Chilean poet : a novel

Title:

Uniform Title:

Poeta chileno. English

Author:

Zambra, Alejandro, 1975- author.

Added Author:

McDowell, Megan,

Personal Author:

Zambra, Alejandro, 1975- author.

ISBN:

9780593492505

9780593297940

Edition:

First English-language edition.

Physical Description:

358 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

General Note:

Abstract:

"The internationally acclaimed author, heralded as one of the most important writers of his generation, returns with the most substantial work of his career: an emotionally captivating, very funny novel about fathers and sons, ambition and failure, and the many forms of family"-- Provided by publisher

Nine years after their bewildering breakup, aspiring poet Gonzalo reunites with his high school girlfriend, Carla, now the mother of a six-year-old son, Vicente. Soon the three form a happy sort-of family--a stepfamily, though no such word exists in their language. After a few years, their ambitions pull the lovers in different directions, but traces of Gonzalo remain: Vicente inherits his love of poetry. When, at eighteen, he meets Pru, an American journalist literally and figuratively lost in Santiago, he encourages her to write about Chilean poets--not the famous, dead kind, your Nerudas or Mistrals or Bolaos, but rather the living, everyday poets, who are also a kind of family. By the time Pru's article is published, Gonzalo has returned to Chile. But will he and Vicente find their way back to one another?

Subject Term:

Poets, Chilean -- Fiction.

Families -- Fiction.

Stepfamilies -- Fiction.

Fathers and sons -- Fiction.

Interpersonal relations -- Fiction.

Genre:

Domestic fiction.

Summary:

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Shelf Number	Status
Searching... East End	Book	FICTION ZAMBRA	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Main Library	Book	FICTION ZAMBRA	Searching... Unknown
Searching... West End	Book	FICTION ZAMBRA	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Westover Hills	Book	FICTION ZAMBRA	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
A WALL STREET JOURNAL TOP 10 BOOK OF THE YEAR
ONE OF NPR'S "BOOKS WE LOVE"

"A tender and funny story about love, family and the peculiar position of being a stepparent...[ Chilean Poet ] broadens the author's scope and quite likely his international reputation." -- Los Angeles Times

"Zambra [is] one of the most brilliant Latin American writers of his generation." -- The New York Review of Books

"Zambra's books have long shown him to be a writer who, at the sentence level, is in a world all his own." --Juan Vidal, NPR.org

A writer of "startling talent" ( The New York Times Book Review ), Alejandro Zambra returns with his most substantial work yet: a story of fathers and sons, ambition and failure, and what it means to make a family

After a chance encounter at a Santiago nightclub, aspiring poet Gonzalo reunites with his first love, Carla. Though their desire for each other is still intact, much has changed: among other things, Carla now has a six-year-old son, Vicente. Soon the three form a happy sort-of family--a stepfamily, though no such word exists in their language.

Eventually, their ambitions pull the lovers in different directions--in Gonzalo's case, all the way to New York. Though Gonzalo takes his books when he goes, still, Vicente inherits his ex-stepfather's love of poetry. When, at eighteen, Vicente meets Pru, an American journalist literally and figuratively lost in Santiago, he encourages her to write about Chilean poets--not the famous, dead kind, your Nerudas or Mistrals or Bolaños, but rather the living, striving, everyday ones. Pru's research leads her into this eccentric community--another kind of family, dysfunctional but ultimately loving. Will it also lead Vicente and Gonzalo back to each other?

In Chilean Poet , Alejandro Zambra chronicles with enormous tenderness and insight the small moments--sexy, absurd, painful, sweet, profound--that make up our personal histories. Exploring how we choose our families and how we betray them, and what it means to be a man in relationships--a partner, father, stepfather, teacher, lover, writer, and friend--it is a bold and brilliant new work by one of the most important writers of our time.

Reviews (1)

Kirkus Review

A unique and personal novel about what it means to be part of a family. Who is the Chilean poet of the title? Is it Gonzalo, the main character of the first section, who meets a girl named Carla when they're both teenagers and then reconnects with her in their 20s? Gonzalo yearns to see his name alongside Chilean greats like Neruda and Mistral; he'd even settle to see his name among the not-so-greats or even any poets at all. Or is the Chilean poet Vicente, Carla's son, whom Gonzalo helps raise until leaving them both to take a position in New York City? Vicente takes over the second section of the novel, when he himself is 18 and, unlike Gonzalo, is actually a talented poet. Or is Zambra the titular poet in a piece of autofiction about his own literary yearnings and relationships in a Chile still recovering from a brutal dictatorship? Can anyone bear the burden of being a Chilean poet considering that two have won the Nobel Prize in literature? Zambra's novel, as translated by McDowell, renders both the small moments of literary striving and the everyday difficulties of being part of, and raising, a family with an insight that's both cleareyed and tender. Many of the author's musings about families could be applied to the act of writing and vice versa: "They were like two strangers searching desperately for a subject in common; it seemed like they were talking about something and were together, but they knew that really they were talking about nothing and were alone." The relationships in the novel are touching, often frustrating, and always authentic. Zambra isn't afraid to switch from graphic sex scenes to hilarious ruminations on poetry anthologies or into multiple characters' points of view, all in a few pages. A playful, discursive novel about families, relationships, poetry, and how easily all three can come together or fall apart. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.