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Se Vivêssemos Em Um Lugar Normal (2012)

by Juan Pablo Villalobos(Favorite Author)

3.59 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

8535923241 (ISBN13: 9788535923247)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Companhia das Letras

review 1: Fun and refreshing. I laughed out loud. It was hilarious! I wish I read Spanish well enough to read it in its original Spanish, because I bet it would be even more funny, though the translation was fantastic. I loved how irreverent it was. I loved the cursing, and especially wish I could have read that in Spanish. Loved the sarcasm, the narrator's tone. I loved how parts of the story drifted between the real and the surreal with no apology or explanation. I loved the characters. It felt fresh and new and different and alive like nothing else I have read in a long time. I look forward to more from Villalobos. Bravo!
review 2: This book is a good follow-up to "Down the Rabbit Hole." Kudos to Villalobos for not imitating the success of that book--instea... mored of sticking with the concept of "Rabbit" (in which the story was driven by a very unique and memorable voice), he takes things here in a decidedly different direction. The focus in this book is on the wacky events, surrealistic humor and political satire, rather than the voice. Overall the book feels a bit episodic, but I think maybe that was the point? To make fun of conventional literary realism that insists that a book needs to "go" somewhere? Anyway, for what it's worth I enjoyed the class commentary in this book, particularly in the narrator's interactions with his rich Polish neighbor. Very cutting and well-observed details. And I love the idea of his brothers being "pretend twins"--twins that aren't really twins, that don't even look alike. I also loved the madcap energy of the end and the way it was making fun of magical realism, and the way that people say in eager tones of voice that omg, Latin America is sooooo special, just like anything can happen there!!! So yeah, I appreciated the dark humor. Apparently this book along with "Down the Rabbit Hole" is a trilogy about contemporary Mexico. So maybe this book is kind of like the necesarry, flawed follow-up to the Big Successful Book That Everyone Loved, and then once you're liberated from that, you can really take things to the next level. Villalobos is definitely a talent and I remain eager and excited to continue reading his bookwork less

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