En medio de extrañas víctimas

by Daniel Saldaña París

Rodrigo es un burócrata joven que fácilmente podría pertenecer a lo que Strindberg llamó «el club de los jóvenes viejos». Sus días pasan sin mayores aspavientos en un museo de la Ciudad de México hasta que Cecilia, la secretaria que le hacía la vida imposible, le desliza una nota que simplemente dice «Acepto». Esa tarde Rodrigo se enterará de que alguien le ha propuesto matrimonio a Cecilia en nombre suyo, y la inercia que rige sus días no le deja más opción que casarse.

A partir de ahí se desencadena una siniestra odisea en la que pierde su trabajo y pasa el rato espiando a una gallina que deambula por el terreno baldío contiguo a su departamento. De manera paralela un académico y escritor español, Marcelo Valente, viaja a una pequeña comunidad situada en México, llamada Los Girasoles, para pasar un sabático investigando sobre Richard Foret, un misterioso escritor, boxeador y artista, que encontró en México aquello que buscó durante toda su vida: un trágico desenlace «a la altura de su megalomanía». Los Girasoles se convierte en un centro neurálgico en el que las vidas de los personajes encuentran su destino entre «los más absurdos accidentes» y situaciones tan esotéricas como las sesiones hipnóticas —inducidas mediante la ingesta de orina de una hermosa adolescente— en las que un grupo de aventureros definirá «el futuro del arte».

La risa, definida por Slavoj Žižek como «la metástasis del goce», es la herramienta fundamental utilizada en la primera novela de Daniel Saldaña París para desnudar ese «escándalo hiriente» que es la civilización. Con buen humor pero sin concesiones, la incomprensión que los personajes sienten ante un mundo que constantemente les recuerda, no siempre de las formas más sutiles, sus incapacidades y su medianía, es dejada al descubierto por el autor con una prosa que avanza a un ritmo furibundo meciéndose a lo largo y ancho de todo el idioma español.

DANIEL SALDAÑA PARÍS (Ciudad de México, 1984) escribe narrativa y poesía. Es autor del libro de poemas La máquina autobiográfica (Bonobos Editores, 2012) y creador del Método Universal de Poesía Derivada. Ha sido becario del FONCA en los programas Jóvenes Creadores (2006-2007) y Residencias Artísticas (2012), así como de la Fundación para las Letras Mexicanas (2007-2009). En 2012 antologó y prologó Doce en punto. Poesía chilena reciente y Un nuevo modo. Antología de narrativa mexicana actual, ambos editados por la UNAM. Trabaja como editor y vive en la colonia Narvarte.

Genres: Fiction, Novels, Latinx, Literature, Summer Reads, Book Club, Literary Fiction

306 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

DANIEL SALDAÑA PARÍS (Ciudad de México, 1984) escribe narrativa y poesía. Es autor del libro de poemas La máquina autobiográfica (Bonobos Editores, 2012) y de la novela En medio de extrañas víctimas (Sexto Piso, 2013). Ha sido becario del FONCA en los programas Jóvenes Creadores (2006-2007) y Residencias Artísticas (2012), así como de la Fundación para las Letras Mexicanas (2007-2009). En 2012 antologó y prologó Doce en punto. Poesía chilena reciente y Un nuevo modo. Antología de narrativa mexicana actual, ambos publicados por la UNAM. En 2014 fue escritor en residencia en Ledig House-OMI International Arts Center (Nueva York).


Fue elegido por el Hay Festival, el British Council y Conaculta como uno de los 20 escritores menores de 40 años para representar a México en la Feria del Libro de Londres en 2015.

Reviews

[julieta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hay algo en el estilo de los escritores mexicanos que siempre me hace dudar. Pero me doy cuenta que me cuesta conmoverme porque no puedo evitar ver el estilo, estar todo el rato cuestionandome si la historia realmente es buena o va para alguna parte. Me suenan rebuscados, y aunque es algo en lo que muchos escritores de cualquier parte del mundo caen, me parece que me molesta más en lo que son de mi país. Eso me pasó en un principio con este libro, estaba viendo el estilo, y eso, me parecía a momentos exagerado, y hasta me molestaba a momentos con pasajes que me parecían forzados. Pero poco a poco fue acabando con todas mis dudas, y acabé primero picada por saber qué venía, y empezar a repetir partes porque me gustaba mucho como estaban contadas, hasta llegar al final encantada. Eso deben hacer todos los autores supongo, es una lucha por convencer al lector de su historia, su estilo, lo que sea, y algunos ganan la partida y otros no. A mi, terminó por ganarme con creces, y me dejó con ganas de saber qué más escribirá, este autor que con su primera novela me ha ganado en la partida autor-lectora.

[jeremy · Rating 5 out of 5]

daniel saldaña parís's debut novel (published in 2013, before his 30th birthday), among strange victims (en medio de extrañas víctimas), heralds yet another distinctive, promising voice in spanish-language literature. the first of saldaña parís's books to appear in english translation, among strange victims is an anti-bildungsroman picaresque starring mid/late-twentysomething rodrigo, a remarkably sketched protagonist who'd perhaps more closely resemble a ne'er-do-well were it not for his somehow charming philosophy of resignation, renunciation, and repudiation — a sort of post-capitalistic, ineffectual, millennial bartleby.

in the end, the only thing that matters to me is conserving enough clarity to be able to articulately criticize what i see; if some illness stopped me from doing this, nothing would have meaning anymore. i'm not worried about physical degeneration, the whitish drool dribbling onto a shabby suit, premature baldness, prostate cancer. i'm not worried about them so long as i can go on complaining about what i see. i don't seek the permission of the fates to find a soul mate with whom to deploy my melancholy; i can be alone, really alone, but i do ask the god of neural functions to let me retain this faint line of voice that crosses my cranium, allowing me to laugh at the world around me. this is the only grade of intelligence i aspire to, and it makes me immensely happy that it doesn't depend in the least on books or people.

montesorri-educated rodrigo, seemingly content to espy the empty lot beside his apartment (and the enigmatic hen that resides therein), collect already-steeped tea bags, and essentially live an ascetic life (much to the chagrin of his mother), nonetheless sees the world as it is, and, resultingly, wants and expects for naught. when he unwittingly marries his coworker cecilia, little changes for him, though he does find himself the unexpected (and confounded) recipient of an impeccably formed (and well-placed) stool — of fecal, not sylvan, composition. rodrigo's fortunes shift (or not), however, after losing his job and leaving mexico city for his maternally populated hometown.

among strange victims doesn't dwell in lassitude or indolence, however, treated as we are to the story of a lost boxer-poet, an aesthetic philosopher set on writing the definitive biography of said enigma, and a has-been psychedelic itinerant hippie gringo con who, using the urine of his young female acolyte companion as catalyst, leads group meditation with the aim of deducing art trends of the future. saldaña parís's tale never strays into the surreal however, though our young hero does encounter many a preposterous moment (such is his fate).

shifting styles, saldaña parís's (debut!) novel works best when narrated by rodrigo's first person account, though the third person portions show that what goes on within rodrigo's exterior world is perhaps no less bizarre than what lies within. an imperfect outing, among strange victims is nevertheless a fun, playful, weird, ambitious, imaginative, and impressive work. saldaña parís writes with a gifted and confident prose that is as much the star of this singular novel as its unforgettable characters and delighting plot. this young mexican writer (and poet, too) is surely one to watch and if among strange victims is but a harbinger of what's to come, then saldaña parís may well have a long, fruitful, and fantastic career ahead of himself. (he's already attracted the praise of both yuri herrera and mario bellatin, among others).

civilization is a violent outrage, a clash of the most basic instincts of every citizen. there is no culture that offers redemption from this disguised barbarity, no poem or play that makes this extreme mendacity of the soul more bearable.

all there is in the city is pointless argument and swaggering, gratuitous animosity and the degradation of others. i now know that all jobs, with their eight office hours and their vertical structure and their system of rewards and punishments, are demeaning to the limits of what is humanly tolerable. and all wage earners–the culture bureaucrats who try to pass off the endless battle for the suppression of others as rational discussion of ideas–are themselves victims and perpetrators of the daily dose of filth, from which nothing, absolutely nothing except resignation and silence and ostracism and the margin, can save them. i, now, am going to conquer that margin, among the shrubs of the terrestrial sphere.

*translated from the spanish by christina macsweeney (valeria luiselli's faces in the crowd, sidewalks, the story of my teeth, and eduardo rabasa's a zero-sum game [forthcoming from deep vellum, fall 2016])

[David · Rating 1 out of 5]

"Among Strange Victims" has an unlovable protagonist who is content with his peeling walls and his boring daily rituals. He apparently told his family he was attending college but dropped out almost immediately. The description of his day is boring in the extreme, and unfortunately this does not make for good fiction. As he puts it, "one of my strengths is an ability to enjoy the most trivial situations intensely." Sadly, most readers do not have this same strength.

Our lazy protagonist, who doesn't even bother to identify himself at the beginning of his story, spends considerable time on a "disintegrating" bench in a gazebo, watching people. When he is not doing this he is working in a museum editing press releases and proofreading the catalog. In one chapter we learn how he goes to a cafe, has a cup of tea and returns home with the soggy tea bag, which he hangs on the wall. Gripping narrative -- this is not. At about this point the reader is ready to stretch his arms a couple of thousand miles and and throttle the author.

By the time the narrator has accumulated ten teabags on his wall, still not much has happened in the story, which until now has been a tale of boredom, shirking, and masturbation. And then he decides to save the life of a hen in the vacant lot next door. He throws a table into the lot, and goes down to position it as a suitable shelter. Which is when he discovers a grisly bag full of putrefying viscera.

But now we once again enter stagnant waters when his co-worker Cecilia is sent a prank marriage proposal in his name, and she accepts. For the first time we learn the narrator's name: Rodrigo Saldivar.

The book goes on in his way for many hundreds of thousands of keystrokes, each of them more painful than the one before. There is the mystery of a turd on his bed. Then we meet a Bolaño type academic slumming in Mexico, an elusive and dissolute philosopher-boxer the academic is studying while living with the narrator's mother, and a shady gringo who bought a nubile young girl whose urine is used for rituals.

In the end not much is resolved, although we do finally learn who has deposited the turd on the bed.

I am not sure if my quarrel is with the work itself or with the translation, but it is neither an easy nor a pleasant, nor a rewarding read. I have limited patience for writers who, rather than invite you into their heads and hearts, try to keep you at arm's length or deposit turds on the pages of the book you bought from them. The book has an intellectual conceit, but it's a rather shallow one.

For the giveaway pile.

BTW, if you want to see another sample of Saldaña París's writing, which demonstrates more talent than this first disaster of a novel, here is a piece he wrote for Electric Literature: https://electricliterature.com/planes...

[Thomas · Rating 1 out of 5]

Among Strange Victims is, as a whole, an awful book. There are entertaining moments and humorous asides, but basically it is a vacant, irritating story with little content, written in a high-brow academic style that comes across simply as pretentious and full of instantly unlikable characters, men with egos and perversions and a very basic, boring view of the world.

Alone the opening setting says a lot - a boring, bored city man, living alone with his manias in an apartment in Mexico City, doing a job halfheartedly in a an office job that he does without enthusiasm, possessing a negative sarcastic view of the merits of the world. The intellectual style clashes horribly with the boyish obsession with perversions and fetish-like motifs. Sexual deviations, a fascination with bodily functions, with excrement and masturbation, succeed in creating an urban environment of disgust and ugliness.

Rodrigo is a passive, pathetic main character, speaking in self-obsessed first person and letting himself be tricked into marriage to the office secretary because he hasn't the personality to stop it from happening. The image of the woman as restrictive, controlling and, especially, dumb and boring, is very offensive. In contrast, the men are all secret perverts longing for an outlet for their grim dirty dreams. By the end of the first narrative, Rodrigo is left staring at a symmetrical crap on his new wife's bedspread, wondering who has done it while he was out in the vacant lot feeding the stray chicken.

The switch in perspective doesn't help. In the third person two more narcissistic males are introduced, crossing generations and not painting men through the last century in a great light. There is a nostalgia as well, as if the modern man has it worse than his predecessors, as if in general life has become worse and less meaningful for more and more people. The stories merge later on, the academic Spaniard hooking up with Rodrigo's mother to allow some oedipal musings, scenes eves dropping on his mother's sexual activities. Rodrigo escapes/returns to his mother's hometown, bizarrely obsessed with her new boyfriend, and finally gets involved with another despicable character, a stereotypical America-in-Mexico character cooking up stories to excuse his drug taking activities. Throw in a teenage girl purchased from her family and some hallucinogenic drug trips involving the drinking of the girl's urine and you are left with the ridiculous ending, all the worse because it believes it is clever - Rodrigo time travelling to the scene of the crime on the bedspread and realising that he did it himself.

Perhaps there are ways and means to unearth meaning and symbolism from this vulgar tale of macho pride and laziness, but I didn't have the urge or the motivation to dig around and discover it. 3

[B. Rule · Rating 2 out of 5]

Most of review concealed behind a cloud of unknowing pending the discussions of my book club.

The writing, or more technically speaking, the translation, in this book is very fine. The sentences are crisp and flow well, and at points Saldaña París uses a lot of doubling up and repetition that suggests the emotional or neurotic state of the protagonist. However, that wasn't really enough to save the book for me, as overall I found this to be an arid, lifeless affair. The book listlessly follows the boring exploits of a museum bureaucrat who collects used teabags and somehow ends up married to a secretary after a bumbling series of misunderstandings based on a note he never gave her. Later, said protagonist visits his mother at a university town, where he falls in with a cultish group and then falls in love with a magical, mute 18 year old. Barf.

If this is parodic, it is written in a voice so wry and dry that I died of dehydration just trying to get through the desert of its somehow interminable ~250 pages. None of the women in the book are given any real characterization, and exist merely as foils for the desires of the protagonist to play out. If this book is meant as a criticism of the institution of marriage, it's so alien from my experience of what a marriage is like that it falls completely flat. Similarly, any criticisms of the alienation of modern life, academia, or art that we're supposed to glean here are lost in absurdity.

That said, there are moments of enjoyment to be had along the way. Like I mentioned earlier, the prose is really nice throughout, and some of the passages giving voice to Rodrigo's obsessive thoughts are pretty good (e.g., the early sections that read like a hip, D.F. Underground Man, the part where he makes himself sick thinking about his mother and her lover having sex in the next room, etc.). Also, the project of the cultists (to hypnotize themselves to bring back art from the future), while stupid from a plot and character perspective, is a pretty fun idea. Ultimately, I think it was how terribly this book ended that annoyed me, as it could have been redeemed. However, having the disaffected married neurotic wander off to be redeemed by the power of a magic woman who just won't talk back was so revolting that it poisoned the whole project. I wish this were better.

[Alaíde Ventura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Es divertido, me gustó. Buen autor. Celebro su uso del lenguaje, impecable, y las imágenes de las que se vale para hacer analogías. Y las palabras que se ve que le encantan, como "grisura".

No disfruté tanto algunas reflexiones que sentí forzadas, como si fueran opiniones que se empeñó en meter donde cupieran.


SPOILER: También sentí que la historia de Foret merecía más que el final abrupto que le tocó. En general, el libro termina muy de pronto.

[Joe Cummings · Rating 5 out of 5]

Among Strange Victims is Christina MacSweeney's excellent 2016 translation of Daniel Saldaña París' 2013 novel En medio de extrañas victimas. It's the young writer first book to be released in English in the USA. It's an incredible and very promising first work!

An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.~Newton's first law of inertia

If Meursault in Camus' The Stranger epitomizes existential ennui, then Rodrigo, the main character and sometime narrator in this novel, represents the inertia of a life lived by avoiding any involvement with anything. He works at a Mexico City museum only so that he can enjoy his free time doing nothing. Usually he goes to park on weekends to watch other people living their lives.

After he's accidentally married, he flees to Las Girasoles where he becomes involved in the strange scheme of a professor at the local university, a visiting scholar from Madrid, and a gringo artist who want present art in a new way. Rodrigo finds that his life is changing.

Saldaña París is one a new new generation of Mexican writers like Yuri Herrera and Alberto Chimal who are inspired by Roberto Bolaño and are redefining the Mexican novel in an exciting way. The word play and writing style in Among Strange Victims is distinctly Saldaña's, but you can see influences from a variety of other authors including Carlos Fuentes and Paco Ignacio Taibo II. Like other Mexican writers, this author likes to use such an extended vocabulary, readers should know that they'll enjoy the book more with a good dictionary nearby. He's also influenced by the Mexican/Chilean/Catalan author Bolaño. Indeed the whole book could be seen as a homage or parody of Salvage Detectives and 2666.

This is a funny book that looks sharply at Mexican life and Mexicans' world view of themselves. Readers learn, for example, what Mexicans think of visiting Spaniards and what they think Spaniards think of Mexicans. It also looks at the narcotraficante culture in Mexico and how it effects everyday life.

Christina MacSweeney translation seems to captures perfectly the geist of Saldaña's unique prose. I hope it's the first of many collaborations between this author and his translator. This novel was an absolute delight to read.

[Alison · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book, man, I don't even know. The first chapter is delightfully weird, with a man just trying to live an extremely boring life even after he gets a note at work that completely upends said life. If the book had just been that short story, this would probably have been a five-star review. But then... it continues. We follow other characters I don't care about for a while until they meet back up with my friend Boring Man, but by this time he's doubled down on the boring, sent away the exciting, and now I don't care about him either. Also people excitedly drink pee and I just can't even.

My library checkout expired with 7% of the book left to go and after I went through all the trouble of turning on my wifi, going to the app, redownloading it, waiting for hoopla to set the book up again, and reading that 7%, the ending was so annoying I wished I hadn't.

But seriously, though, if you have access to hoopla, read that first chapter and then stop. That chapter's existence redeems this entire book for me.

[Monica Lasarre · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the strangest book I've ever enjoyed. Each page more bizarre than the next, with excessively tedious passages, I was unable to stop reading because I had to know how this disarming, sophisticatedly crude story ended. As one of the cover reviewers noted, this is a novel asking how one should cope with the impossible burden of living your own life -- and the graceful riddle of an answer lingers long after the book is finished.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me recuerda en parte a la generación anterior de escritores mexicanos pero con un nuevo enfoque. Tiene esa parte de misticismo que uno encuentra en los pueblos y leyendas mexicanos. Daniel logra combinarlo con la actualidad de la sociedad joven mexicana. En su nueva definición de joven: a los 30 años y apenas está descubriendo qué quiere de su vida.

[Miguel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tenía mucho tiempo queriendo leer este libro y por fin pude hacerlo. La expectativa de leer algo fresco, diferente y de calidad se cubrió cabalmente. Hay un par de cabos sueltos en la historia que quizás le resten (un poco) de merito, sin embargo es un gran trabajo. Lo recomiendo (millenials, lo amarán)

[Escamoles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Irregular. Por momentos me parecía buenísimo, por momentos pretencioso. Supongo que en una primera novela uno quiere aventar toda la carne al asador, siento que eso sucedía acá. Aunque hay algo en la forma de escribir de Daniel que me resulta hipnótico. Siento que su novela más sólida es El Nervio Principal. Me intriga mucho hacia dónde evoluciona este autor.

[Regan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Towards the end of this strange novel, Rodrigo, our listless protagonist, begins pontificating about Descartes’ piece of wax--the very object that served to addle Descartes into nearly nihilistic skepticism (but for the grace of God)! Rodrigo’s strange recollection of Descartes’ Meditations reflects his understanding of his own life: Descartes sees the wax in a particular shape. A second figure removes the wax and places it over a fire, and remolds it. Can the first person recognize the newly presented wax as the same? Rodrigo concludes that if the first figure cannot determine it is the same piece of wax, then our senses cannot not reveal to us the principle of identity. We can only understand the piece of wax as the same piece of wax if we witness the process of its transformation. (Notably, Descartes is both first and second figure--no one conceals and then reveals it to him).

I suspect Descartes is a master key to Rodrigo’s self-understanding, which--on a physical and philosophical level--is an exercise in a oddly principled non-formation of the self. Rodrigo’s life happens to him; he endeavors to make as few choices as possible: to let the ebb and flow of happenstance dictate his trajectory.

“My life has the disadvantage of not being completely my own...The greater part of my time is spent in inertia, and that includes the most crucial decisions, which I take like someone picking a card from a deck held out to him. The result is never magic; I can’t even perceive the adrenaline of objective chance or observe a conspiracy of symbols behind what happens. I just go on living.”

Rodrigo behaves as though he is a rudderless ghostship, waiting for a gale force wind (or a slight breeze) to tilt his prow towards a new life course. A certain will-lessness is a driving theme here, and also what makes Rodrigo immune to moralism: he makes no blame- or praise-worthy choices--he makes no choice at all. Rodrigo is more piece of wax than he is Figure 1 or Figure 2 trying to determine if he is the same at T1 and T2. If he values anything at all beyond his apartment view, his hen and his collection of teabags, it is his own intangibility--his own commitment to not having an identity.

[Martin Hernandez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entretenido, interesante, raro. Con una prosa ágil y honesta, Daniel SALDAÑA PARÍS retrata a Rodrigo, un joven que no aspira a nada, y no quiere nada, solo lo que el destino o las circunstancias le deparen. A manera de broma, alguien en el museo donde trabaja le ha propuesto matrimonio, en su nombre, a Cecilia, la secretaria que le hace la vida imposible... y ella acepta. Su extraña falta de ambiciones no le deja otra salida que casarse y ese es quizá el primer error que irá desencadenando una serie de acontecimientos que finalmente lo llevará a la cuidad de Los Girasoles, a encontrar su destino.
El de SALDAÑA, al igual que el de otros escritores jóvenes mexicanos, encuentra en la irreverencia y el desenfado su veta principal, pero mientras en otros casos esto no es más que un pretexto que parece no llevar a nada, aquí termina por interesar, por meternos en la historia y disfrutar los giros, lingüísticos e incidentales, de los personajes. Para muestra, un botón: "...tener la culpa es como llevar dentro del bolsillo del pantalón un helado de vainilla: puedes hacer como que no existe, pero en algún momento terminará por derretirse e incomodarte y la mancha será visible para todos."

[Maximilian Gerboc · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been fascinated by contemporary literature coming out of millennial aged Mexico lately. Yuri Herrera, Valeria Luiselli, and now this book by Daniel Saldaña París - all intensely creative and willing to take risks.

Among Strange Victims is wildly funny and relatable. The feeling of ennui, contradictions in life, and lack of attachment is incredibly described in some of the most incisive and sophisticated prose I’ve ever read. I would even venture to say that it gets to be too much at times, and there are some loose ends, but overall, a very worthwhile read in what I think will soon be considered part of this explosion of creative talent coming out of 30-something Mexicans.

[Tammy Matthews · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. Here’s a plot that doesn’t work: a boring character being boring. A skilled writer can carry off such things but they have to offer you, the reader, something. I have no time to waste for a book written purely to amuse the writer. I get nothing out of it. In thirty pages the narrator hangs out at park, looks at a vacant lot, goes to work, masturbates. Yup, riveting! And to inject some interest and quirk he staples used tea bags to a wall. Wow! You’ve got to earn my time and attention, dear author.

[Comiendo Libros · Rating 4 out of 5]

El libro me confundió mucho, pero no podía parar de leer, la insignificancia de la cotidianidad interrumpida por pequeñas extrañezas que al final podían tener sentido. El autor tiene un juego con el lenguaje impresionante (llegué a pensar en que tuvo alguna preparación lingüística), además la forma de narrar la perspectiva de cada personaje es tan diferente que se podía dividir perfectamente quién decía o pensaba qué.

[Shawn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mr. Paris sh!t the bed. Insufferable and moronic. I rated this 2 stars for the second section. I learned that the interesting aspects of this section are actually thinly fictionalized biographies of real people.

[Mariana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Inane.

[Adrián M · Rating 4 out of 5]

un libro muy divertido, el final no lo entendí mucho jeje pero creo que es parte de la misma historia...

[German Cortez · Rating 5 out of 5]

A postmodern read. Definitely not a book for novice readers.

[Doris · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book about wackadoodles; would give it a 4 but found parts of it a bit tedious.

[Vladimir Caraballo Acuña · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sin ninguna duda, Saldaña París ya mostraba desde esta primera publicación sus dotes de escritor. En la novela despliega una importante diversidad de formas narrativas, combinadas con un cinismo divertido e inteligente que irá tomando forma en obras posteriores del autor. El lenguaje de Saldaña es cuidadosamente construido: en ocasiones nos hace detenernos, e incluso volver sobre lo leído (Saldaña estudió filosofía...), mientras que en otras nos deja acomodarnos como espectadores tranquilos que se sumergen en las situaciones. Es posible decir incluso que las partes de la novela corresponden justamente a estas distintas formas de narrar: en aquellas contadas en primera persona asistimos a los pensamientos de Rodrigo, un joven oficinista cínico e inteligente que despliega, con absoluta naturalidad y desencanto, pensamientos estéticos sobre el mundo; y en las narradas por un narrador omnisciente leemos alternadamente la historia de un profesor universitario, de una profesora universitaria, de un poeta y boxeador, y de un gringo obsesionado con la hipnosis. Aunque, por supuesto, las historias se entrecruzan, creo que es justamente en su diversidad, en sus tonos tan distintos, en donde hay una debilidad que me impide darle las 5 estrellas. En otra reseña alguien decía que había que leer solo la primera parte de la novela -la dedicada al oficinista- y sugería que allí Saldaña debía haber acabado el libro. Yo estoy de acuerdo: esa parte es genial en muchos sentidos y lamenté cuando no solo se acabó prematuramente (creo que, de haberla estirado, habría dado con creces para una única novela más larga), sino cuando vi que daba pie a una narración mucho más convencional, muy bien escrita pero más común. Más aún lamenté que la manera como al final se entretejen estas piezas disímiles sea a través de la extravagancia, a través de un truco mágico que, aunque tiene cierta dosis interesante de intriga, resulta demasiado excéntrico, demasiado ruidoso y excesivo para esos pensamientos inteligentes, delicados y divertidos del oficinista.
En fin. De verdad, este personaje, Rodrigo, se instaló en el anaquel de personajes que me acompañan y espero poder encontrármelo más adelante. Como sea, recomiendo sin duda leer esta novela: hay en ella material para todos los gustos. En esto, insisto, está la virtud de una primera novela y, también, su debilidad.

[Santino S · Rating 4 out of 5]

Among Strange Victims is the first book I've read by Daniel Saldaña París. It starts off strong with a good voice and unconventional style. Something academic yet inexperienced, with unique metaphor and simile that borders on the surreal. At times the narration can drag out, though because it is a short book, it is not painful. As a glimpse into the cultural space of a middle/upper-class Mexican during the time period, it is a valid read alone. Yes, the main character is flawed, selfish, and pretentious, but I ultimately find his desire for closure, peace, and his final epiphany to be valid and worthwhile. There are good repeating images and thoughts that add up to some pretty odd, somewhat simplistic, and at times profound themes. The aside that the book takes in the middle, though mostly relevant, was distracting for me. The ending sentiment has a philosophical staying power. Largely, the point seems to be one of creating your own personal mythology or government, and the challenges of being close to people and feeling fulfilled. In this, there is vulnerability and honesty. For all of its learned voice, I take away something very simple to the human condition--the search for fulfillment or peace in oneself, while attempting to transition into social or familial fulfillment that can often expose mistrust, insecurity, and selfishness. A worthwhile and unique read for someone interested in the aforementioned topics.

[Elliott Turner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una novela muy muy graciosa y sumamente creativa que quiza no te cautiva la atencion desde el comienzo.

Un oficinista en un museo de CDMX esta aburrido y deprimido. Esta estancado sin darse cuenta hasta que un dia una nota y un malentendido lo conducen a un matrimononio repentino y inesperado. Luego, va de visita a un pueblo satelite "Los Girasoles" para visitar su madre y conoce su novio, un profesor extranjero de Madrid. Ellos dos se hacen amigos y se dejan llevar por un medio loco californiano que "sabe" de la hipnosis.

Muchos lectores van a abandonar este libro y las primeras 70 paginas - de una obsesion por un terreno baldio, una gallina y ahem ahem las pajas subrepticiosas en el banho del jale - van a probar tu paciencia pero a mi me gusto y el hilo narativo coge mas ritmo en la segunda parte.

Quise aprender un poco mas/ver una resolucion mas definitiva para el "hilo historico" acerca del boxeador/filosofo/draft dodger y su pareja en Buenos Aires, pero pues ni modo.

[Pavel López · Rating 3 out of 5]

Daniel Saldaña París es mi crush literario actual. Me cae bien y me gusta mucho su escritura, me parece paranoica, graciosa, falsamente profunda, etc. Creo que es el mejor escritor hombre (ahora hay que separarlos por género) mexicano de la actualidad, peeeeeero que insufribles me parecieron las últimas 100 páginas, no pude, tardé meses en avanzar y al final decidí no acabarlo (continuaré intentándolo, me faltan como 30 páginas), pero llegué a un punto estancado en la lectura, necesito moverme.

Aunque el nivel de lenguaje y la prosa es fluida, por momentos es pretencioso a más no poder y me recuerda que, al final de todo, Saldaña París es un hombre blanco con un nivel socioeconómico no tan fregado, lo que me parece, actualmente, la forma más intrascendente de existir. Bueno, gran escritor, pero meh

[Bob Lopez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful wonderful book. Engaging and dense, it was a slow read for me. Loved part 1 with his new fiancee and their marriage and living together. Wasn't as into the history parts as their relationship, but what blew me away was the remainder of the book: visiting his mother, and Rodrigo getting involved with his mother's boyfriend and his friends, they hypnotism, the special drink they took before the hypnotism, and the ending...just *chef's kiss*. I like the idea that this Depressed Pixie Dream Girl has some special quality to her piss that, when drunk, makes people either hallucinate or actually travel in time/space, and it had me grinning from ear to ear for the last quarter of the book. What a delight.

[Alejandro]

This book wasn't for me. Although it is well written, I think I managed to finish it because I was morbidly curious to see how someone could write a whole book about such unlikeable characters.

I won't rate this one. I'm not sure if my dislike for the book's subject matter warrants a specific rating. If you are into reading humourous cynicism, ironic faux-academic language, misogynistic men with mediocre aspirations, petty obsessions that lead nowhere, and far-reaching schatological humour, then this one might be a fun time. I guess I just wasn't in on the joke.

[Leyendoalmundooficial · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rodrigo, un burocrático que trabaja en un museo de la ciudad de México y que buscó un departamento cerca de un terreno baldío desde donde puede ver todos los días a una gallina actuar en su hábitat natural y que colecciona sobres de tés usados, tiene que casarse con Cecilia una secretaria a la que le han jugado una broma dejándole un papelito a nombre de Rodrigo donde le pide matrimonio y al ella contestarle con otro papelito diciendo acepto, o haya como decirle que no.
Una novela llena de humor escatológico.
Daniel Saldaña Paris forma parte de la lista Bogotá 39 2017.

[Nora · Rating 3 out of 5]

"... hemos sido creados por un dios que nos obliga a equivocarnos. Un genio maligno que disfruta con nuestros tropiezos y se ríe de la certeza que asignamos a las más sencillas sumas y restas. Un dios astuto, con pésimas intenciones, que nos hizo a la medida de su aburrimiento para vernos caer en el error como Tales de Mileto cae al pozo. Un dios que siembra signos en las cosas y nos saca al mundo con la cara llena de ojos para que busquemos esos signos y nos deslumbre su estúpido hallazgo."