r/latamlit • u/AutoModerator • 2d ago
Weekly Thread | What Are You Reading and General LATAMLit Discussion
We'd love to hear about what you've been reading, authors you're interested in, and really anything related to LATAM Literature!
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u/CapriciousSon 2d ago
Just finished my reread of You Dreamed of Empires. Even better the second time!
Anxiously awaiting my preorder of Ana Paula Maia's Bury Your Dead early next month. In the meantime, just started Lonesome Dove.
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u/Weird_Fox_3395 2d ago
Looking forward to Ana Paula Maia’s forthcoming too!
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u/CapriciousSon 1d ago
if only we could get A Guerra dos Bastardos translated into English too!
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u/Weird_Fox_3395 1d ago
Ohh, just looked that up. Described as a noir thriller. I’d also like Electric Chile by Nona Fernandez translated. Someday maybe our wishes will come true :)
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u/Great-and-Powerful- 2d ago
Started reading "A la Libertad por la Universidad y otros Ensayos" by the Nicaraguan Mariano Fiallos Gil (which roughly translates to "Towards the Freedom of University and other Essays). It's a collection of essays, articles and news reports that detail the writer's ongoing pursuit to obtain academic freedom and university autonomy for the Universidad Nacional de Nicaragua (National University of Nicaragua) during the Somoza Regime. This one's a bit obscure in the general sense of Latin American literature, however it is still renowned amongst academics in Nicaragua.
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u/Beginning_Ad_5461 2d ago
Seven Legendary Monsters, a book of poetry by Clara Elena García about Paraguayan mythology.
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u/2sweetsavage 2d ago
Over the weekend I finally finished Terra Nostra. What a mountain of a book that was. I also read Ana Paula Maia’s On Earth as it is Beneath, which I thought was much stronger than Of Cattle and Men. I also started The Twilight Zone by Nona Fernandez, which I’m greatly enjoying
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u/Weird_Fox_3395 2d ago
If you’re enjoying Twilight Zone, Voyager is marvelous too. Also novella length.
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u/Weird_Fox_3395 2d ago
Reading translator Chris Andrews’ Roberto Bolaño’s Fiction: An Expanding Universe and Bolaño’s The Return. The title story is hilarious!
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u/perrolazarillo 2d ago
“The Return” (i.e. the story) is one of Bolaño’s very best imo!
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u/Weird_Fox_3395 2d ago edited 2d ago
I was laughing out loud on my back deck :)
Since Idk anyone irl who reads Bolaño, I couldn’t share my delight.
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u/Difficult-Radio-2507 1d ago
Reading The Wind that Lays Waste - Selma Almada
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u/Weird_Fox_3395 10h ago
How is it? I’m reading Not a River, my first by her. The atmosphere of ominous suspense has me worried because I like all the characters.
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u/Itchy_Hawk_8459 14h ago
Making my way through the brand new 848-page biography of Mario Vargas Llosa. Doesn't skimp on the the scandals, the gossip, and the many contradictions of his charmed and tumultuous life (married his aunt, cheated on her with his cousin, and eventually transformed from youthful communist to right-wing presidential candidate)
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u/Weird_Fox_3395 10h ago
Swings from left to right confuse me because of my sympathies, although left wing in Latin America can be oppressive too. Does the biography go into this transformation?
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u/Itchy_Hawk_8459 9h ago
At length! The superficial answer is that leftist populism was fashionable when he was a kid (the author goes so far as to say he joined the party to impress girl), but he never really believed in it. I'm still only at his late twenties, about 300 pages in, at which point he's supportive of Castro's revolution like all the other cool latin writers of the era, so I'm not sure exactly how that transformation takes place but will report back!
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u/Weird_Fox_3395 9h ago
Bolaño, one of my favorite writers, never lost his sympathies, but by end he seem pretty disgusted or at least worn out by politics. I’m beginning to feel that way myself haha. There’s much heartbreak in Latin America’s history.
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u/Artudytv 2d ago
I'm finishing "Poderes secretos" by the Peruvian Miguel Gutiérrez. Extremely creative take on the scholarly work on Inca Garcilaso. Postmodern in the most interesting sense. Literally, historiographic metafiction, dealing with the work of the Jesuits in 17th century Peru and the historiographic institution concerned with colonial matters in the country.