E. Luminata

by Diamela Eltit, Ronald Christ (Translator)

Chile's prize-winning novel of rebellious defiance in revolutionary prose--a feminist triumph of Joycean stature.

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction

215 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1997

About the author

Diamela Eltit (born 1947, Santiago de Chile) is a well known Chilean writer and university professor. Between 1966 and 1976 she graduated in Spanish studies at the Universidad Católica de Chile and followed graduate studies in Literature at the Universidad de Chile in Santiago. In 1977 she began a career as Spanish and literature teacher at high school level in several public schools in Santiago, such as the Instituto Nacional and the Liceo Carmela Carvajal. In 1984 she started teaching at universities in Chile, where she is currently professor at the Universidad Tecnológica Metropolitana and abroad. During the last thirty years Eltit has lectured and participated in conferences, seminars and literature events throughout the world, in Europe, Africa, North and Latin America. She has been several times visiting professor at the University of California at Berkeley, and also at Johns Hopkins University, Stanford University, Washington University at Saint Louis, University of Pittsburgh, University of Virginia and, since 2007, New York University, where she holds a teaching appointment as Distinguished Global Visiting Professor and teaches at the Creative Writing Program in Spanish. In the academic year 2014-2015 Eltit was invited by Cambridge University, U.K., to the Simon Bolivar Chair at the Center of Latin American Studies. Since 2014 Diamela Eltit´s personal and literary archives are deposited at the University of Princeton. Through her career several hundreds of Latin American young writers have participated as students at her highly appreciated literature workshops.

Reviews

[Jill · Rating 2 out of 5]

So this book went something like this:

p 1: There is a bright sign shining brightly on a city square.
p 1: There is a city square.
p 2: There is a woman in a city square.
p 26: There is a woman in a city square.
p 59: There is a woman in a city square and also some other people.
p 61: There is a woman in a city square OH WAIT she's also a cow/moooooo/now she's a horse.
p 70: There is a wo-STICK YOUR FINGERS IN YOUR WOUNDS YEAHHHHH REVOLUTION
p 89: Change the font because we're changing perspective...INTERROGATION OF BYSTANDER OF THE REVOLUTION
p 100: There is a woman in a city square/hospital bed???
p 150: There is a w o m a n in a c i t y s q u a r e.
p 200: Did you get it? Did you get what I'm trying to do? I hope you got it. Don't look into the sign. Don't do it man. Feminism???
p 203: There is a woman in a city square.


Page #s inaccurate; all else VERBATIM (well..).

There's very little as disappointing as reading what starts out as a 5-star book, and slowwwlllyyyy deteriorates into...this.


Okay. I'm legitimately concerned that I'm growing out of experimental fiction. There used to be a sick, unquenchable desire that inspired all my reading experiences -- "STYLE, and MEANING, ABOVE ALL ELSE."

But then, books like E. Luminata make me rethink that entire position.

I recognize that there's something deeper going on here. Eltit's introduction is excellent: she claims nothing, but suggests the possibility of marginalized experience, of fighting back, of Chilean protest and feminism. All of this is prevalent in E. Luminata, no doubt -- alongside some moments of really rich prose.

However: it is verbose. It's intensely repetitive and redundant. It's got no interest-footholds or consistency to hold to as you plough through the (frequent) boring parts. It's pretentious and narcissistic and needlessly metaphorical (I'm not kidding about the horse/cow thing -- it goes on for pages, and it ain't magic-realist-effective). Ultimately, the book verges on incomprehensible -- and know what? It's not my responsibility to make it comprehensible.

I'm getting increasingly frustrated with authors who shove a bunch of random shit between pages, say it's entirely on the reader to put it together and oh aren't you an idiot if you don't ~get it~, and call it a day. This is not effective. This shows no art or talent. The place this impulse comes from may be noble -- Eltit wants to encapsulate the spirit of protest -- but if the product doesn't pull it off, I think it's fucking OKAY to say that. It's not because I'm stupid: it's because the book is bad -- and in that, the meaning is lost.

Great books take metaphors, take style, take meaning -- but they don't forget the importance of story. Not necessarily plot. Not necessarily setting or character or any of that -- but story, proper; the feeling of being engaged, of wanting to know more, of being wrapped up in passion and possibility.

But for all its potential, E. Luminata ended up as little more than a chore.

[Ashley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can't rate this book. I liked it, and yet I didn't. It was interesting, and yet I was bored. I understand the feeling I was supposed to get from the novel, but I'm not totally sure I did.

It is a creative, inventive work, and it's worth at least looking through to understand why she did what she did. Whether it's in your tastes or not is another matter altogether. Personally, it's not the kind of thing I would ever pick up, but I admire the thoughts and processes and Eltit's efforts to create a book that felt like you would under a dictatorship.

[Rebecca · Rating 1 out of 5]

I simply could not finish this book.

Understanding the author's circumstances gives me sympathy and understanding of why it's written this way, but it's just not a book that translates to modern audiences. Perhaps it's a better read in Spanish.

It's muddled, confusing, vague, without plot, pacing, or character.