Comemadre
ブエノスアイレス郊外の療養施設で、生と死の境界を探る奇怪な実験が行われる一九〇七年の物語と、身体そのものを作品化しようとする芸術家の二〇〇九年の物語が交差する。科学、芸術、欲望、進歩への信仰がグロテスクなユーモアの中で結びつく短い長篇。
作品情報
生と死、芸術と身体の境界が、滑稽さと不快さを帯びて崩れていく。
ロケ・ララキの『Comemadre』は、ヘザー・クリアリー訳で Coffee House Press から英語刊行されたアルゼンチン小説。若い医師が看護師への恋と同僚たちの実験に巻き込まれる前半と、自己改造へ向かう芸術家の後半が、身体をめぐる執着でつながる。人間は超越や進歩のためにどこまで自分と他者を損なえるのかを、悪趣味すれすれの寓話として描く。
レビュー要約
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奇抜な発想と短い分量の中で二つの時代を接続する構成が評価されている。残酷さ、滑稽さ、哲学的な問いが同居するため、読者を選ぶ一方で強い個性を持つ作品として受け止められている。
書籍情報
- 出版社
- Coffee House Press
- 発売日
- 2018-07-10
- ページ数
- 152ページ
- 言語
- 英語
- サイズ
- 12.7 x 1.27 x 19.69 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9781566895156
- ISBN-10
- 1566895154
- 価格
- 3019 JPY
- カテゴリ
- 洋書/Literature & Fiction/United States/Hispanic
Literary Latin American Flatliners : a smart, engrossing, and darkly funny novel experimenting with where life and love begin and end. On the outskirts of Buenos Aires in 1907, Doctor Quintana pines for head nurse Menéndez while he and his colleagues embark on a grisly series of experiments to investigate the line between life and death. One hundred years later, a celebrated artist goes to extremes in search of aesthetic transformation, turning himself into an art object. How far are we willing to go, Larraquy asks, in pursuit of transcendence? The world of Comemadre is full of vulgarity, excess, and farce: strange ants that form almost perfect circles, missing body parts, obsessive love affairs, and flesh-eating plants. Here the monstrous is not alien, but the consequence of our relentless pursuit of collective and personal progress.
Roque Larraquy is an Argentinian writer, screenwriter, professor of narrative and audiovisual design, and the author of two books, La comemadre and Informe sobre ectoplasma animal . Comemadre will be his first book published in English. Heather Cleary’s translations include César Rendueles’s Sociophobia , Sergio Chejfec’s The Planets and The Dark , and a selection of Oliverio Girondo’s poetry for New Directions.
レビュー
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Chilling weird fiction!
I know translation has a lot to do with how well written a foreign language book turns out in English so kudos to the translator as well as the author of this gem. It’s an unusual read, in two parts, taking place in very different time periods. The first part was my favorite. The second was a little too over my head (I’m still trying to figure out exactly what the author meant) but the beautiful prose was mesmerizing. Without spoiling it, I’ll just say that the first part involved some of the creepiest medical science I’ve ever read presented in such a way that the little hairs on the back of my neck often stood up while reading it. The characters were sublimely presented, each with their own secrets, and their true intentions slowly revealed in lyrical style. Loved the gorgeous writing! Did I mention the beautiful prose? Am now obsessed with this author and searching desperately for more of his novels in English! Super! Fantastico!
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Dessication
A plant that is filled with larvae that will disappear anything organic, but not in less than nine seconds. A character in this book definitely considered the actual time required to consume...
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This book is not landing in 2025 the same way it would have 20 years ago.
Reality has overtaken satire: if I want to read about a bunch of self-obsessed incel sociopaths treating other people worse than animals, I can just turn on the news. It's true that so far, the news doesn't feature so many decapitations, but maybe that will be coming soon?
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It Doesn't Matter What Label You Use
This book is fantastic. Very imaginative, extremely funny (but you need a perverse sense of humor) and very reader friendly thanks to Ms. Cleary's flowing translation. It's also philosophically thought provoking and short. 129 pages. Oh, don't worry. You get your money's worth. Along with fellow Argentinians Fresan and Saccomanno, Larraquy is now on the radar for us gringos.
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Good book.
It’s a fun read. Great novel. Ridiculous characters. Kinda dark but enjoyable.
関連する文学賞
- ナショナル・ブック賞（翻訳文学） 第1回（2018年） ・Longlisted