El espíritu de mis padres sigue subiendo en la lluvia

by Patricio Pron

Una novela sobre la responsabilidad de padres y abuelos en los hechos trágicos de la historia reciente. Una historia universal que afecta a todos aquellos que han vivido y muerto por defender una idea. Un joven escritor argentino regresa a su país de origen para despedirse de su padre enfermo y se adentra involuntariamente en la historia de su familia a la vez que en la suya propia. Al hacerlo, procura comprender quién fue su padre y en qué creyó durante los años que precedieron a su nacimiento, un período de convulsión política en Argentina lleno de atrocidades y clandestinidad. También descubre que su padre buscaba antes de morir a un hombre desaparecido en extrañas circunstancias y se pregunta si en su historia y en la de su padre no hay una simetría. Desde el primer momento se intuye la gravedad del asunto, que apunta al sustrato podrido de una pequeña comunidad en la Pampa Argentina, pero también una segunda simetrí el desaparecido era el hermano de una joven amiga de su padre secuestrada y asesinada por las fuerzas represivas del Estado argentino en 1977, y la búsqueda del joven escritor argentino que narra esta historia se convierte en la de un padre pero también en la de una respuesta, por dolorosa que ésta sea. Reseñ
«[...] exigencia y complejidad y una prosa de la mejor estirpe. Ponga el lector en esa estirpe los grandes nombres que prefiera [...] pero, imagine al escritor que imagine, junto a él estará Pron, con todo derecho.»
José Carlos Llop, Diario de Mallorca

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Historical Fiction, Latin American, Novels, Spanish Literature, Literature

208 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2011

About the author

Patricio Pron (1975) es autor de los volúmenes de relatos Hombres infames (1999), El vuelo magnífico de la noche (2001) y El mundo sin las personas que lo afean y lo arruinan (Literatura Mondadori, 2010), y de las novelas Formas de morir (1998), Nadadores muertos (2001), Una puta mierda (2007) El comienzo de la primavera (Literatura Mondadori, 2008), ganadora del Premio Jaén de Novela y distinguida por la Fundación José Manuel Lara como una de las cinco mejores obras publicadas en España ese año y El espíritu de mis padres sigue subiendo en la lluvia (Literatura Mondadori, 2011) que será publicada en las editoriales más prestigiosas del panorama internacional, destacando Faber and Faber en Reino Unido, Flammarion en Francia y Knopf en Estados Unidos. Su trabajo ha sido premiado en numerosas ocasiones, entre otros con el premio Juan Rulfo de Relato de 2004, y antologado en Argentina, España, Alemania, Estados Unidos, Colombia y Cuba. Recientemente, la revista inglesa Granta lo ha escogido como uno de los veintidós mejores escritores jóvenes en español del momento. Pron es doctor en filología románica por la Universidad Georg-August de Göttingen (Alemania). En la actualidad vive en Madrid, donde trabaja como traductor y crítico.

Reviews

[Kinga · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review compliant with the new Goodreads TOS

"This book is about a man who is a writer and his father who is also a little bit of a writer and they are from Argentina. Also the father has a secret. I liked this book very much. It's a very good book. You can buy it on Amazon."

Now, if you would like to read my actual review of this book, please go to

http://kinga-thebooksnob.blogspot.co....

or

http://kinga.booklikes.com/post/59794...

DISCLAIMER: From now on all my reviews will be appearing in this format unless Goodreads gets a grip and cleans this mess up. Until then, I encourage you to vote them up, so they have just the content they deserve. Ideally, you can all do the same thing.

[Makis Dionis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Μια ιστορία γραμμένη με κόκκινο μελάνι, που σχηματίζει κάτι που μοιάζει με αυλάκια ή πληγή, μια ιστορία για εκείνους που δεν αφήνουν με τίποτα την ιστορία στη λήθη της.

Η αναζήτηση εξαφανισμένων συντρόφων, που δεν κατάφεραν να έχουν το χρόνο να ζήσουν και να κάνουν παιδιά που θα ήθελαν να καταλάβουν και να τους ακολουθήσουν προσπαθώντας να καταλάβουν ποιοί υπήρξαν οι γονείς τους και τι είχαν κάνει και τι τους είχαν κάνει και γιατί εξακολουθούσαν ακόμη να είναι ζωντανοί

[Roula · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Γνωριζω αυτο το προσωπο, αλλα υστερα διαβαζοντας το υλικο που ειχε συγκεντρωσει ο πατερας μου σ'αυτον τον φακελο, σκεφτηκα πως δεν το ειχα γνωρισει, πως δεν το ειχα δει ποτε μου και πως θα προτιμουσα να μην το ειχα δει ποτε μου χωρις να ξερω τιποτα για το ατομο που βρισκοταν πισω απο εκεινο το προσωπο και ταυτοχρονα χωρις να ξερω τιποτα για τις τελευταιες εβδομαδες του πατερα μου, διοτι δε θελεις παντα να ξερεις ορισμενα πραγματα, επειδη αυτα που ξερεις μετατρεπονται σε κτημα σου και υπαρχουν καποια πράγματα που δε θα ηθελες ποτε να σου ανηκουν.."
Ειναι πολυ δυσκολο να κατανοησουμε τους γονεις μας. Τα λογια τους, τις πραξεις τους, τα νευρα, την απουσια τους
Η δυσκολια αυτη πιστευω οτι προερχεται απο το οτι δε μπορουμε να τους σκεφτουμε ως τιποτε αλλο περα απο γονεις. Ομως οι ανθρωποι αυτοι ζουσαν και κυριως διαμορφωθηκαν πριν αποκτησουν παιδια. Και συχνα τις εμπειριες και τις ενέργειες τους σε εκεινα τα χρονια ειναι αδυνατο να τις φανταστει κανεις. Ετσι και ο ηρωας μας, ενας συγγραφεας που δουλευει σε πανεπιστημιο, επιστρεφει ύστερα απο πολυ καιρο πισω στο σπιτι, στην Αργεντινη για να ανακαλυψει ότι ο πατερας του, με τον οποιο εχουν μια σχεση σιωπης, ασυνεννοησιας και απουσιας, ειναι ετοιμοθανατος.. Εκει ερχεται αντιμετωπος με τις τυψεις, το παρελθον, τις σκεψεις, αλλα και καποιες σημειωσεις του πατέρα του βγαλμενες σαν απο αστυνομικο μυθιστορημα, που αφορουν στην εξαφανιση και την αγρια δολοφονια ενος συντοπιτη του.. Πώς συνδέονται αυτες οι υποθεσεις? Πώς η αναζητηση του φουκαρα Μπουρντισο απο τον πατερα του ηρωα μας συνδεεται με την αναζητηση της ταυτότητας του και του τι πηγε λαθος στη σχεση τους απο τον γιο του? Πώς συνδεεται ο επαναστατικος αγωνας των αριστερων της αργεντινης απεναντι στο στρατιωτικο καθεστως με μια ιστορια συγχρονης αποξενωσης μεταξυ των μελων μιας οικογενειας? Ολες οι απαντησεις δινονται με τον καλύτερο δυνατο τροπο απο τον Pron, ο οποιος κατα εναν ανεξηγητο τροπο πετυχαινει με μια απο τις πιο στεγνες, ωμες και ασταματητες διηγησεις να δωσει ενα εξαιρετικα συγκινητικο βιβλιο.
🌟🌟🌟🌟/5 αστερια

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. This novel will stay with me for quite some time.

When the narrator returns home to Argentina to visit his father in the hospital, he is confronted with memories that he has spent the last 8 years popping pills in an effort to forget. Now, rummaging through the scraps of paper and notes his father has left behind on a desk, he tries to reconstruct who his parents were and what they were fighting for in one of the most terrifying moments of Argentina's past, the time of the disappearances.

The novel is an amalgamation of seemingly disjointed fragments that slowly come together as the narrator begins to make sense of his father's past, which is also the collective story of Argentina's past. It was haunting and beautiful and terrible all at once. I need to go back and reread it in the original Spanish, but even in translation, this is an exquisite work that I recommend highly.

[Ήρια Γκιόκα · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ενας νεαρός συγγραφέας γυρνάει εκτάκτως στη γενέτειρα του την Αργεντινή, καθώς ο πατέρας του πεθαίνει. Στο πατρικό του ανακάλυπτει πράγματα τόσο για τον πατέρα του και το παρελθόν της οικογένειας του όσο και με την πολιτική ιστορία της Αργεντινής.

Στα θετικά του, τα κεφάλαια είναι μικρά με αποτέλεσμα να κυλάει γρήγορα. Ο συγγραφέας έχει το χάρισμα να μιλάει για πολιτική ιστορία και ανθρώπινες σχέσεις ταυτόχρονα χωρίς να σε κουραζει, με τρόπο απλό και καθημερινό. Αν και μου άφησε πολύ θετική γεύση οφείλω να παραδέχθω πως θα ήθελα να εμβαθύνει παραπάνω σε ορισμένα θέματα που θίγει, όπως για παράδειγμα το πως το παρελθόν ενός ανθρώπου μπορεί να επηρεάσει το παρόν του και τις σχέσεις του με την οικογένεια του. Κοινώς, πιστεύω ότι μιλώντας για όλα ταυτόχρονα εμβάθυνε ελάχιστα λες και δεν είχε αποφασίσει με τι ήθελε να ασχοληθεί!

4/5 από μένα καθώς δεν υπάρχουν βιβλία που να μιλούν για το πως οι αμαρτίες γονέων παιδευουσι τέκνα με αυτό το τρόπο!

[Vaso · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ο αφηγητής μας, επιστρέφει στην πατρίδα του την Αργεντινή, μετά από την ανακοίνωση της αδερφής του ότι ο πατέρας του έχει εισαχθεί στο νοσοκομείο κι είναι σε κρίσιμη κατάσταση.
Στο γραφείο του πατέρα του, βρίσκει ένα φάκελο με άρθρα, σημειώσεις και έγγραφα που αναφέρονται στην εξαφάνιση ενός ανθρώπου, λίγους μήνες πριν.
Αναρωτιέται λοιπόν αν αυτή η έρευνα έγινε για δημοσιογραφικό όφελος ή αν είναι πιο προσωπική.
Με την ανάγνωση του φακέλου αυτού αναδύονται σιγά σιγά κάποιες μνήμες του παρελθόντος καλά κρυμμένες στα σκοτεινά μονοπάτια του μυαλού του.
Οι γονείς του αφηγητή ανήκαν στη λεγόμενη αντίσταση μετά την απομάκρυνση του Περόν, όπου "άνθρωποι" ξαφνικά εξαφανίζονται, συνειδήσεις φιμωνονται.
Μέσω της ανάγνωσης του αρχείου, μαθαίνουμε υπόγεια λεπτομέρειες για την πολιτική κατάσταση της Αργεντινής, μιας περιόδου για την οποία ιστορικά δεν είχα διαβάσει.

Η χρήση των διαφόρων τεχνικών αφήγησης ορισμένους μπορεί να τους κουράσει.
Άργησα να καταλάβω τη σύνδεση που μπορεί να έχει ο τίτλος με το βιβλίο, το οποίο να πω ότι ολοκληρώνοντας με άφησε με ερωτηματικά.

Μήπως τελικά ο αφηγητής, έγραψε το βιβλίο που ο πατέρας του θα ήθελε από εκείνον να γράψει?

Κατάφερε άραγε να αποδώσει την ιδεολογία των ανθρώπων που αντιστάθηκαν εκείνη την εποχή?



".. είπα στον εαυτό μου πως θα την έγραφα την ιστορία, γιατί αυτό που είχαν κάνει οι γονείς μου και οι σύντροφοι τους δεν άξιζε να ξεχαστεί και γιατί εγώ ήμουν το αποτέλεσμα εκείνου που είχαν κάνει αυτοί και γιατί εκείνο που είχαν κάνει άξιζε να ιστορηθει, επειδή το πνεύμα τους, όχι οι σωστές ή οι λανθασμένες αποφάσεις που είχαν πάρει, αλλά το ίδιο τους το πνεύμα, θα εξακολουθούσε να ανυψώνεται μέσα στη βροχή ώσπου να κυριεύσει τον ουρανό."


"Του πατέρα σου θα του άρεσε να μην ήταν απ'τους λίγους που επέζησαν, γιατί εκείνος που επέζησε είναι ο πιο μοναχικός άνθρωπος του κόσμου. Τον πατέρα σου δεν θα τον πείραζε να πεθάνει, αν για αντάλλαγμα υπήρχε μια πιθανότητα κάποιος να τον θυμηθεί και ύστερα να αποφασίσει να διηγηθεί την ιστορία του και την ιστορία όσων υπήρξαν σύντροφοί του και έφυγαν μαζί του για το γαμ@τελος της ιστορίας."



3,5 αστέρια

[Vasileios · Rating 5 out of 5]

Κάποτε είχα θελήσει να πιστέψω πως το ταξίδι μου δεν είχε επιστροφή γιατί δεν είχα σπίτι να γυρίσω εξαιτίας των ιδιαίτερων συνθηκών που βιώσαμε η οικογένειά μου κι εγώ για μια μακρά περίοδο, αλλά εκείνη τη στιγμή συνειδητοποίησα πως είχα σπίτι και πως αυτό το σπίτι ήταν ένα σωρό αναμνήσεις και πως αυτές οι αναμνήσεις με συνόδευαν πάντα, λες κι ήμουν ένα απ’ αυτά τα ηλίθια σαλιγκάρια που ο πατέρας του πατέρα μου κι εγώ βασανίζαμε όταν ήμουν μικρό παιδί.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Nobody had fought, we all had lost and barely anyone had stayed true to what they believed, whatever that was, I thought; my father's generation had been different, but once again, there was something in the difference that was also a meeting point, a thread that went through the years and brought us together in spite of everything and was horrifically Argentine: the feeling of parents and children being united in defeat."
▫️
My Fathers' Ghost is Climbing in the Rain by Patricio Pron, translated from the Spanish by Mara Faye Lethem.

A son who moves far away and takes pills to forget. A father on his sick bed who gathers information and tries to reconcile disappearances and murders 30 years ago during Argentina's Dirty War. This book is described as a true story with some fictional elements, which now may be tagged as autofiction. It's experimental and mixed media - snippets of surreal dreams combined with inventories of bookshelves, and newspaper article clippings. The writing is staccato, sometimes only a few sentences before a new heading.

The author grapples with the ethics of telling a family/community story from his singular point of view. He sees things in a new light of adulthood, the evanescence of memories. The recollections of events with his siblings seen in new light. Trauma in the DNA.

One particular interlude that stood out to me was a conversation with his sister about their father's behavior of starting the car long before the family was ready to leave the house. Why did father do this? His sister enlightens him: Car bombs were targeting journalists and political dissidents. He started the car long before the family got in to ensure their safety.

Pron's father wrote some 'fact checking' posts which he links to in the Epilogue, and have also been translated to English on the author's website.

[Luciana · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Ninguém lutou, todos perdemos e quase ninguém se manteve fiel ao que acreditava, seja lá o que fosse".

O livro de Pron parte de uma premissa aparente simples: compreender a história dos pais é essencial para que se compreenda a si próprio. O que não é simples é compreender um dos períodos mais sombrios pelo qual a Argentina passou na década de 50, e é revisitando a Argentina atual, após um autoexílio na Alemanha, onde o protagonista buscou antes de tudo o esquecimento por longos anos e por diversos meios, que começa a se abrir o livro das memórias do pai e de si, para lançar luz a uma época que não pode ficar no esquecimento.

Há quem ainda procure seus desaparecidos, há quem não possui todas peças que foram espalhadas após a usurpação do governo de Perón, há ainda a busca das madres de la plaza de mayo pelos netos sequestrados durante a ditadura, há também memórias a se desenterrar e é pontualmente nelas que Pron leva o leitor a conhecer a vida de um pai hospitalizado e de uma mãe combatente, de quem eles foram, do que fizeram a eles e do que ainda buscam.

Em uma narrativa estimulante, com um caso policial inserido na narrativa, a busca do filho por sua identidade encontra amparo na busca do pai pela amiga que a ditadura abocanhou, descortinando o passado para esclarecer o presente, tornando, a mim, uma boa leitura.

[Caroline · Rating 2 out of 5]

Part I of this novella was beautifully written with good metaphors and character description, but I fell in love with the book too soon. The protagonist searches to discover his dying father's past, and in the process, discovers a bunch of newspaper clippings, at which point, the author's narrative switches almost solely to the "reprinting" of repetitive, boring newspaper articles. What happened to the beautiful prose?

[Nikos · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5*!!!Ιδιαίτερο βιβλίο και απο άποψη γραφής και απο το πως,γενικότερα,επιλέγει να μας παρουσιάσει την ιστορία ο συγγραφέας.Στο τελευταίο του μέρος σίγουρα, λίγο πολύ,ο καθένας θα νιώσει μια σύνδεση όσον αφορά την σχέση παιδιού-γονέα και τον φόβο της απώλειας.Με τον τρόπο του είναι και ένα σημείο εκκίνησης για κάποιον που θα ήθελε να μάθει την σύγχρονη ιστορία της Αργεντινής...

[Katerina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Αν είχε και μισό ( πότε θα βαλουν επιτέλους;) θα έβαζα 3,5.

[Gautam Moharil · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is not a story. It's a author being highbrow and feeding his publisher and the readers a bunch of bullshit. As the author in one of the chapters himself explains

"I understood for the first time that all the children of young Argentines in the 1970s were going to have to solve our parents’ pasts, like detectives, and what we would find out was going to seem like a mystery novel we wished we’d never bought. But I also realized that there was no way of telling my father’s story as a mystery or, more precisely, that telling it in such a way would betray his intentions and his struggles, since telling his story as a detective tale would merely confirm the existence of a genre, which is to say, a convention, and all of his efforts were meant to call into question those very social conventions and their pale reflection in literature."

“Besides, I’d seen enough mystery novels already and would see many more in the future. Telling this story from the perspective of genre would be illegitimate. To begin with, the individual crime was less important than the social crime, but social crime couldn’t be told through the artifice of a detective novel; it needed a narrative in the shape of an enormous frieze or with the appearance of an intimate personal story that held something back, a piece of an unfinished puzzle that would force the reader to look for adjacent pieces and then keep looking until the image became clear. Furthermore, the resolution of most detective stories is condescending, no matter how ruthless the plotting, so that the reader, once the loose ends are tied up and the guilty finally punished, can return to the real world with the conviction that crimes get solved and remain locked between the covers of a book, that the world outside the book is guided by the same principles of justice as the tale told inside and should not be questioned.”

Still he writes the story and not a good one at that. If there was any star rating less than 1 I'll give that to this book. 

[Sx3 · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story opens with a man relating that for about 8 years, he doesn't remember much while living in Germany due to drugs. He is a writer. He is from Argentina but has not been in touch with his family.

When his father falls gravely ill, he returns to Argentina. While staying at his parents' home, he finds a stash of documents all seemingly related to the disappearance of a local man named Alberto Burdissa. The father had obsessively tracked the man's disappearance in June 2008.

As the unnamed narrator combs through the documents, he begins to delve into a disquieting past that changed his family and that of Argentina.

I've never read Patricio Pron before and I admit that the style of "My Father's Ghost..." took a bit to get used to but once I got to part II, it turned into a very smooth read of a man whose parents' past life affected him and his siblings.

But it isn't a past life of murder but more of a political system in which disappearing was something to be feared.

I've already read the book twice now and I can't actually say why I liked it so because I'm not sure if I liked it or not. It definitely intrigued and still intrigues and I have a feeling that I will read it again.

[Rincey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was so close to being a 4 star book for me. I still feel like 3 stars is too low though.

The book is split into 4 parts. The beginning, I was immediately pulled in, and the ending was so great. But the middle, oh the middle. I understand the purpose behind it, but man it really brought the book down for me and could have been such a fantaaastic book. But overall, I loved the insight into Argentinian life and their history and how they are still a country dealing with the consequences of the Dirty War (which I knew very little about but ended up looking up after reading this book).

[Darío Luque Martínez · Rating 2 out of 5]

Me entristecen los libros en los que el propio narrador te ofrece las claves interpretativas y el sustrato intelectual de la novela. Parece que Patricio Pron (o su narrador) haya digerido un 'paper' sobre la posmemoria y luego lo haya vomitado intercalando una mínima narración.
No me ha gustado nada.

[Cameron · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent novel for fans of Bolano or Marias. Philosophical, experimental, but still emotional and plot driven. I hope the rest of his work is translated to English soon.

[ανεμώνη ઇઉ · Rating 3 out of 5]

είχε προοπτικές αλλά ο αποσπασματικος τρόπος γραφής και η επιδερμική αναφορά σε σημαντικά θέματα, το έκαναν να μοιάζει κάπως βιαστικό και αδιάφορο :')

[Andrea Motta · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5

[jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

patricio pron's "a few words on the life cycles of frogs" appeared as one of the twenty-two selections featured in granta's 2010 the best of young spanish language novelists issue. the award-winning argentine writer (though still a couple of years shy of his fortieth birthday) has written five novels and three collections of short stories. my fathers' ghost is climbing in the rain (el espíritu de mis padres sigue subiendo en la lluvia) is the first of pron's novels to be translated into english and is an excellent, often emotional work.

like so many works of argentine fiction, my fathers' ghost is climbing in the rain has at its foundation the haunting legacy of the nation's dirty war. pron's novel finds it's expatriate pill-popping journalist protagonist returning to argentina in advance of his ailing father's death, only to discover his dad's obsession with an unsolved local murder. as pron's narrator attempts to uncover the crime's details - as well as the reasons for his father's fascination and fixation - he must also confront the nature of his own upbringing and the indelible mark left by the failed revolution upon generations of argentinians.

in the epilogue, pron goes on to highlight the factual events that inspired his novel. "while the events told in this book are mostly true, some are the result of the demands of fiction, whose rules are different from the rules of such genres as testimony or autobiography; for that reason i would like to mention here what the spanish writer antonio muñoz molina once said, as a reminder and a warning: 'a drop of fiction taints everything as fictional.'" my fathers' ghost is climbing in the rain is a terrific work of intrigue, memory, identity, and the myriad ways the haunting effects of the past forever shape all that is to follow.

i wondered what my generation could offer that could match the exuberant desperation and thirst for justice of the preceding generation, our parents'. wasn't it a terrible ethical imperative that generation unintentionally imposed on us? how do you kill your father if he's already dead and, in many cases, died defending an idea that seems noble even if its execution was remiss or clumsy or wrong-headed? how else could we measure up if not by doing as they did, fighting a senseless war that was lost before it began and marching into slaughter to the sacrificial chants of disaffected youth, arrogant and impotent and stupid, marching to the brink of civil war against the forces of the repressive machinery of a country that, in essence, is and always has been conservative?

*translated from the spanish by mara faye lethem (sister to the american novelist of the same name).

[Felipe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Boa parte das "autoficções" latinoamericanas surgidas na última década que tocam nas questões ainda pungentes das violentas ditaduras que assolaram o continente convergem parecem convergir numa mesma intenção, num mesmo desejo de compreender como o pais em que vivem atualmente conseguiu atravessar porções tão tenebrosas de história, e o que exatamente restou desse processo. Não raro são livros focados em questões familiares, um pai desaparecido, um irmão suicida, uma tia militante, uma seio familiar apolítico e amedrontado, mas sempre há aí esse desejo de investigar, mais afetiva que praticamente, esses percursos. Patricio Pron, no entanto, trabalha com duas práticas desviantes em seu fantástico 'O espírito dos meus pais continua a subir na chuva'. A primeira delas é que esse processo investigativo é factual, e não habita apenas os caminhos da memória. Focado num autor que retorna a sua Argentina natal em função da doença que vitima o pai, depois de longos anos na Alemanha, Pron inscreve o livro numa trama de jornalismo investigativo tão econômica quanto possível.

Ao encontrar nos pertences do pai um punhado de recortes de jornal sobre o assassinato de um homem aparentemente banal na vida daquela cidade interiorana, o protagonista se insere nesse lugar da busca, da memória, da remontagem histórica que busca fazer justiça a importância de suas figuras. O segundo e mais interessante desvio é a compreensão muito prematura de que a literatura não pode comportar a complexidade dessa narrativa, e essa investigação está fatalmente fadada ao fracasso, e daí surge a estrutura radical proposta pelo autor. 'O espírito dos meus pais' é um romance que se nega a sê-lo, que toma caminhos duros, secos, que observa a memória de uma juventude militante e violentada com pouco ou nenhum brilho, e não é exatamente otimista quanto aos desdobramentos de sua luta na atual sociedade. Como bem diz o autor, "confrontar o passado se torna peremptório na Argentina, não apenas em nome desse passado, como também para compreender o presente."

[Daniel Tounto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Como tantas obras de ficción argentina, el fantasma de mi padre trepa bajo la lluvia tiene en su base el inquietante legado de la guerra sucia de la nación. La novela de Pron descubre que su protagonista, un periodista expatriado que toma pastillas, regresa a Argentina antes de la muerte de su padre enfermo, solo para descubrir la obsesión de su padre con un asesinato local sin resolver. A medida que el narrador de Pron intenta descubrir los detalles del crimen, así como las razones de la fascinación y fijación de su padre, también debe confrontar la naturaleza de su propia educación y la marca indeleble que dejó la revolución fallida en generaciones de argentinos.
Un Libro que deja y sigue las huellas marcadas a fuego en un tiempo funesto para las esperanzas de un Pueblo Joven.

[Talita Machado · Rating 4 out of 5]

Que sensibilidade esse livro! Chorei as últimas páginas em pé no metrô. Uma daquelas histórias tristes que te rasga o peito. O medo, a violência, o não saber, a derrota, a frustração e tudo isso escrito através de um filho que busca conhecer o pai, se reconhecer, descobrir sua própria história, narrar para posteridade sua herança.

[Alessandra Barcelar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Um livro de memória e (des) memória, afirmo que está entre meus favoritos esse ano.
Para quem gosta de História, o livro monta um quebra cabeça sobre a ditadura militar (sangrenta) na Argentina. É um livro pequeno, mas que prende o leitor entre as metáforas e lembranças. Auto Ficção? Talvez, já que os pais do autor também viveram a ditadura. Um livro de resistência. Vale a leitura. Tradução do Gustavo Pacheco.

[Roger Brunyate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fathers’ Day

What must the novel my father wanted to write have been like? Brief, composed of fragments, with holes where my father couldn't or didn't want to remember something, filled with symmetries—stories duplicating themselves over and over again as if they were an ink stain on an assiduously folded piece of paper, a simple theme repeated as in a symphony or a fool's monologue—and sadder than Fathers' Day at an orphanage.

The writer returns to Argentina from Germany where he has spent eight years to attend his father, who is in hospital, deprived of speech and memory, and believed to be dying. Among the papers on his father's desk, he finds a file of papers relating to the 2008 disappearance, later ruled to be murder, of one Alberto José Burdisso, a simple janitor in La Trébol, the father's home town, in agricultural land north-west of Buenos Aires. The section in which the writer goes through the contents of the file is the longest of the four in the book; it is also the most dispassionate. In some ways it reminds me of "The Part About the Crimes" in Roberto Bolaño's 2666, only much more compressed. The numerous newspaper reports appear to be verbatim translations; those that I have been able to find in Spanish online are exact down to the last comma; this, at least, is not fiction. This meticulous documentation poses two questions: why did the disappearance of such an obscure figure so engage the local community, and why did the writer's father take such an interest?

Anyone who has read recent fiction about Argentina will guess that the answer must somehow relate to the Dirty War of thirty years earlier, when liberals and suspected activists were simply "disappeared" by government forces. But unlike any other book on the subject that I have read, this one contains no accounts of tortures or executions, no revelations from beyond the grave, no doomed romance. Its four parts approach the subject in strikingly different ways. The first tells of the writer's return to what is almost a foreign country to him, his memories blocked by a self-induced amnesia. He prowls around his parents' home trying to find clues to who they are, but many of these may be too subtle for the foreign reader; two chapters, for instance, are devoted to a listing of books on the shelves, mostly on Peronist subjects, with a notable absence of right-wing writers—but you need to look them up to work that out. Then come the newspaper clippings. The third section turns surreal, with speculation about a novel that the writer's father was apparently writing, accounts of old movies on late-night TV, and a succession of the writer's fevered dreams, mostly involving bizarre cruelty to animals.

The final section grants a series of epiphanies that are all the more moving because of the oblique way in which they have been approached. "I hadn't returned to the country that my parents had wanted me to love, the one called Argentina, but rather to an imagined country, the one they had fought for and which had never existed." Now at last he begins to understand his father and, beyond him, the struggle for lost ideals that defined an entire generation. This is a difficult book, in many parts a dry book, but it reaches depths that are the unique result of applying the mind of a novelist to the minute facts of the real world:

As I thought all this standing beside the telephone, I noticed it had started to rain again, and I told myself I would write that story because what my parents and their comrades had done didn't deserve to be forgotten, and because I was the product of what they had done, and because what they'd done was worthy of being told because their ghost—not the right or wrong decisions my parents and their comrades had made but their spirit itself—was going to keep climbing in the rain until it took the heavens by storm.

======

A word about that curious possessive in the title, My Fathers' Ghost… The Spanish is El espíritu de mis padres… , where "padres" means both "parents" and "forefathers." It is certainly more than just the ghost of his father, singular, male. Yet the focus of the book is singular, entirely upon the son trying to understand his father before he dies. So the placement of the apostrophe in English is a kind of compromise, sort of true to the original, yet knowing that most people will misread it as Father's.

[Ioulia Ilvanidou · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5

[Sir Ehssan · Rating 2 out of 5]

اولین بار بود که یک رمان را تقریبا تا انتها خواندم و هیچی نفهمیدم.
بعد متوجه اشتباهم شدم که همان نخواندن مقدمه کتاب بود.
این کتاب چشم های من را به دنیای جدیدی باز کرد: جنگ های کثیف آرژانتین.
۳۰ هزار نفر به وحشتناک ترین روش های ممکن شکنجه و مرگ خیلی دلخراشی را تحمل می کنند. خیلی بدتر از نازی ها
شاید بدتر از صدام
.

فقط در مورد خود این کتاب بگم که خیلی زود داستان از قالب داستان خارج می شود و اول تبدیل به بحث های نمادین می شود. بعد هم تبدیل به نوشته های جسته گریخته می شود

به نظرم باید کتابهای بهتری در این زمینه ترجمه شود.

چرا این ادبیات در ایران هنوز ناشناخته هست برایم جای تعجب دارد

[Readaholic_gr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Έχουμε έναν συγγραφέα που μας μιλά για τη δική του ζωή. Για τους δικούς του γονείς και κυρίως για τον πατέρα του. Έναν πατέρα με τον οποίο είχαν μια ιδιαίτερα περίεργη σχέση. Σχέση σιωπής και απομάκρυνσης. Ύστερα από πολλά χρόνια και ενώ ο πατέρας του βρίσκεται μεταξύ ζωής και θανάτου, ο ήρωας μας επιστρέφει στην Αργεντινή. Την γενέτειρα του. Την χώρα που θα έπρεπε να αγαπά αλλά δεν το κάνει. Γιατί του στέρησε ενδεχομένως την οικογένεια που πίστευε πως θα είχε αν είχε μεγαλώσει αλλού.

Σε αυτό το συγκλονιστικό μυθιστόρημα μπαίνουμε σε μια διαδικασία βαθιάς σκέψης. Τι γνωρίζουμε για τους γονείς μας πραγματικά; Ζούμε, μεγαλώνουμε και θα γίνουμε γονείς. Αλλά τι πραγματικά γνωρίζουμε για τη προσωπική ζωή των δικών μας γονιών; Ο Pron κατάφερε να με καθηλώσει τόσο με τη γραφή του όσο και με τα ερωτήματα που γεννήθηκαν στο μυαλό μου.

Ένα μυθιστόρημα που προσωπικά το κατατάσσω ως λίγο αστυνομικό, λίγο κοινωνικό και λίγο πολιτικό. Λίγο από όλα όσα μπορούν να καταστήσουν ένα βιβλίο αριστούργημα. Μας μιλά για τον αγώνα των επαναστατών της Αργεντινής. Για τον αποτρόπαιο θάνατο του Μπουρντισο και την μυστηριώδη εξαφάνιση της αδερφής του κάποια χρόνια πριν.

Ένα αυτοβιογραφικό βιβλίο με αρκετή δόση μυθοπλασίας όπως μας αναφέρει ο ίδιος ο συγγραφέας. Με έναν ιδιαίτερο και όμορφο τρόπο γραφής, το βιβλίο αυτό κατατάσσεται ψηλά στη λίστα μου και το προτείνω ανεπιφύλακτα σε όλους

[Maritza Buendía · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disfruté la prosa de Patricio Pron y espero leer algo más de su obra. El espíritu de mis padres sigue subiendo en la lluvia relata la historia de un hijo que regresa a su país natal (Argentina) a ver a su padre enfermo de gravedad y que su familia teme pueda morir muy pronto. La narración es una reflexión de carácter generacional y el protagonista se cuestiona lo poco que sabe acerca de sus padres y la época difícil que les tocó vivir, más específicamente la de los desaparecidos de los años 1970 en Argentina. A pesar de mantener mi interés, me parece que la historia es sólo una especie de preámbulo a este acercamiento entre padre e hijo. Deja en sí muchos interrogantes sobre el personaje del padre, su historia y su esencia. Pero más que nada deja el vacío de lo que puedan significar para su relación los resultados de las indagaciones del hijo sobre el padre, especialmente después de tantos años de distancia, abandono emocional y desidia. Quizá sea tema para otra novela. También me pareció que algunos de los capítulos de la novela, aunque interesantes por sí solos, estaban algo desconectados de la historia principal.

[Pablo Reyes · Rating 2 out of 5]

Me interesan las historias sobre las víctimas de la dictadura argentina, y también la historia del hijo que vuelve a casa por una enfermedad en la familia, que vuelve a un país del que ha huido y en general la crónica periodística casi detectivesca que estructura los descubrimientos. Pero aquí muchos elementos esenciales de la narración me espantan: el tono afectado, el narrador antipático, el abuso de los sueños y argumentos de películas para insinuar significados de la trama, y en general un estilo aburrido y pretencioso. El narrador mismo cita a Antonio Muñoz Molina (algo que he oído decir a Leila Guerriero) sobre que una gota de ficción tiñe todo de ficción, algo que no parece que tenga en cuenta Pron ya que deja que la torpeza de su ficción eche abajo la pretensión de crónica política y de autobiografía familiar.