Carlos Fuentes' Aura: A Jewel of a novelette
I read this in the original Spanish, and then in a bilingual (Spanish-English, facing pages) version. This short novel, or novelette, is a jewel. It is packed with the feeling of an unbreakable, relentless destiny in store for a young man in Mexico City. Felipe Montero, a public school teacher, answers a want add in the newspaper because the description of the person being sought for a much higher-paying job seems to be an exact description of Montero, as though it were specifically reaching out to him and no one else. The feeling of implacable fate, expressed symbolically in many ways, is backed even by the grammar: the story is told in the present and the future. A statement like, "You will move a few steps..." in the future tense makes one feel it has to happen, there is no choice. (Unfortunately, this feature is lost in the English translation of the facing bilingual edition I've read.)
His employer is an extremely old woman (Consuelo) in a big old house sandwiched among modern building and businesses. It seems out of place in the commercial district of downtown Mexico City. There are no electric lights in the house, the drapes are always drawn, so that the house, even at noon, is in a deep darkness. Except for the old woman's bedroom which is lit by multiple candles.
Felipe does not want to live in that house, but it's part of the deal. He is about to refuse, it seems, when Aura, a beautiful young girl appears. He stays.
An unusual technique used in Aura is the point of view of the second-person singular. The constant use of TU (YOU)as the subject draws the reader into the fictional world, or conversely, pulls the fictional world out into the reader's world. The reader --with the suspension of disbelief-- becomes Felipe Montero, the protagonist, and carries out and will carry out, is fated to carry out, the action of the plot.
The novel is filled with highly poetic, metaphorical language as well as symbolism, especially color symbolism, with magic and sexual passion. Depending on one's interpretation, the novel may contain witchcraft and magic, or hypnotism or transmigration of souls. Whichever the explanation you choose, it is a fast-moving, page-turning, fascinating book.
His employer is an extremely old woman (Consuelo) in a big old house sandwiched among modern building and businesses. It seems out of place in the commercial district of downtown Mexico City. There are no electric lights in the house, the drapes are always drawn, so that the house, even at noon, is in a deep darkness. Except for the old woman's bedroom which is lit by multiple candles.
Felipe does not want to live in that house, but it's part of the deal. He is about to refuse, it seems, when Aura, a beautiful young girl appears. He stays.
An unusual technique used in Aura is the point of view of the second-person singular. The constant use of TU (YOU)as the subject draws the reader into the fictional world, or conversely, pulls the fictional world out into the reader's world. The reader --with the suspension of disbelief-- becomes Felipe Montero, the protagonist, and carries out and will carry out, is fated to carry out, the action of the plot.
The novel is filled with highly poetic, metaphorical language as well as symbolism, especially color symbolism, with magic and sexual passion. Depending on one's interpretation, the novel may contain witchcraft and magic, or hypnotism or transmigration of souls. Whichever the explanation you choose, it is a fast-moving, page-turning, fascinating book.
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Jaime
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Sep 24, 2011 01:46PM
I´m totally agree with your review, this is a must read book. A novel with different interpretations and emotions. It´s so difficult to find a short good book that can transmit a whole story and feelings in a few pages.
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Absolutamente, Jaime. Muchas gracias por comentar sobre mi resena. (Perdon, no se usar tildes, etc.) en la maldita computadora.
There is another important nuance to the use of the future tense. In Spanish the future is used interchangeably with the conditional, so there is an element of supposition to all this, as if the text were putting into question whether any of this happens at all. At times the narrator speaks of these actions as though they were habitual or conventional, but not necessarily actual. So for example when Felipe looks for the first time into the face of Aura and sees those eyes as changeful as the sea, the narrator states, "Al fin, podrás ver esos ojos de mar que fluyen, se hacen espuma, vuelven a la calma verde, vuelven a inflamarse como una ola: tú los ves y te repites que no es cierto, que son unos hermosos ojos verdes idénticos a todos los hermosos ojos verdes que has conocido o podrás conocer." An absolutely brilliant manipulation of verb tenses -- it begins with the future tense, but is the narrator saying that this is what Felipe "will" see or "would" see, if he looked closely? The metaphor simply underscores the point: her eyes are enigmatic, difficult to define, like sea foam. But that is not enough for Fuentes. He teases the reader by switching in mid-sentence back to the present tense, when Felipe thinks of eyes he has in fact seen as a comparison. The whole story relentlessly questions the nature of time and history, and part of that mystery is the fact that the events of the novel all occur under the sign "as if". Unfortunately for any translator, the text, as such, is a nightmare!
Thanks for this comment on the mid-sentence, tense shifts. I am reading a Spanish version of Aura now and was worried that maybe I chose one full of typos, so I started looking for some in-depth info on Spanish future tense. Translator Lysander Kemp simply treats ambiguities as present tense. For example, Kemp translates “Al fin, podrás ver. . .” as “Finally you can see. . .”I sense a missing nuance.
I use this book as an introduction to Spanish (in parallel with Adrien Ziegler's translation in English).I must say, beside the fact that it reads so easily (present tense helps), I find it a fascinating book. So lucky I am able to read the original.
Oji wrote: "Thanks for this comment on the mid-sentence, tense shifts. I am reading a Spanish version of Aura now and was worried that maybe I chose one full of typos, so I started looking for some in-depth in..."Oji, you are so right about nuance lost. The use of present and future has a definite function in this novelette. It provides a feeling of iron-clad fate, inevitability.
Jon wrote: "There is another important nuance to the use of the future tense. In Spanish the future is used interchangeably with the conditional, so there is an element of supposition to all this, as if the te..."Jon, in Spanish the future is not interchangeable with the conditional any more than it is in English. When we read, "tomarás un paso atrás" it means "you will take a step back." There's no depending on conditions; it means you definitely do it.
