The Murmuration

by Carlos Labbé, Will Vanderhyden (Translator)

Within the world of Labbé’s fiction, The Murmuration can be understood as a continuation and broadening, a shift toward a more explicit expression of the political project signaled in his early work and a doubling-down on the formal playfulness and elusive sensibility that characterize all of his fiction. Popular forms and genres (from science fiction and journalism in Navidad & Matanza to detective fiction in Loquela to pop music and protest movements in Spiritual Choreographies ) have always been integral to Labbé’s novels, and with The Murmuration he makes his most direct appeal to the masses yet, engaging the world of professional soccer. 
With the 1962 World Cup in Chile as the focal point, Labbé builds a narrative that is at once a story of intrigue and action and an exploration of ideas that animate the late-capitalist discourse of our current moment (e.g. class warfare, feminism, political representation, and social justice). What emerges is a novel that enacts—in form and content—the notion that art can only transcend the cages of tradition and convention, of colonialism and global capitalism, of systemic exploitation and extractive politics through collective creative action.

Genres: Fiction

113 pages, Paperback

Published July 2, 2024

Reviews

[jeremy · Rating 3 out of 5]

your goal will be to carry our hopes and dreams beyond the game; to find a way to turn us into repetition, to turn permanence into anguish, and finally to turn this anxiety of complementary time into infinite anodyne narration, this feeling that a victory for us will be as attainable as it is chimerical, that once and for all we'll be able to articulate a closing, a cut, a finale for all of this, the culmination of this string of words that'll never be entirely ours

chilean author (and musician) carlos labbé's writing is frequently heady, often abstract, and experimentally irresistible. his latest (the fourth of his books to appear in translation), the murmuration (la parvá), is a tale set (largely) during the first half of chile's 1962 world cup semifinal match against brazil — but infused with hints of politics, class, and social commentary. interspersed between the (very!) detailed action on the pitch — often within the same sentence — are the happenings in one of the stadium's luxury boxes, wherein the team's director (following an enigmatic encounter [and subsequent dealmaking] on a train with a prominent sportscaster [and his very unique skill set]) mingles with her colleagues and contemporaries, amongst whom a nefarious plot is unfolding. while not much happens plot-wise in the murmuration, labbe's storytelling swarms and scatters, with a certain sursurration overtaking the reader, very much as a spell being cast (the sportscaster's magic transcending the page!). labbé remains an ever-interesting writer and the murmuration nestles nicely among his other works of experimental fiction.

*translated from the spanish by will vanderhyden (fresán, garcía lao, marsé, fogwill, et al.)

3.5 stars

[Harry Angus · Rating 1 out of 5]

Really didn't get on with it

Strong start but it became V boring V quickly - incredibly detailed dual narrative of a play by play first half of a football game and some other narrative that you couldn't get into cos you were so bored by the football - not good

[Matthew · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was unable to connect with this book on any level. I love challenging books but this seemed to be all work and no payoff. Might have been different if I knew more about soccer.

[Tom · Rating 2 out of 5]

In The Murmuration, a retired sportscaster is coerced out of retirement by a female sports council member to call a soccer game between Chile and Brazil during the 1962 World Cup. Ostensibly brought on for what members of a shadowy political group feel is his ability to arouse powerful nationalist emotions for a game Chile will probably lose, the narration—from the sportscaster’s point of view—intercuts between descriptions of the fast action on the playing field and the languid, patient, and discrete motions of a shadowy group of council members, one member of whom seems to have been contracted to kill at least one of the other members, but in such a way that the killer’s presence will be easily forgotten and erased. I suppose the “murmuration” of the book’s title comes from the rapidly changing positions of the players and the distractions created by the noise of the crowd. (The narrative creates an illusion of a loud playing field juxtaposed against a silent meeting of council members in one of the arena’s executive suites.) It is easy to imagine the novel as a film, with quick cuts between the running, kicking, and blocking on the sun-lit field and the slow drags on cigarettes followed by long pulls on bourbon in the smokey suite.

Technically, this book does interesting things, but it still left me feeling impatient waiting for the assassination, telegraphed early in the book, with only the unknown consequences to look forward to. Although the formal challenges of the novel comprise the type of techniques that I usually look forward to and respond well to, that I felt unsatisfied by the novel results from shortcomings entirely my own: I never played soccer or watch it on TV. Had I or did I, my engagement might have been keener, much as I suspect it would have been if the game were baseball, football, or hockey—sports I have played and do watch. Second, and more significantly, although I have passing familiarity with some of South America’s more egregious tyrants and terrorists—Chile’s Pinochet, Argentina’s Videla, and Peru’s Guzmán, for instance—I am unfamiliar with the tensions and hostilities among the nations within that continent. Third, although Latin American patriarchal culture tends to be hostile toward and dismissive of women, violent retribution on the part of female leaders is also unfamiliar to me. An introduction or afterward situating the novel’s actions in historical context may have given me the “in” I needed to guide my understanding of what I was seeing.

For more of my reviews, please see https://www.thebookbeat.com/backroom/...

[Summer Migliori Soto · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wonderfully written with a fantastic translation. I don’t think I know enough about soccer to fully appreciate this book, though. It was hard for me to follow.

[Colton Olds · Rating 3 out of 5]

Riveting and plodding in equal measure. Such a curious writing style; would love to adapt this into a film.

3.5