempre dalla cultura. La chemioterapia, in seguito a un’operazione a un tumore, le ha lasciato gli attacchi epilettici in eredità. Attacchi che non può prevedere. Arrivano. E la fanno cadere.
E ogni caduta genera una frattura, una crepa, nella famiglia.
E tutto degenera fino alla dissoluzione.
“Quando il dolore arriva prima di noi stessi, e proprio in quel momento che cominciamo a morire, ho pensato.”
E di metafora in metafora, la caduta della madre, sì intreccia con quella del cannibalismo tra polli.
“Le cause del cannibalismo tra poli possono essere diversi tre… Anche i polli deboli o scemi soffrono molto. Nella gabbia di acciaio, il vizio della noia è ereditario. E questa, la noia, è la ragione principale per cui i polli offensivi, i polli terribilmente inoffensivi, i polli mortalmente inoffensivi, finiscono per beccarsi tra loro, mangiandosi le viscere.”
January 6, 2022
This is a short novel (143 pages) told in an interesting fashion. It involves a family living in Cuba (1990s), and each one narrates a short chapter in alternating fashion...the father, Armando, who is a Che Guevara zealot, his wife, Mariana, who suffers from seizures thought to be due to side effects of chemotherapy (but it turns out there is a surprising twist at the end about that), their daughter Maria who works as a manager at a hotel restaurant, and son who is serving in the military. Each person has their own side of a story to tell, and you pick up similar and sometimes dissimilar threads on an event depending on who is describing it.
It is a well-written novel and I think it is definitely a worthy read and a goodread. But be forewarned there is not a cheery moment in this novel at all...but that’s the way life can be.
Reviews:
• https://www.thelondonmagazine.org/rev...
• https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book...
• https://www.scotsman.com/arts-and-cul...
It is a well-written novel and I think it is definitely a worthy read and a goodread. But be forewarned there is not a cheery moment in this novel at all...but that’s the way life can be.
Reviews:
• https://www.thelondonmagazine.org/rev...
• https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book...
• https://www.scotsman.com/arts-and-cul...
September 1, 2019
Mi novela es vertical, hacia abajo, como una caída
(Interview with the author at: https://elcultural.com/Carlos-Manuel-...)
I call my mother on the phone to see if she’s had a fall and she says no.
Opening words of the novel
Los Caidos is the debut novel of writer Carlos Manuel Álvarez, published in 2018.
The English translation, The Fallen, comes courtesy of the same combination that brought us the excellent Animalia earlier this year: Fitzcarraldo Editions, perhaps the UK’s finest publisher and @Terribleman, Frank Wynne, translator from the French and Spanish of, amongst others, Del Amo, Cercas, Houellebecq, Beigbeder, Lemaitre, Despentes and Eloy Martinez.
The novel is set in Cuba and told in rotation by four first person narrators – The Son, The Mother, Father, and The Daughter.
The son is Diego, 18, an excellent student but, as the novel opens, experiencing the tedium of a one year’s military service before university.
The officer of the watch is asleep, a big-hearted captain who has come down in the world, like all the lieutenants or captains or lieutenant-colonels that make up this military unit, filled with alcoholics who wasted their lives hoping for and preparing for a war that never came, or that came in a different form, crawled inside them and gnawed away at them from the inside.
…
Military service is obligatory at eighteen, but there are ways of getting out of it. In the barrio where I live, some guys dodge it with the help of their families, who fake medical certificates for them with I don’t know what congenital disease, or bribe the admissions board. If I had a father who was reasonable, I could have got out of this shit too, but no-one in my house dares to talk about bribes or circumventing the law.
The mother is Mariana, a secondary school Spanish teacher, but on long-term sick leave, suffering from fits caused by medial temporal lobe epilepsy and triggered, she is told by the doctors, by stress, memories and emotions. Diego, learning this, pronounces that in order to save herself she would have to stupify herself with drugs. In order not to feel, not to remember (dejar de emocionarse y dejar de recordar).
The father is Armando, who manages a state-owned hotel, and who still believes in the ideals of the revolution, and (as per above) firmly resistance to any hint of bribery or corruption, taking something of a ‘what would Che have done?’ approach to all moral issues.
The daughter is Maria, 23, who manages the restaurant at the hotel. Her job predates her father’s, and Armando had wanted her to quit when he became manager, fearing to give even an impression of impropriety: The very thought of nepotism gets me riled up.
The family, and society generally, has now emerged from the want of the special period in which the children grew up, (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speci...), which would seem to date the novel around 2010.
Although even as conditions improved, the family’s material possessions lagged behind those of their peers with fathers in similar positions, again due to Armando’s incorruptibility. As Diego complains:
We never had a TV. How can I explain? How can I explain what it meant to come home from school at the age of eight, or nine, or ten, and have nothing to turn on, when everyone other house had one? What it was like to stare at the empty space in the middle of the living room?
Nunca tuvimos televisor. ¿Cómo explicarlo? ¿Cómo explicar lo que significaba llegar de la escuela con ocho, nueve, diez años, y no tener nada que encender, cuando todas las casas tenían? ¿Cómo enfrentarse al hueco del multimueblel?
His father told him early on that religion, including the tradition of the three kings bringing Christmas presents, was a myth and instead tried to indoctrinate him with his political beliefs:
I read the books Armando gave me, the book of stories about Che Guevara that tells how Che refused the gift of a bicycle for his daughter, because bicycles belong to the State, to the People, not to any particular individual.
I asked Armando why, if bicycles were for everyone and not individuals, they made bicycles for individuals to ride? Why didn’t they make a gigantic bicycle that we could all get on and pedal together ... that’s what we are doing, Armando said ... we are all pedalling the bicycle of justice. And I remember my mother saying ... Oh of course we’re all pedalling, but the chain has fallen off.
The novel focus on the domestic drama of the family, with the plot as such driven by questions such as:
Who is making the abusive Phone calls that Mariana receives?
Why does Armando's state-owned car, that he only ever uses for official business, keep running out of petrol?
Why don’t Armando and Mariana ever eat chicken?
But the real focus in on the fall of the family itself, as they turn in on each other:
My sister has just finished her shift at the hotel, probably robbing the place right and left, she’s good at that ... Only the three of us were home. There was my mother, contorted, limp as an old rag. There was my father, staggering, a shadow of himself. There was me, with my army uniform in a box.
Perhaps the book’s greatest strength is that it focuses on the personal, and leaves the reader to draw the political inferences, seeing, as they wish, the family as a metaphor for the wider nation.
In battery cages boredom is an inherited vice. And it is this boredom that is the main reason why innocuous chickens, terribly innocuous, lethally innocuous chickens, end up pecking at each other, eating each other’s entrails.
3.5 stars
(Interview with the author at: https://elcultural.com/Carlos-Manuel-...)
I call my mother on the phone to see if she’s had a fall and she says no.
Opening words of the novel
Los Caidos is the debut novel of writer Carlos Manuel Álvarez, published in 2018.
The English translation, The Fallen, comes courtesy of the same combination that brought us the excellent Animalia earlier this year: Fitzcarraldo Editions, perhaps the UK’s finest publisher and @Terribleman, Frank Wynne, translator from the French and Spanish of, amongst others, Del Amo, Cercas, Houellebecq, Beigbeder, Lemaitre, Despentes and Eloy Martinez.
The novel is set in Cuba and told in rotation by four first person narrators – The Son, The Mother, Father, and The Daughter.
The son is Diego, 18, an excellent student but, as the novel opens, experiencing the tedium of a one year’s military service before university.
The officer of the watch is asleep, a big-hearted captain who has come down in the world, like all the lieutenants or captains or lieutenant-colonels that make up this military unit, filled with alcoholics who wasted their lives hoping for and preparing for a war that never came, or that came in a different form, crawled inside them and gnawed away at them from the inside.
…
Military service is obligatory at eighteen, but there are ways of getting out of it. In the barrio where I live, some guys dodge it with the help of their families, who fake medical certificates for them with I don’t know what congenital disease, or bribe the admissions board. If I had a father who was reasonable, I could have got out of this shit too, but no-one in my house dares to talk about bribes or circumventing the law.
The mother is Mariana, a secondary school Spanish teacher, but on long-term sick leave, suffering from fits caused by medial temporal lobe epilepsy and triggered, she is told by the doctors, by stress, memories and emotions. Diego, learning this, pronounces that in order to save herself she would have to stupify herself with drugs. In order not to feel, not to remember (dejar de emocionarse y dejar de recordar).
The father is Armando, who manages a state-owned hotel, and who still believes in the ideals of the revolution, and (as per above) firmly resistance to any hint of bribery or corruption, taking something of a ‘what would Che have done?’ approach to all moral issues.
The daughter is Maria, 23, who manages the restaurant at the hotel. Her job predates her father’s, and Armando had wanted her to quit when he became manager, fearing to give even an impression of impropriety: The very thought of nepotism gets me riled up.
The family, and society generally, has now emerged from the want of the special period in which the children grew up, (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speci...), which would seem to date the novel around 2010.
Although even as conditions improved, the family’s material possessions lagged behind those of their peers with fathers in similar positions, again due to Armando’s incorruptibility. As Diego complains:
We never had a TV. How can I explain? How can I explain what it meant to come home from school at the age of eight, or nine, or ten, and have nothing to turn on, when everyone other house had one? What it was like to stare at the empty space in the middle of the living room?
Nunca tuvimos televisor. ¿Cómo explicarlo? ¿Cómo explicar lo que significaba llegar de la escuela con ocho, nueve, diez años, y no tener nada que encender, cuando todas las casas tenían? ¿Cómo enfrentarse al hueco del multimueblel?
His father told him early on that religion, including the tradition of the three kings bringing Christmas presents, was a myth and instead tried to indoctrinate him with his political beliefs:
I read the books Armando gave me, the book of stories about Che Guevara that tells how Che refused the gift of a bicycle for his daughter, because bicycles belong to the State, to the People, not to any particular individual.
I asked Armando why, if bicycles were for everyone and not individuals, they made bicycles for individuals to ride? Why didn’t they make a gigantic bicycle that we could all get on and pedal together ... that’s what we are doing, Armando said ... we are all pedalling the bicycle of justice. And I remember my mother saying ... Oh of course we’re all pedalling, but the chain has fallen off.
The novel focus on the domestic drama of the family, with the plot as such driven by questions such as:
Who is making the abusive Phone calls that Mariana receives?
Why does Armando's state-owned car, that he only ever uses for official business, keep running out of petrol?
Why don’t Armando and Mariana ever eat chicken?
But the real focus in on the fall of the family itself, as they turn in on each other:
My sister has just finished her shift at the hotel, probably robbing the place right and left, she’s good at that ... Only the three of us were home. There was my mother, contorted, limp as an old rag. There was my father, staggering, a shadow of himself. There was me, with my army uniform in a box.
Perhaps the book’s greatest strength is that it focuses on the personal, and leaves the reader to draw the political inferences, seeing, as they wish, the family as a metaphor for the wider nation.
In battery cages boredom is an inherited vice. And it is this boredom that is the main reason why innocuous chickens, terribly innocuous, lethally innocuous chickens, end up pecking at each other, eating each other’s entrails.
3.5 stars
July 8, 2021
I was attracted to this book the short story Alvarez wrote that included into Granta 155: Best of Young Spanish-Language Novelists 2. The story was brilliant and I wanted to read more by the author. I was pleasantly suprised that he, being so young and from Cuba, has been translated into English. Moreover, he is published in the UK by Fitzcarraldo Editions, the wonderful press.
This novel is a polyphonic tale told by four family members. It is opening a rare window into the lives and thoughts of the ordinary Cubans. And it is a bleak picture showing the combination of the lack of hope and cynicism form the. young members of the family combined with the state of denial from the older ones. For the outsiders it might be a cautionary tale where the good socialists intentions might lead to in a few decades. For the insiders is an attempt by the young guy to internalise the experience of his country.
It is a good novel, but i came into it with quite high expectations after the excellent short story. And it did not quite match that for me. I thought he tried to add an artificial dramatic tension into already tense situation. And the resolution was not totally satisfactory. But I am very much looking forward to his other work.
The novel refers to so-called "difficult years" of the 90s and early 00s when the people were practically starving. I was on Cuba in 2003 and my overwhelming impression was of decaying beauty and decadence. The corruption was thriving then. The were no official restaurants, but there were plenty unofficial ones. We were invited by a young man to his house where his mum has cooked us a lobster. Lobsters and patrol were the unofficial currency. But the people tried as hard as they could to maintain their decency as well. We were guided around by a medical student. She tried to show that in spite of everything she is proud of her country. Or maybe she was not allowed to show anything else. It is very sad that now they are going through near starvation again: https://www.economist.com/the-america...
This novel is a polyphonic tale told by four family members. It is opening a rare window into the lives and thoughts of the ordinary Cubans. And it is a bleak picture showing the combination of the lack of hope and cynicism form the. young members of the family combined with the state of denial from the older ones. For the outsiders it might be a cautionary tale where the good socialists intentions might lead to in a few decades. For the insiders is an attempt by the young guy to internalise the experience of his country.
It is a good novel, but i came into it with quite high expectations after the excellent short story. And it did not quite match that for me. I thought he tried to add an artificial dramatic tension into already tense situation. And the resolution was not totally satisfactory. But I am very much looking forward to his other work.
The novel refers to so-called "difficult years" of the 90s and early 00s when the people were practically starving. I was on Cuba in 2003 and my overwhelming impression was of decaying beauty and decadence. The corruption was thriving then. The were no official restaurants, but there were plenty unofficial ones. We were invited by a young man to his house where his mum has cooked us a lobster. Lobsters and patrol were the unofficial currency. But the people tried as hard as they could to maintain their decency as well. We were guided around by a medical student. She tried to show that in spite of everything she is proud of her country. Or maybe she was not allowed to show anything else. It is very sad that now they are going through near starvation again: https://www.economist.com/the-america...
January 23, 2021
THE FALLEN (2018) is a novella about a disintegrating Cuban family, an exploration of their lives full of hardships. Mother, father, son and daughter, all tell their stories in different individual chapters.
The father, Armando, is a hotel manager, still blindly committed to the revolutionary cause but sick by the corruption he sees everywhere. María, his daughter, works in the same hotel, however, she is a pragmatic girl and steals as much a possible, in order to make much needed extra money. Armando is absolutely unaware of Maria's activities, though. Mariana, Armando's wife, a former teacher, is becoming seriously ill: she suffers mysterious seizures (which might provide some sort of escape from her harrowing present circumstances). Diego, their son, is doing his national service, and feels undisguised contempt for the ruling communist regime. Financial worries, anxiety about Mariana's declining health, hostile silences, rancour and contempt seethe under the surface.
Central to this story is, of course, the decaying Cuba and its failed revolution. The tragic discordance between the intense idealism of the older generations with the individualism and pragmatism of the younger generations, exhausted by the failure of the revolution, is the subject of this remarkable debut novel. Carlos Manuel Álvarez has painted an unsettling picture of family life in modern Cuba, and Frank Wynne's superb translation captures the claustrophobic atmosphere with unsentimental intensity.
The father, Armando, is a hotel manager, still blindly committed to the revolutionary cause but sick by the corruption he sees everywhere. María, his daughter, works in the same hotel, however, she is a pragmatic girl and steals as much a possible, in order to make much needed extra money. Armando is absolutely unaware of Maria's activities, though. Mariana, Armando's wife, a former teacher, is becoming seriously ill: she suffers mysterious seizures (which might provide some sort of escape from her harrowing present circumstances). Diego, their son, is doing his national service, and feels undisguised contempt for the ruling communist regime. Financial worries, anxiety about Mariana's declining health, hostile silences, rancour and contempt seethe under the surface.
Central to this story is, of course, the decaying Cuba and its failed revolution. The tragic discordance between the intense idealism of the older generations with the individualism and pragmatism of the younger generations, exhausted by the failure of the revolution, is the subject of this remarkable debut novel. Carlos Manuel Álvarez has painted an unsettling picture of family life in modern Cuba, and Frank Wynne's superb translation captures the claustrophobic atmosphere with unsentimental intensity.
September 6, 2019
The Fallen (“Los Caidos”) is the debut novel from Carlos Manuel Álvarez and it comes to us in English from Fitzcarraldo Editions and the prolific translator Frank Wynne. At the time I write this, there is only one other review in English and it is the usual in-depth commentary/background from Paul: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show....
The novel is set in Cuba during times of unrest and poverty. It cycles through four narrators, each of whom narrate in the first person. Each chapter is titled after the narrator’s role in the family (The Son, The Daughter, The Mother, The Father). What becomes fascinating as we progress through the story is that each narrator often provides a perspective on the same events and these perspectives often contradict one another. There is no omniscient narrator to pull the whole story together and resolve the contradictions - this is for the reader to ponder. Who is making the strange phone calls that Mariana, the Mother, keeps receiving? Why do Mariana and Armando, the Father, never eat chicken? Why does Armando’s car keep running out of fuel?
In the same way that the book gives multiple answers to questions and leaves the reader to come to their own conclusions, so it also does not provide a lot of detail about the wider national context in which the family is living, leaving this also for the reader to infer from the hints that are dropped. We see the Father struggling against inherent corruption, the Son doing military service, the Daughter experiencing a black market of food and other goods, and the Mother struggling to get treatment for an ongoing illness.
This isn’t a book that tells you a story and that explains its points as it goes. It is ambiguous and it asks the reader to piece together their own version of the “truth”. This is what I enjoyed most about the book. I was, I have to admit, slightly distracted by the number of typos (e.g. “adavance” instead of “advance” and “the profits from the his sale of siphoned gas”) and by, for example, the wrong definition of chirality (it says ability instead of inability, so I think it might just be another typo unless there is something more subtle going on that I have missed) that put me on guard whenever I saw I word I wasn’t sure of. This slightly spoiled my experience of the book as I found myself watchful for errors rather than immersed in the story. If you can ignore these issues and give yourself over the swirl of viewpoints, the ambiguity in the narrative actually leads to a very interesting read.
3.5 stars rounded down.
The novel is set in Cuba during times of unrest and poverty. It cycles through four narrators, each of whom narrate in the first person. Each chapter is titled after the narrator’s role in the family (The Son, The Daughter, The Mother, The Father). What becomes fascinating as we progress through the story is that each narrator often provides a perspective on the same events and these perspectives often contradict one another. There is no omniscient narrator to pull the whole story together and resolve the contradictions - this is for the reader to ponder. Who is making the strange phone calls that Mariana, the Mother, keeps receiving? Why do Mariana and Armando, the Father, never eat chicken? Why does Armando’s car keep running out of fuel?
In the same way that the book gives multiple answers to questions and leaves the reader to come to their own conclusions, so it also does not provide a lot of detail about the wider national context in which the family is living, leaving this also for the reader to infer from the hints that are dropped. We see the Father struggling against inherent corruption, the Son doing military service, the Daughter experiencing a black market of food and other goods, and the Mother struggling to get treatment for an ongoing illness.
This isn’t a book that tells you a story and that explains its points as it goes. It is ambiguous and it asks the reader to piece together their own version of the “truth”. This is what I enjoyed most about the book. I was, I have to admit, slightly distracted by the number of typos (e.g. “adavance” instead of “advance” and “the profits from the his sale of siphoned gas”) and by, for example, the wrong definition of chirality (it says ability instead of inability, so I think it might just be another typo unless there is something more subtle going on that I have missed) that put me on guard whenever I saw I word I wasn’t sure of. This slightly spoiled my experience of the book as I found myself watchful for errors rather than immersed in the story. If you can ignore these issues and give yourself over the swirl of viewpoints, the ambiguity in the narrative actually leads to a very interesting read.
3.5 stars rounded down.
September 7, 2019
[3.5] Yet another case where I’m torn between three and four stars, and feel cruel rounding down, but rounding up would not be fair either: I doubt The Fallen will stick to memory even though the reading experience was very enjoyable throughout (if you ignore the unfortunate typos that will hopefully be fixed in later editions). Set against the backdrop of Cuba’s communist regime, The Fallen is a succinct and perceptive story of a poor family’s everyday life, told from the perspectives of each family member. Emphasizing the domestic over the political, it is a touching narrative without melodrama, somewhat ambiguous and suggestive. Álvarez is an author–journalist to watch out for in the future, certainly, and I am curious about his non-fiction work La Tribe to be published by the same publisher some time in the future. Oh, and I cannot end this without mentioning Frank Wynne’s translation, another demonstration of his incredible skill (and speed).
January 27, 2021
Another gem from one of my favorite UK indie publishers, Fitzcarraldo Editions. The use of both inter-character repetition and solely internal repetition was a structure that really worked for me and enhanced the impact of the political starkness in such a personal way. I also applaud the crispness of the translation. Highly recommended and 4.5 stars.
November 16, 2024
This is my first Cuban novel I read and I really enjoyed it, with a very slow pace, I went through a journey with a Cuban family through their life, pain and feelings.
The writing style and narration were in place, how each character thinks and feels, the plot was very beautifully reflected in the bonds between characters and linked the events.
Definately a great book.
The writing style and narration were in place, how each character thinks and feels, the plot was very beautifully reflected in the bonds between characters and linked the events.
Definately a great book.
November 4, 2021
quattro voci per raccontare lo sfacelo di una famiglia, di una nazione, di un sistema, in maniera potente e densissima.
quattro voci, quattro stellette, savasandìr.
quattro voci, quattro stellette, savasandìr.
June 11, 2020
Ci sono libri che ti lasciano con un senso di annientamento, come svuotato, senza nessuna prospettiva. È il caso di Cadere, romanzo d’esordio del giovane scrittore cubano Carlos Manuel Alvarez.
Il romanzo si svolge nella Cuba dei giorni nostri, in cui il tempo della rivoluzione e delle speranze di una vita migliore e più giusta sono solo un lontano ricordo, e per i più giovani non sono neanche quello.
I protagonisti sono i quattro componenti di una famiglia (padre, madre, figlio e figlia), le cui storie si sviluppano senza mai intersecarsi, in un gioco di specchi in cui niente è quello che sembra.
Il padre crede sinceramente nella rivoluzione. Il suo mito è Fidel e vive nei valori del sacrificio, del lavoro, dell’onestà e dell’integrità morale. Il suo mondo crollerà quando si renderà conto che il Partito non professa più tali valori.
Il figlio vive senza una precisa identità, non crede nella rivoluzione ed ha un pessimo rapporto con il padre, che lo ha costretto a fare il servizio militare senza nemmeno provare a trovare un modo per risparmiarglielo, come invece fanno molti altri padri.
La figlia, la preferita del padre, si scoprirà non così virtuosa come appare, ma nonostante ciò sarà quella che dimostrerà generosità verso la madre assistendola.
La madre, infine, è affetta da una grave malattia degenerativa che le provoca frequenti cadute, dopo ognuna delle quali la famiglia si ritrova disgregata un poco più di prima.
La struttura del libro è interessante: è suddiviso in capitoli ciascuno dei quali offre il punto di vista di uno dei protagonisti.
La scrittura è ricercata e al tempo stesso efficace, immediata.
Non tragga in inganno l’ambientazione: si parla certamente di Cuba ma il libro va oltre, nei luoghi della disillusione, del disincanto, della fatica di vivere.
Un bel libro, ma se siete giù di corda meglio rimandare la lettura...
Il romanzo si svolge nella Cuba dei giorni nostri, in cui il tempo della rivoluzione e delle speranze di una vita migliore e più giusta sono solo un lontano ricordo, e per i più giovani non sono neanche quello.
I protagonisti sono i quattro componenti di una famiglia (padre, madre, figlio e figlia), le cui storie si sviluppano senza mai intersecarsi, in un gioco di specchi in cui niente è quello che sembra.
Il padre crede sinceramente nella rivoluzione. Il suo mito è Fidel e vive nei valori del sacrificio, del lavoro, dell’onestà e dell’integrità morale. Il suo mondo crollerà quando si renderà conto che il Partito non professa più tali valori.
Il figlio vive senza una precisa identità, non crede nella rivoluzione ed ha un pessimo rapporto con il padre, che lo ha costretto a fare il servizio militare senza nemmeno provare a trovare un modo per risparmiarglielo, come invece fanno molti altri padri.
La figlia, la preferita del padre, si scoprirà non così virtuosa come appare, ma nonostante ciò sarà quella che dimostrerà generosità verso la madre assistendola.
La madre, infine, è affetta da una grave malattia degenerativa che le provoca frequenti cadute, dopo ognuna delle quali la famiglia si ritrova disgregata un poco più di prima.
La struttura del libro è interessante: è suddiviso in capitoli ciascuno dei quali offre il punto di vista di uno dei protagonisti.
La scrittura è ricercata e al tempo stesso efficace, immediata.
Non tragga in inganno l’ambientazione: si parla certamente di Cuba ma il libro va oltre, nei luoghi della disillusione, del disincanto, della fatica di vivere.
Un bel libro, ma se siete giù di corda meglio rimandare la lettura...
January 31, 2020
Cadere è un romanzo breve, ma denso e duro, che mostra lo sfaldarsi di un microcosmo famigliare nel disgregarsi della società cubana odierna e del suo mito. Forse sarebbe stato più opportuno il titolo I caduti, dalla traduzione letterale del titolo originale Los caidos, perché è un esito scontato quello che inesorabilmente si profila.
Sono quattro le voci del racconto, la madre Mariana che soffre di devastanti crisi epilettiche, il padre Armando che crede negli ideali rivoluzionari e non cede alla corruzione del partito, la figlia Maria che si rassegna a caricarsi sulle spalle il peso della famiglia, e il figlio Diego che svolge il servizio militare vorrebbe tagliare i ponti con la famiglia e andare all’Università.
Sullo sfondo una società che di rivoluzionario e di socialista ha solo più delle vuote parvenze burocratiche, “’siamo tutti su una bicicletta gigante, figlio mio, stiamo pedalando sulla bicicletta della giustizia’. A quel punto ricordo la voce di mia madre, che sembrava non badare a noi e invece sì, come fanno sempre le madri, che badano a tutto, dire che era vero, stavamo pedalando tutti, a con la catena caduta.”
Le voci dei quattro si alternano ciclicamente e separatamente, non si incontrano mai, pur sovrapponendosi nel manifestare i diversi punti di vista, ed è già segno di un nucleo famigliare sfasciato.
E nel tratteggiare la società cubana, l’affondo critico di Alvarez è da acuto osservatore e mai ideologico.
Sono quattro le voci del racconto, la madre Mariana che soffre di devastanti crisi epilettiche, il padre Armando che crede negli ideali rivoluzionari e non cede alla corruzione del partito, la figlia Maria che si rassegna a caricarsi sulle spalle il peso della famiglia, e il figlio Diego che svolge il servizio militare vorrebbe tagliare i ponti con la famiglia e andare all’Università.
Sullo sfondo una società che di rivoluzionario e di socialista ha solo più delle vuote parvenze burocratiche, “’siamo tutti su una bicicletta gigante, figlio mio, stiamo pedalando sulla bicicletta della giustizia’. A quel punto ricordo la voce di mia madre, che sembrava non badare a noi e invece sì, come fanno sempre le madri, che badano a tutto, dire che era vero, stavamo pedalando tutti, a con la catena caduta.”
Le voci dei quattro si alternano ciclicamente e separatamente, non si incontrano mai, pur sovrapponendosi nel manifestare i diversi punti di vista, ed è già segno di un nucleo famigliare sfasciato.
E nel tratteggiare la società cubana, l’affondo critico di Alvarez è da acuto osservatore e mai ideologico.
July 28, 2024
هذه قصة عائلة: هناك ابن لا يؤمن بالثورة. هناك أب يتمسك بحلم باهت، ويقتبس من تشي جيفارا متى استطاع. هناك أم تسقط مريضة وترى الحياة تنفلت من يديها. هناك ابنة تفعل كل شيء من أجل تدبير أمورها، حتى لو كان هذا يعني الاستسلام للوهم والخداع.
رواية «الواقعون» تصوير بارع لمجتمع في حالة سقوط حر نتيجة عدم الوفاء بالوعود، وهي تقدم نظرة جديدة لم نعهدها لكوبا المعاصرة بكل تناقضاتها
الأحداث مملة للغاية وبطيئة ولا يوجد فيها أي شيءٍ مميزٍ على الإطلاق، بصراحة في البداية جذبني أسلوب السرد والترجمة المميزة ولكن بكل أمانة لم تفعل الأحداث ما فعله السرد .. في الواقع جعلتني الأحداث أنفر من الرواية
قدمت الرواية نظرةً لا بأس بها عن كوبا المعاصرة وتعريفاً بمجتمعها .. في المجمل كل ما نعرفه عن كوبا هو تشي جيفارا وعملية خليج الخنازير
_______________
باختصار😊:
لو كنت مهتماً بتاريخ كوبا المُعاصرة فمن الممكن أن يكون هذا الكتاب مرجعاً جيداً لك ولكن لا تتوقع على أن تكون القصة جذابة
رواية «الواقعون» تصوير بارع لمجتمع في حالة سقوط حر نتيجة عدم الوفاء بالوعود، وهي تقدم نظرة جديدة لم نعهدها لكوبا المعاصرة بكل تناقضاتها
الأحداث مملة للغاية وبطيئة ولا يوجد فيها أي شيءٍ مميزٍ على الإطلاق، بصراحة في البداية جذبني أسلوب السرد والترجمة المميزة ولكن بكل أمانة لم تفعل الأحداث ما فعله السرد .. في الواقع جعلتني الأحداث أنفر من الرواية
قدمت الرواية نظرةً لا بأس بها عن كوبا المعاصرة وتعريفاً بمجتمعها .. في المجمل كل ما نعرفه عن كوبا هو تشي جيفارا وعملية خليج الخنازير
_______________
باختصار😊:
لو كنت مهتماً بتاريخ كوبا المُعاصرة فمن الممكن أن يكون هذا الكتاب مرجعاً جيداً لك ولكن لا تتوقع على أن تكون القصة جذابة
April 26, 2023
2.5 maybe. This was written really beautifully but I honestly had no idea what was going on. It jumps between characters but because it was a single narrator I didn't know who was talking most of the time. It's also not very plot heavy and focuses mostly on memory and flashes of different scenes so I felt it easy to get lost. I thought the bits about the mother's illness were good but other than that I really don't know what to say!
February 15, 2023
Mi mayor goce fueron las descripciones. Pude ver las escenas con claridad. Lo hace ver tan sencillo aunque debió costarle mucho. Fue muy claro desde el acto de tomar una taza hasta las peleas que sucedieron.
También está muy cool ver lo que piensa cada uno de los personajes en las diferentes situaciones y darse cuenta que a veces no sabemos nada de la otra persona.
"Cada cabeza es un mundo" dirían por ahí.
Recomendao escucharlo en audiolibro porque son 4 narradores y está bien chido jsjs
Saludos cordiales
(Awasconlospoios)
También está muy cool ver lo que piensa cada uno de los personajes en las diferentes situaciones y darse cuenta que a veces no sabemos nada de la otra persona.
"Cada cabeza es un mundo" dirían por ahí.
Recomendao escucharlo en audiolibro porque son 4 narradores y está bien chido jsjs
Saludos cordiales
(Awasconlospoios)
February 8, 2020
«Tutti i maestri che se ne vanno via proprio quando arrivo io. È questo l'incubo, è questo l'avvenire.»⠀
⠀
⠀
«Non mi meraviglia, non mi meraviglia nulla. L'unica cosa che mi meraviglia è che, se non ci pensi, no. Se però ci pensi, se ci pensi anche solo un secondo, c'è sempre una parte del corpo che ti prude o ti fa male.»⠀
⠀
⠀
⠀
«Mi chiedo a cosa serva il giudizio se l'uomo non può farci nulla salvo osservare quel che non ha fatto quando non lo aveva e tormentarsi al pensiero di cosa avrebbe potuto fare se lo avesse avuto.»⠀
⠀
⠀
⠀
«Ogni volta che sapevo qualcosa in meno, ogni volta che un nuovo concetto si rifiutava di essere nominato da me, sapevo anche che non c'era niente di meglio di non sapere. Di non poter nominare, non dire, non chiarire, non riuscire. Quella notte ho dormito serena, sotto la coperta della malattia.»⠀
⠀
⠀
⠀
⠀
⠀
****⠀
⠀
⠀
Carlos Manuel Álvarez, Cadere, traduzione di Violetta Colonnelli, @edizioniSUR⠀
⠀
⠀
****⠀
⠀
⠀
Cinque atti, quattro voci, un unico racconto: la storia di una famiglia in crisi. ⠀
Per citare un classico che non ho letto "ogni famiglia infelice è infelice a modo suo" e qui, tra un padre che vive fuori dal tempo, attaccato agli ideali rivoluzionari ormai ignorati da tutti, un figlio pieno di frustrazione repressa impegnato nelle ultime settimane del servizio militare, una figlia pragmatica e disincantata e una madre malata soggetta a ripetute cadute in seguito a crisi convulsive, quella che Álvarez mette in scena è una famiglia piena di crepe, di non detti, di recriminazioni e dolore. Una famiglia che rappresenta una nazione dove le contraddizioni accumulate negli anni hanno portato una crisi di ideali una volta che la figura di riferimento è caduta, è mancata.⠀
Un romanzo che mi ha fatto male ma da cui non riuscivo a staccarmi, tanto efficace è l'alternarsi e il completarsi tra loro delle voci narranti, voci tra loro dissonanti che si fondono in una armonia angosciante che, si parva licet, ha lo stesso effetto dell'ascolto della Danza Sacrificale da Le Sacre du printemps di Stravinskij.⠀
⠀
⠀
⠀
⠀
⠀
⠀
«Non mi meraviglia, non mi meraviglia nulla. L'unica cosa che mi meraviglia è che, se non ci pensi, no. Se però ci pensi, se ci pensi anche solo un secondo, c'è sempre una parte del corpo che ti prude o ti fa male.»⠀
⠀
⠀
⠀
«Mi chiedo a cosa serva il giudizio se l'uomo non può farci nulla salvo osservare quel che non ha fatto quando non lo aveva e tormentarsi al pensiero di cosa avrebbe potuto fare se lo avesse avuto.»⠀
⠀
⠀
⠀
«Ogni volta che sapevo qualcosa in meno, ogni volta che un nuovo concetto si rifiutava di essere nominato da me, sapevo anche che non c'era niente di meglio di non sapere. Di non poter nominare, non dire, non chiarire, non riuscire. Quella notte ho dormito serena, sotto la coperta della malattia.»⠀
⠀
⠀
⠀
⠀
⠀
****⠀
⠀
⠀
Carlos Manuel Álvarez, Cadere, traduzione di Violetta Colonnelli, @edizioniSUR⠀
⠀
⠀
****⠀
⠀
⠀
Cinque atti, quattro voci, un unico racconto: la storia di una famiglia in crisi. ⠀
Per citare un classico che non ho letto "ogni famiglia infelice è infelice a modo suo" e qui, tra un padre che vive fuori dal tempo, attaccato agli ideali rivoluzionari ormai ignorati da tutti, un figlio pieno di frustrazione repressa impegnato nelle ultime settimane del servizio militare, una figlia pragmatica e disincantata e una madre malata soggetta a ripetute cadute in seguito a crisi convulsive, quella che Álvarez mette in scena è una famiglia piena di crepe, di non detti, di recriminazioni e dolore. Una famiglia che rappresenta una nazione dove le contraddizioni accumulate negli anni hanno portato una crisi di ideali una volta che la figura di riferimento è caduta, è mancata.⠀
Un romanzo che mi ha fatto male ma da cui non riuscivo a staccarmi, tanto efficace è l'alternarsi e il completarsi tra loro delle voci narranti, voci tra loro dissonanti che si fondono in una armonia angosciante che, si parva licet, ha lo stesso effetto dell'ascolto della Danza Sacrificale da Le Sacre du printemps di Stravinskij.⠀
⠀
⠀
⠀
⠀
July 5, 2021
It has been a long while since I read a novel in one day, but then my reading habit for the last six months has not been very good. And the fact I read this in one day says a lot for this short novel.
The book manages to capture two things very well. The first is the feeling of living in a decaying and corrupted socialist regime, and the second is the sense of a family and the ways the family members see each other and the secrets they keep from each other. Written with four voices - mother, father, son and daughter, not a huge amount happens. It reflects mostly the details of life. It is a sad book, with what was for me an unexpected twist at the end. Worth a read if you don't mind a journey through sadness.
These Fitzcarraldo editions are also produced very nicely, so if the physical feel of a book is important for you, I'd look out for them.
The book manages to capture two things very well. The first is the feeling of living in a decaying and corrupted socialist regime, and the second is the sense of a family and the ways the family members see each other and the secrets they keep from each other. Written with four voices - mother, father, son and daughter, not a huge amount happens. It reflects mostly the details of life. It is a sad book, with what was for me an unexpected twist at the end. Worth a read if you don't mind a journey through sadness.
These Fitzcarraldo editions are also produced very nicely, so if the physical feel of a book is important for you, I'd look out for them.
November 3, 2019
What a beautiful little book, full of depth, meaning and what seemed like real people with real emotions.
I was hooked from the beginning and transported to the world of this troubled Cuban family.
Each chapter is written from a different person's perspective ... The Son, The Daughter, The Father, and The Mother. I was really engrossed in how they were feeling and why, I wanted to hear their voices, their pain, joys and thoughts about the future ... I could quite happily have read another 131 pages about this family.
I definitely want to read more from this author, but will obviously have to wait for translated versions to be written.
I'd say this author is a real find ... found in an independent bookshop in Edinburgh ... The Golden Hare. https://goldenharebooks.com/
I was hooked from the beginning and transported to the world of this troubled Cuban family.
Each chapter is written from a different person's perspective ... The Son, The Daughter, The Father, and The Mother. I was really engrossed in how they were feeling and why, I wanted to hear their voices, their pain, joys and thoughts about the future ... I could quite happily have read another 131 pages about this family.
I definitely want to read more from this author, but will obviously have to wait for translated versions to be written.
I'd say this author is a real find ... found in an independent bookshop in Edinburgh ... The Golden Hare. https://goldenharebooks.com/
March 2, 2020
Oops - I finished this while I was sick and forgot to take it off my currently reading list. I read this because some people online were celebrating Fitzcarraldo Editions and this was the only one I had left unread. I'm so glad I pulled it out. Very nuanced, what feels or reads like a family story has politics just beneath the surface but allows the reader to figure out what he's saying politically. I'd like to read this again when I don't have a raging fever, and I probably will.
July 2, 2020
Told from the points of view of four Cuban family members, this book gives some insight into the lives of everyday people under this crumbling social structure. Yet, much of it is metaphoric. It is a fast read that paints a picture of a bleak, but enduring future.
May 31, 2021
"...un hombre es su familia."
December 27, 2024
Pretty striking, and devastating picture of a family in crisis in a society in crisis. I really enjoyed this one.
March 16, 2019
A esta novela, la primera de Carlos Manuel Álvarez, se le ha reprochado lo mismo que a ciertas películas contemporáneas: no cuenta nada. Pero otra vez es falso. Esta novela, como esas películas, cuenta mucho, lo cual revela una vez más que el problema no está en quién narra, sino en la forma en que esa narración va a ser leída. Y quien narra aquí es todo un cuerpo agónico: la familia moribunda de todas las Cubas, la de antes y la de ahora, la del primer castrismo y la del castrismo tardío.
Se les ha exigido a las novelas sorpresa, justo lo que no tiene cabida en el sopor cubano, por eso no tiene que haberla en Los caídos: la madre enferma va a morir, el padre dogmático va a caer, así la hermana y también Diego, a quien muy poco le falta para entonar su himno del desterrado.
Quizás a lo que se refieren algunos es a la ausencia de ese vértigo contemporáneo, la ansiedad de la peripecia mal entendida. También acaso a su brevedad, que, citando a Aira, es resultado de “un escrúpulo estético, de concisión y previsión”.
He leído esta novela con el recuerdo de Aire frío, porque quizás solamente esta obra maestra de Virgilio Piñera supera en riesgo a la novela de Álvarez, al narrar de forma tan descarnada las tribulaciones de un joven que, como resultado de su descolocación y su extraño Edipo, contribuye a la destrucción emocional de una familia y en particular de una madre.
(Este es un extracto de una reseña más extensa que saldrá próximamente.)
Se les ha exigido a las novelas sorpresa, justo lo que no tiene cabida en el sopor cubano, por eso no tiene que haberla en Los caídos: la madre enferma va a morir, el padre dogmático va a caer, así la hermana y también Diego, a quien muy poco le falta para entonar su himno del desterrado.
Quizás a lo que se refieren algunos es a la ausencia de ese vértigo contemporáneo, la ansiedad de la peripecia mal entendida. También acaso a su brevedad, que, citando a Aira, es resultado de “un escrúpulo estético, de concisión y previsión”.
He leído esta novela con el recuerdo de Aire frío, porque quizás solamente esta obra maestra de Virgilio Piñera supera en riesgo a la novela de Álvarez, al narrar de forma tan descarnada las tribulaciones de un joven que, como resultado de su descolocación y su extraño Edipo, contribuye a la destrucción emocional de una familia y en particular de una madre.
(Este es un extracto de una reseña más extensa que saldrá próximamente.)
November 22, 2023
Para mí, este libro fue regular - no lo odié, pero al mismo tiempo no me gustó mucho. Fue interesante en algunas partes, pero no me impactó tanto como otros libros que he leído. Fue una perspectiva interesante sobre la vida en Cuba, pero para mí falta detalles para tener una visión más clara de los motivos de los personajes. Pensé que yo era la única con esta opinión, pero en mi club de lectura, todos tuvieron básicamente la misma perspectiva.
Algo que me gustó fue el uso de capítulos para cada miembro de la familia para dar una perspectiva diferente - muchas veces, ven las mismas cosas de una manera distinta. También el uso de su papel en la familia (madre, hijo, etc.) en vez de su nombre, aunque sabemos sus nombres - eso me dio la sensación de que los sucesos en el libro pueden pasarle a cualquier familia.
Algo que me gustó fue el uso de capítulos para cada miembro de la familia para dar una perspectiva diferente - muchas veces, ven las mismas cosas de una manera distinta. También el uso de su papel en la familia (madre, hijo, etc.) en vez de su nombre, aunque sabemos sus nombres - eso me dio la sensación de que los sucesos en el libro pueden pasarle a cualquier familia.
June 10, 2021
This novella describes a failing nuclear family as a brilliant metaphor for a failing society. I might have rated it a star less if I hadn’t recently been to Cuba because my visit provided the context for what I read. There is a generational divide on the success of the revolution and this division is noted specifically between father and son. The former remains loyal to the objectives of the revolution but the son, currently serving in the army, is more cynical. The family and society is failing as the mother is literally falling due to increasing severity of a medial temporal seizure disorder. Quotidian events were experienced differently in the “difficult times” and the younger generation has adapted and act differently to survive.
February 2, 2020
Devo ammettere che una riflessione in più devo farcela. E consiglio di leggerlo tutto d’un fiato, come si trattasse d’un racconto lungo, altrimenti si tende a perdere particolari importanti (io credo lo rileggerò con più attenzione). C’è una famiglia che si disgrega, in un paese (Cuba) altrettanto disgregato ideologicamente. Quattro personaggi che parlano e pure se uniti da vincoli di sangue, paiono l’un contro l’altro in lotta armati. Colpa della ideologia, appunto, ma anche del susseguirsi delle generazioni che si cannibalizzano tra di loro.
Scrittura rapsodica, a tratti surreale ma sempre ben salda. Vedremo.
Scrittura rapsodica, a tratti surreale ma sempre ben salda. Vedremo.
January 22, 2025
Koliko god je autor pružio različite perspektive i osobne uvide u događaje, i dalje mi je roman nekako ostao sterilan. Previse se lagano prelazi iz jednog lika u drugi. Nisam imala potrebe zastati u čudu i promislili kako se netko osjeća ili zašto se tako osjeća niti zašto je postupio kako je postupio. Dobar dio romana sam se pitala zašto ovo čitam i kamo vodi ova priča. I na kraju isto neki flah osjećaj i bezidejnost. Dala sam četiri zvjezdice jer je lijepo uredio rečenice, ima stilski jako lijepih rečenica.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 118 reviews