Peter Damian Bellis

A slim gathering of short stories from the man behind River Boat Books, [[Peter Damian Bellis]]. Wonderful characters populate the pages, real and fully formed people who might remind you of the oddballs in you own life. When the tories are at their best, they detail the every day lives of these characters. though the stories stretch their seams a little when Bellis scratches at the otherworldly. The only story I didn't enjoy was the final one, a chapter from Bellis' novel - I am sure it's a personal failing, as I'm never attracted to stories or books written in the dialectic pidgin of a place - sorry Mr. Bellis, but I don't care for Faulkner either.

4 bones!!!!… (más)

I loved the magical realism that closed the book--highlighted by Jane's "ghost."

After all the debate between the Turk, the burly man, and Jane about "nihilism/stoicism/living for the moment" and a more spiritual conception of eternity and afterlife, Jane's Purgatory seemed to affirm her view (women are always right, after all!). Yet, in the conventional sense, die she did and left behind a little girl, whom Nkechi fostered.

The closing scene highlights my initial impression more:

"But now it was different. They were no longer waiting. The quiet stillness from before had been replaced by the mechanical hum of the plane."

Perhaps it is the fact that I just re-read Dante's Commedia and am re-reading Hamlet at present, but I found this final section to be an analogue of Dante's ascent: from the Inferno of guerrilla warfare and bloody revolutions in Africa; to the in-between (farmhouse) passage of the Purgatorio; to the peaceful heights of Paradiso (the plane). "They were no longer waiting" seems to me to parallel the passage from Purgatory to the heavenly sphere.

I also noted a blend of Borges's story, "The Aleph," where the characters become entranced by all of the universe concentrated in a single point, a portal to see all of Time at once, and Nietzsche's concept of the eternal return:

"It suddenly seemed to her that everything that had ever happened was happening again, all at once. It was as if here...time converged upon itself, a spider web of sparkling shadows and infinite contradictions, a perfect symmetry of purpose and creation, all of it becoming a single fixed point."

Overall, I appreciate how, illumined by the Turk/Jame debate, our characters are in a world of chaos and contradiction. They are limited to being kings and queens bounded within the nutshell of their own mind (to take a cue from Hamlet). Each must confer upon this paradox their own interpretation in order to cope--and even though the burly man is painted as indifferent, this is still but a stance from which to achieve a pseudo-Turk-like stoicism.… (más)

This is shabby of me. The Mad Patagonian deserves to be reviewed by an average reader who has finished it. While I'm certainly average, I have read only 900+ pages. Having time to read during coronavirus isolation does not mean having mind to read. This book is an ocean. I swim on the surface with my head in the water and glimpse fabulous, massive creatures in the depths. That said, the reading is not particularly difficult, and I will finish my first-time-through and then see how I feel about a second time.
The series of nine novellas is reminiscent of Anthony Powell's Dance to the Music of Time but follows two branches of the Escoraz family from Spain to Cuba to Florida, starting with the present and backtracking and spiraling through time.
Magical realism waxes and wanes. Zabala introduces the names of writers and artists from various centuries. A reader might think he's made up all these names until she Googles them, and there they are. Adventure, out of body experience, sex, a murder at the heart, romance - The Mad Patagonian has them all and more.
Read the long reviews, especially those of Larry R. and the tomcatM to have a taste of the flavor.
My thanks and apology to River Boat Books and Early Reviewers. I intend to live long enough to finish, and I'll be back at that point to do better.… (más)