Spiritual Choreographies

by Carlos Labbé, Will Vanderhyden (Translator)

By blinking his eyes and moving his pupils, a paraplegic man—the onetime vocalist in a famous rock band—composes a kind of anti-biography that is corrected and expanded upon by an unknown editor. Alternating between the vocalist's impressionistic recollections and the editor's "corrections," an asynchronous story emerges, evoking the vocalist's childhood in southern Chile and telling of the rise and fall of the band that he grew up to lead, while hinting at a multiplicity of other narrative possibilities.

At once an exploration of collection creation as a kind of real community and a reflection on the fragility of memory, Spiritual Choreographies is an undaunted and entirely original novel by one of Latin America's most innovative contemporary writers, whose body of work has been described as "a response to the imminent destruction of the known world."

Genres: Fiction

146 pages, Paperback

First published March 21, 2022

Reviews

[MJ Nicholls · Rating 2 out of 5]

Open Letter continues to punt the novels of Labbé alongside the likes of the exceptional Rodrigo Fresán. I cannot see the appeal of this Chilean imp, having read one previous, and skim-dropped the other. Split between a series of “impressionistic” autobiographical reflections composed by a paraplegic man blinking his eyes, and an editor’s “corrections”, the novel sweats hard to avoid coherence or intrigue, preferring instead a series of opaque, uncaptivating memories of the narrator’s life, involving an experimental band and Chilean political tumult and other vague stuff. As with Navidad & Matanza, the focus is on exploding form in favour of forging a neat narrative (something I would applaud in most instances), but the results are confusing, repetitive, uninteresting, and faux-poetic.

[Marc · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Out of the ruins emerges a ridge that is a hill, a hill that is a volcano. And a cat, a rabbit, and a dog emerge from the crater; with the help of millions of other paws and hoofs we push a glass coffin, gilded and on wheels, down the last liturgical ramp. We make ourselves legion: never again will we let some salivating thing turn into ration, into reason, into nauseating money. We crowd together, carefully we open the coffin and, justly, we eat."

Started off strong and toys throughout with the notion of truth/storytelling as a parapalegic musician is writing his past by blinking text through a screen. Alternating chapters have an un-named editor "correcting" each section (which always mirrors the first line of the musician's text but may veer off sharply from there). It felt like he stretched this form pretty thin... Maybe not quite to the breaking point, but thin enough that the fraying threads didn't feel too satisfactory for this reader.
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AWFUL LOTTA WORDS I DIDN'T KNOW FOR SUCH A SLIM BOOK
ngürütrewa | anthroposophism | weraos | coypus | pancora | cuero | kawellu | witranalwe | pillanes | toponymic | demonym

[jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

the third of carlos labbé's works to appear in english translation, spiritual choreographies (coreografías espirituales) is perhaps the most enigmatic one yet. whereas the chilean author's previous translations ( navidad & matanza & loquela ) were cerebral, metafictional tales, spiritual choreographies is the story of a famous rock singer, now paralyzed, and his recollections of both musical stardom and growing up in chile. each of the main character's first-person narratives are followed by a "correction" chapter, however, wherein a nameless editor rewrites/reworks and offers a different, sometimes conflicting perspective.

less heady than its predecessors, spiritual choreographies nonetheless further exemplifies labbé's unique storytelling and gifted imagination. one of granta's best young spanish-language novelists (from the 2010 list)—and himself a musician—labbé continues to pen innovative and wholly enrapturing works of fiction.

i, on the other hand, sit in front of the impeccable surface with eyelids steadily searching for the right word that isn't autobiography.

*rendered from the spanish by will vanderhyden (best translated book award-winning translator of rodrigo fresán, labbé's navidad & matanza and loquela, marsé, et al.)

[Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nope. I had high hopes for this one. Labbé is both a writer and a musician. He is also Chilean. The main character is a musician, and he is disabled. Paralyzed from the neck down, he writes using eye-gaze technology. He is paralyzed because a government soldier (Chile? During the dictatorship?) hit him in the neck with a rifle in the middle of a concert where the singer directly criticized the dictatorship, with the dictator and his minions in the audience. The book is supposed to be a musical memoir, and is slightly reminiscent of Salman Rushdie’s The Ground Beneath her Feet. I like the alternating sections between the writer and the editor: the tension between the writer’s work and how it is edited for publication. I like the lyricism of the writer’s sections.

But the book is incoherent The edited sections do not turn the writer’s lyricism into a comprehensible narrative. There are comprehensible sections, like the story of the concert when the singer is assaulted and paralyzed, but those sections are few and far between. There are pieces, fragments. Is this a memoir of the singer’s life, a story of the band, an analysis of the music and the creative process, all, some, or none? Is it about his ego, a disquisition about his greatness/genius? I don ‘t know. Nothing comes together.

The title suggests an organization–choreography–and a mention of choreography starts almost every section, usually noting that it needs to be fixed. But that call for order, for a fix, doesn’t result in an orderly, adjusted, or edited narrative. Same is true for the lyrical passages. Labbé doesn’t do enough choreographic work to pull this novel together, so it is just fragments, fragments of what I cannot say.

[Brooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this book succeeds in what it's trying to do. As with everything Labbe, there's a lot of meanderings and set-ups that don't pay off plot-wise, but in the end you get the whole picture. I enjoy that kind of storytelling, so this worked for me.

[Elliott Turner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una obra opaca 100% mi jalea - en varios episodios, vemos la historia un conjunto de rock pero cerca y dentro de un estado dictatorial. Tambien, claro, hay relaciones entre miembros del grupo, un artist retreat, un concierto que sale fuera de control, episodios comunes estilo "Almost Famous".

[Bethany · Rating 2 out of 5]

While the premise of the book is extremely interesting, I found it lacking in coherence. To give credit where credit is due, there was some beautiful phrasing and some chapters were more engaging. Overall, I found this book disappointing.

[Matthew · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fascinating concept for a novel, but anything resembling a comprehensible narrative repelled me at every turn.

[Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Breaking all the narrative rules is fun and good, but only so long as it does not come at the expense of an interesting or illumining reading experience. This, for me, was not that. 2.75 stars.