A Brief Life - Softcover

Onetti, Juan Carlos

3.8

995 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 185242978X ISBN 13: 9781852429782

Publisher: Serpent's Tail, 2008

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Written in 1950, A Brief Life is the first novel to feature Onetti?s mythical town of Santa Mar?a. His protagonist Brausen eavesdrops on the conversation of his neighbours, a husband and wife, imagining their gestures, their expressions. Brausen lives with his wife, who has undergone major surgery after being diagnosed with breast cancer. To compensate for this physical void which stalls their caresses, Brausen imagines stories: of Santa Mar?a, and of a doctor named D?az Grey. But he not only wishes to imagine himself as someone else, he also seeks release from himself and from the world he knows. He leads many lives, some real and some fantastic, in order to experience a moment of psychic weightlessness - a ?brief life?.

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Review:

Latin American literature has few secrets to divulge to the English speaking world, but one of them is the Uruguayan novelist Juan Carlos Onetti. (Guardian)

Laconic, elegant, literary. (London Review of Books)

Onetti's novels and stories are the foundation stones of our modernity. To those of us who are his followers, he brings a lesson of narrative intelligence and of immense love for the literary imagination. (Carlos Fuentes)

One of the giants of the twentieth century, certainly doing things in 1937/38 way before Beckett and Camus (Alan Warner)

Although plot-centered readers may become impatient with Onetti's pre-Boom classic, others will delight in its variations and nuances, its wisdom and analyses, and its flavors reminiscent of Faulkner and savor it as an early harbinger (1950) of Latin American magic realism (Library Journal USA 2010-03-01)

From the Back Cover:

'Latin American literature has few secrets to divulge to the English-speaking world; but one of them is the Uruguayan novelist Juan Carlos Onetti' GuardianBrausen is caring for his wife after a long illness. To compensate for the physical void which temporarily stalls their caresses, Brausen eavesdrops on his neighbours, a husband and wife; imagining their gestures and expressions. He also imagines stories: of a mythical town called Santa Maria, and of a doctor named Diaz Grey. But he not only wishes to imagine himself as someone else, he also seeks release from the world he knows. He leads many lives, some real and some fantastic, in order to experience a moment of psychic weightlessness - a 'brief life'.First published in 1950, this is a brilliant novel by one of the greats of Latin American literature.'The Graham Greene of Uruguay ... foreshadowing the work of Beckett and Camus.' Sunday Telegraph'One of the giants of the twentieth century' Alan Warner

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