Cuaderno de agua

by Hugo Clemente

Water Log is a book of stories liquidly knit around the characters of an island that are trying to keep their sense of belonging through the practice of surf, love, sex and friendship. With a felt debt to Rock'n Roll, Big Kahuna, Julio Cortázar, and the art of destructotherapy, Clemente's Log is a rebellious splash of poetic images and sensations that will leave the reader happily refreshed and eroticized.
Marta del Pozo , University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth
Water Log is a love story and a travel narrative always in perfect tension between departure and arrival. It is a novel that begins anew with every story, and with the same sense of agility and dare of his character, it always comes back home to a place that is different and the same. Clemente’s character is the Robert Louis Stevenson who travels by donkey to show how the best part of a trip is how well it is told and in the process he reconstructs the familiar as new. A micronarrative in the tradition of Lydia Davis, this original and engaging novel makes each of these stories a bridge that connects land and sea, body and mind, and between each of them Clemente creates spaces for us to become the best readers we can be.
Ernesto Livon-Grosman , Director of Latin American Studies (Dept. of Romance Languages and Literatures) Boston College Hugo Clemente’s ebullient, entrancing, raw, linguistically sensuous Water Log is to be savored in the immediacy of every line. The strength of the language rivals that of the waves that denude an adventurous young man in search of life, love, and meaning. This well executed novel, which showcases the Spanish avant-garde, leaves the reader foaming at the mouth.Jorge Armenteros, author of The Roar of the River

200 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

Reviews

[Jesus Garcia]

Ahora quiero ir al mar, vivir cerca y hacer surf, como antes, pero más intensamente.