Reviews 28: The Old Man Who Read Love Stories by Luis Sepúlveda

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In this video I talk about Luis Sepúlveda's 1989 debut novel, The Old Man Who Read Love Stories (published in English translation in 1993), which is set in the Ecuadorean rainforest.
You can read this novel here in various languages:
English: archive.org/details/isbn_9780...
Spanish: archive.org/details/unviejoqu...
French: archive.org/details/levieuxqu...
I also mentioned Sepúlveda's travel book, Full Circle: A South American Journey, which, although patchy, has excellent chapters on his early life and his time as a political prisoner:
archive.org/details/fullcircl...
The book that this novel mostly strongly reminded me of was Colin Turnbull's work of anthropology, The Forest People, which recounts his time spent with a tribe of pygmies:
archive.org/details/forestpeo...
Note: In my biographical sketch I left out Sepúlveda's participation in the revolution in Nicaragua for reasons of space.
Thank you for watching, and I hope some of you will be tempted to check out this wonderful short novel. Please come back and leave a comment if you do, and share what you made of it. But for now, avocado avocado.

Опубликовано:

8 июл 2023

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Комментарии : 3

@AnnaSaeba Год назад

I owe you many thanks for this great and enthusiastic review. I read this short novel several years ago and have to admit I didn't impress me at all, and to be honest I couldn't remember what the story was about. You've avenged this novel, as your review encouraged me to reread the book. And I really appreciated it this second time. Luis Sepúlveda's writing is beautiful, powerful and a marvel to read. The story, its plot, the characters, especially this Old Man, are perfectly depicted, what's going on in their minds, their physical traits. And the description of Nature, the forest, the river, the animals. Enthralling! The end is so moving and strong. A perfect end. ¡Muchas gracias por esta reseña de una gran pequena novela! papayu papayu

@TheChannelofaDisappointedMan 11 месяцев назад

That's great to hear. The rainforest is brought to life so beautifully, the only thing missing from the reading experience is a cloud of mosquitoes attacking as you turn the pages. The man's understanding of nature, of the ocelot, reaches a mystical level at the book's climax. You can feel the depth of meaning on both sides, man, nature, to such an extent that there's a kind of ecstatic union in this fight to the death.

@AnnaSaeba 11 месяцев назад

@@TheChannelofaDisappointedMan I agree with you on all points, but one: the cloud of mosquitoes. As you rightly say, there a mystical level, and the end is incredibly powerful and moving. A great lesson.