Palinuro de México, obra ya consagrada de la literatura mexicana del siglo XX, puede leerse como una poderosa novela política que rescata un capítulo aún resiente de la historia de nuestro país: la masacre de Tlatelolco.

And Loyal Heart told Eagle Head who told the stuffed crow on his staff who told Robinson Crusoe who told Man Friday who told the Man who was Thursday.

I stole the above from Nathan's review who pinched it from Cervantes who purloined such from Pierre Menard, that sneaky bastard. I think I'll pocket another quote --this one deftly cited by Megha:

...and I vowed that the book which I would write someday would be as sickly, fragile and defective as the human organism and also, if possible (which it isn't), equally intricate and magnificent.

I noted early on that because of other stresses and fissures, Palinuro of Mexico had become an early morning reprieve. Much like Doctor Johnson on Burton's Anatomy, I leaped from bed to clutch this messy beast to my breast and allowed my daimon, my delightful imp to rent and rave, all in a snug enclosure of my own imagination. It is about love/lust, medicine, smut and drunkenness. There's incest and pathology and more stabs at advertising than an Ides of March on Cielo Drive. Then there's a compendium of jokes regarding flatulence. Just offstage is the Tlatelolco massacre.

What did I hear while reading:
birdsong
our dehumidifier in the basement
our wind chimes on the porch
the clunk a trailer makes when hauled down the perpendicular street
the bump-bump of someone's woofer

What did I listen to (or what was playing during my reading)?

Mavis Staples
Tom Waits
Manu Chao
John Coltrane
Dawn Upshaw interpreting Golijov
Van Morrison
Alfred Brendel interpreting Beethoven
Alfred Brendel interpreting Beethoven
Alfred Brendel interpreting Beethoven

My wife majored in Spanish Literature and asked about the novel. I told her it was either Renaissance or 18th Century literature and had nil to do with Boom. I feel confident in that.

This is worth people's time. ( )

alinuro, eterno estudiante de medicina, procede de una familia excéntrica entre cuyos extraños miembros se encuentran el tío Esteban, que huyó de Hungría durante la Gran Guerra y atravesó el mundo hasta llegar a México; el abuelo Francisco, que fue masón y antiguo compañero de Pancho Villa; el tío Austin, un ex marine británico... Y Estefanía, prima hermana de Palinuro a la que éste ama desde niño con una pasión desbordante y devoradora, y con la que durante años satisfará sus deseos incestuosos y sus fantasías más extravagantes en una habitación en la plaza de Santo Domingo de México D. F.
Celebración del cuerpo, del amor, de la alegría, pero sobre todo, de la vida, en Palinuro de México se conjugan el lirismo romántico, la erudición y un erotismo desenfrenado. Con un estilo virtuoso lleno de juegos de palabras vertiginosos y experimentos verbales, el gran autor mexicano Fernando del Paso nos ofrece el placer de una lectura para degustar, que se desea paladear poco a poco para poder sentir todos los sabores y texturas que componen esta obra lúdica, grotesca, crítica y fantástica. ( )

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