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Holiday Heart
Lucía and Pablo are Colombian immigrants who've built their lives together in the US yet maintain conflicting attitudes towards their homeland and the extent to which it defines their identity. After undergoing fertility treatment, Pablo finds himself excluded from raising their twins, and the new family situation seems to question the very nature of their relationship and of who they believed they were. In search of respite and time to reflect, Lucía takes the kids to her parents' apartment in Miami. Meanwhile, Pablo learns he is suffering from a syndrome known as 'Holiday Heart'. But is this just a break, or is it really the final days of their marriage?
114 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 25, 2017
23 people are currently reading
904 people want to read
About the author
Margarita García Robayo
28 books419 followersMargarita García Robayo nació en Cartagena, Colombia, en 1980. Desde 2005 vive en Buenos Aires, donde escribe la columna “La ciudad de la furia” en el diario Crítica de la Argentina. En la Revista C -del mismo diario- escribió la columna “Mi vida y yo” bajo el seudónimo de Carolina Balducci, y semanalmente escribe contratapas de opinión. Para la edición digital de Clarín, creó el blog Sudaquia: historias de América Latina* y colaboró en revistas de crónica como Soho, Don Juan, Travesías, Surcos, Gatopardo. En su ciudad fue columnista de cine de El Universal, profesora de análisis fílmico de la Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano y coordinadora de proyectos en la Fundación Nuevo Periodismo Iberoamericano. Fue elegida como uno de los 50 líderes de Colombia en la edición de liderazgo del 2007 de la revista Cambio. Escribió el libro de cuentos Hay ciertas cosas que una no puede hacer descalza (Planeta, 2009; Destino, 2010), que fue traducido al italiano. Participó en la antología de las mejores crónicas de la revista Soho, publicada por Editorial Aguilar en 2008.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 131 reviews
June 17, 2020
2.5*
Holiday heart is the 3rd title from Charco press that I've read this year and, unfortunately, the one that I liked the least. The novella is about the marriage disintegration of two Colombian immigrants, parents of twins, boy and girl. They disagree on most major subjects such as their careers, children and their Latin heritage. They are both writers, she for a column where she writes about her life and her husband defects and he tries to compose a novel about his home town (I think). The breakup is accelerated by the birth of the twins but the main cause is the gap created by their different beliefs. As many relationship that fail, a child (let alone two at the same time) only makes the cracks in a relationship more visible and enlarges them. I saw this too many times in real life and when I read about it in a literary novel I expect a different approach, which did not happen in his book.
Holiday heart is the 3rd title from Charco press that I've read this year and, unfortunately, the one that I liked the least. The novella is about the marriage disintegration of two Colombian immigrants, parents of twins, boy and girl. They disagree on most major subjects such as their careers, children and their Latin heritage. They are both writers, she for a column where she writes about her life and her husband defects and he tries to compose a novel about his home town (I think). The breakup is accelerated by the birth of the twins but the main cause is the gap created by their different beliefs. As many relationship that fail, a child (let alone two at the same time) only makes the cracks in a relationship more visible and enlarges them. I saw this too many times in real life and when I read about it in a literary novel I expect a different approach, which did not happen in his book.
June 4, 2020
The accumulation of time makes strangers of us: nobody can say precisely when the seed is planted. The first symptom is disinterest, something miniscule that then becomes normal, and then both people stop wondering why they’re still there, oozing indifference towards one another, agreeing with what the other says as a formality: the time long gone when what they said seemed interesting. Or worth listening to.
Charco Press is an Edinburgh-based small UK press – they focus on “finding outstanding contemporary Latin American literature and bringing it to new readers in the English-speaking world”.
This is the second book of their fourth year of publication, and the second they have published by the Colombian author Margarita Garcia Robayo, the first being the short-story and novella collection “Fish Soup” (my Hole shaped review here - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show.... Like that collection, it is translated by Charlotte Coombe (who also translated Charco’s publicaiton of Ricardo Romero’s “The President’s Room”) and reads very naturally.
The book is set in the US and features a family of Colombian immigrants: Pablo and Lucía (in the nineteenth year of their relationship), and their rather precocious – even to their parents – six-year-old twin children Tomas and Rosá.
Lucia – a magazine columnist whose articles increasingly seem to feature her dissatisfaction at her life and the inadequacies of her husband - has taken the children to her parents’ holiday apartment in Miami.
Pablo – a high school teacher and wanabbe novelist - stays behind suffering from what seems like a combination of mid-life crisis, mild breakdown (exacerbated by a warning letter from the school where he teaches) and a alcohol, sex and drug induced irregular heartbeart which both forces an operation to insert a stent and gives the book its English title (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holiday...) – the Spanish title being “Time-Out”.
“Fish Soup” includes an award winning short story collection “Worse Things” which I described as being “thematically related – with a constant theme of disassociation – with the main characters at odds with their families or societies and often with unvoiced or unacknowledged conflicts or differences of perspective.”
And I think this also could be used to describe Pablo and Lucia’s relationship – one which appears at the novel’s opening to be reaching the end of a gradual disintegration, a disintegration which really accelerated after the birth of the children (via fertility treatment) exacerbated the couple’s different value systems (which includes a different view on their Colombian roots).
Overall this felt like a fairly standard break-up novel, with an added layer of exile and racism.
June 13, 2019
Perdí el interés pronto. No disfruté vadear —nunca logré sumergirme— en un mundo pintado con una gran mueca de asco.
October 29, 2023
Holiday Heart is translated by Charlotte Coombe from Margarita García Robayo's 2017 original 'Tiempo muerto' and published by Charco Press.
I previously appreciated the story collection Fish Soup from the same author/translator/publisher combination, https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..., particularly the dark humour of the novella Sexual Education.
Holiday Heart was, for me, a more conventional relationship-novel, a story of a disintegrating marriage between two Colombian immigrants into the US, driven by the couple's differing attitudes to each other's career as writers, to their children and even to their heritage. It rather reminded me of another recent read Richard Russo's That Old Cape Magic, except where that book seemed to be set in a oddly white world, here the hispanic experience is a key touch point.
A quick and enjoyable read, although I felt a little lacking in depth - 2.5 stars.
I previously appreciated the story collection Fish Soup from the same author/translator/publisher combination, https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..., particularly the dark humour of the novella Sexual Education.
Holiday Heart was, for me, a more conventional relationship-novel, a story of a disintegrating marriage between two Colombian immigrants into the US, driven by the couple's differing attitudes to each other's career as writers, to their children and even to their heritage. It rather reminded me of another recent read Richard Russo's That Old Cape Magic, except where that book seemed to be set in a oddly white world, here the hispanic experience is a key touch point.
A quick and enjoyable read, although I felt a little lacking in depth - 2.5 stars.
August 23, 2018
"La sensación de libertad es directamente proporcional al vacío que te queda".
La novela de García Robayo es sutil y profunda. Lo que no me gustó fue sentir que los personajes, despues de un rato, se enlodaban en su propio patetismo y ya estando tan untados les era imposible salir. El personaje de Lucía se salva con la espectacular escena final, el del señor nunca (ni siquiera con la escena del trampolín). Los personajes secundarios -a excepción de los niños, que son espléndidos- me resultaron banales, casi fantasmales, y eso le quitó ritmo a la historia. Una novela de fácil lectura, pero no en el sentido positivo. De cualquier forma la sensación final es desgarradora y algún temor terrible suscitará en aquellos que han (hemos) decidido llevar vida de pareja.
La novela de García Robayo es sutil y profunda. Lo que no me gustó fue sentir que los personajes, despues de un rato, se enlodaban en su propio patetismo y ya estando tan untados les era imposible salir. El personaje de Lucía se salva con la espectacular escena final, el del señor nunca (ni siquiera con la escena del trampolín). Los personajes secundarios -a excepción de los niños, que son espléndidos- me resultaron banales, casi fantasmales, y eso le quitó ritmo a la historia. Una novela de fácil lectura, pero no en el sentido positivo. De cualquier forma la sensación final es desgarradora y algún temor terrible suscitará en aquellos que han (hemos) decidido llevar vida de pareja.
February 8, 2018
La lucidez tal vez sea la más ardua de las virtudes literarias; sin duda es la más escasa. En esta brevísima novela, Margarita García Robayo demuestra que sus reservas de esta son inagotables. Pero eso no es todo. También están el lenguaje preciso, la intuición, la inteligencia, y una manera a la vez eléctrica y sutil de jugar con el tiempo y el espacio para ir revelando poco a poco facetas o momentos de sus personajes. Todos ellos en este libro, como cualquiera de nosotros, son detestables; pero cuando eso comenzaba a cansarme, aparecieron destellos aquí y allá de verdad, de belleza, incluso de ternura.
December 17, 2017
Las siguientes notas fueron tomadas de esta novela y no pretendo tomar ningún tipo de crédito sobre ellas:
• Lo raro no son las infidelidades, piensa Lucía; ella también cometió algunas —más discretas, más holgadas, nada que pusiera en riesgo el corazón de nadie—. Lo verdaderamente raro es mirar al otro y preguntarse quién es, qué hace ahí, en qué momento cambiaron tanto los rasgos de la cara. El desconocimiento es el saldo del tiempo acumulado, nadie puede decir con exactitud cuando se planta la semilla.
• Ver la cantidad de trastos que tienen —viejos, pero casi sin usar— lo hace pensar en el tiempo que lleva con Lucía. Eso tienen aparte de hijos y ollas: asentamientos de tiempo muerto que ninguno se ha dignado a remover.
• Algunas noches mira a los niños mientras duermen y se pregunta si sabrán que todo podría acabarse de pronto, sin aviso, sin tiempo para prepararse o para preguntarse por qué. negar la tranquiliza y la absuelve: no saben nada.
• Los sonidos domésticos me activan un sensor que rara vez consigo apagar. Algunos me fascinan como la alarma del horno que indica que el pollo está dorado, listo parar servir.
• Hay sonidos como ese que solo algunas personas somos capaces de escuchar. Son los sonidos de la ansiedad. Mi hijo padece una sordera selectiva, igual que su hermana, igual que su padre.
• Believe me: prefiero cuatro millones de refrigeradores mal cerrados que la voz de mi marido o , peor, que el silencio de mi marido.
• ¿No te parece que tu mujer además de una malparida, es una rebuscada de mierda?
Pablo alzó los hombros:
—carezco de recursos neurológicos para saberlo.
• “Quererse y cuidarse” —le había dicho una de esas tardes a su hermana— no siempre van de la mano.
• Asentía a su pregunta y atajaba un bostezo con las dos manos como para que no se escapara nada
• Eso es algo que los latinoamericanos arribistas hacen todo el tiempo: meter palabras o expresiones en inglés en sus conversaciones o, peor, en sus textos.
• —Yo tengo una alumna que hace preguntas —dijo Sarakey—, en general un poco idiotas, pero al menos anota mis respuestas. Pobre.
• La sensación de libertad que produce la transgresión es directamente proporcional al vacío que te queda.
• Pablo sostenía un tarro con las cenizas: estaba nevioso, temía que se le cayera y los restos de su mama terminaran en el piso de esa lancha hedionda a pescado.
• Es obvio que Cindy, como al resto del género humano, disfruta de la desgracia ajena porque la coloca mágicamente en un lugar de superioridad moral: estoy aquí para ayudarte.
• La explicación de Pablo era que una mujer inteligente —como pretendía que fuese su personaje— jamás dejaría a un marido de tantos años. Preferiría una vida desgraciada pero cierta, a lo impredecible de la felicidad.
• Cuando la casa estuvo en silencio, Pablo se recluyó en el estudio. Abrió la carpeta de su novela y luego un archivo llamado “Sobras”. Contenía un listado de frases sueltas que ya no recordaba a cuento de qué había anotado.
• ¿Novios? Nada formal.
¿Polvos? Eventuales
¿Hobbies? El bingo
Ahí, pensó Pablo, en ese vicio ordinario y pequeñito, estaba su felicidad
• Sus papás traen un imán de cada ciudad que visitan, lo que a ella le parece un acto de ostentación tremendamente vulgar. Su vocación por acumular es enfermiza.
• Estaban en un café al que iban antes. Antes de ser padres, antes de ser ellos: gente que piensa en plural.
• La mamá de Pablo la odiaría desde el día uno: empezaría denigrándola con términos solemnes —casquivana—, después subiría el tono de su desprecio —“chocho loco” — y terminaría sacándola de su apartamento , de los pelos, al grito de “perra sucia”.
• —Pensé que podrías hacer una lectura más elevada— dijo Pablo
—La verdad es que me parece cursi.
—Porque a ti todo lo que tenga que ver con la idea de patria te parece cursi.
—Obvio
—¿Obvio?
—La sola mención de la palabra me pone los pelos de punta. ¿Qué es esa mierda? ¿Quién nace con la bandera tatuada en la nuca?
• —Tienes que darle un rasgo distintivo, no puede ser un tipo rico, poderoso y malvado. Es una caricatura.
• —Te lo juro —insiste y se arrepiente. Jurar es rogar.
• Debía entonces llamar a Pablo para recordarle que tenían una cena importante. Luego, ir a la cena. Luego, parecer entusiasmada. Y así, ir tirando un poco todos los días.
• Lo raro no son las infidelidades, piensa Lucía; ella también cometió algunas —más discretas, más holgadas, nada que pusiera en riesgo el corazón de nadie—. Lo verdaderamente raro es mirar al otro y preguntarse quién es, qué hace ahí, en qué momento cambiaron tanto los rasgos de la cara. El desconocimiento es el saldo del tiempo acumulado, nadie puede decir con exactitud cuando se planta la semilla.
• Ver la cantidad de trastos que tienen —viejos, pero casi sin usar— lo hace pensar en el tiempo que lleva con Lucía. Eso tienen aparte de hijos y ollas: asentamientos de tiempo muerto que ninguno se ha dignado a remover.
• Algunas noches mira a los niños mientras duermen y se pregunta si sabrán que todo podría acabarse de pronto, sin aviso, sin tiempo para prepararse o para preguntarse por qué. negar la tranquiliza y la absuelve: no saben nada.
• Los sonidos domésticos me activan un sensor que rara vez consigo apagar. Algunos me fascinan como la alarma del horno que indica que el pollo está dorado, listo parar servir.
• Hay sonidos como ese que solo algunas personas somos capaces de escuchar. Son los sonidos de la ansiedad. Mi hijo padece una sordera selectiva, igual que su hermana, igual que su padre.
• Believe me: prefiero cuatro millones de refrigeradores mal cerrados que la voz de mi marido o , peor, que el silencio de mi marido.
• ¿No te parece que tu mujer además de una malparida, es una rebuscada de mierda?
Pablo alzó los hombros:
—carezco de recursos neurológicos para saberlo.
• “Quererse y cuidarse” —le había dicho una de esas tardes a su hermana— no siempre van de la mano.
• Asentía a su pregunta y atajaba un bostezo con las dos manos como para que no se escapara nada
• Eso es algo que los latinoamericanos arribistas hacen todo el tiempo: meter palabras o expresiones en inglés en sus conversaciones o, peor, en sus textos.
• —Yo tengo una alumna que hace preguntas —dijo Sarakey—, en general un poco idiotas, pero al menos anota mis respuestas. Pobre.
• La sensación de libertad que produce la transgresión es directamente proporcional al vacío que te queda.
• Pablo sostenía un tarro con las cenizas: estaba nevioso, temía que se le cayera y los restos de su mama terminaran en el piso de esa lancha hedionda a pescado.
• Es obvio que Cindy, como al resto del género humano, disfruta de la desgracia ajena porque la coloca mágicamente en un lugar de superioridad moral: estoy aquí para ayudarte.
• La explicación de Pablo era que una mujer inteligente —como pretendía que fuese su personaje— jamás dejaría a un marido de tantos años. Preferiría una vida desgraciada pero cierta, a lo impredecible de la felicidad.
• Cuando la casa estuvo en silencio, Pablo se recluyó en el estudio. Abrió la carpeta de su novela y luego un archivo llamado “Sobras”. Contenía un listado de frases sueltas que ya no recordaba a cuento de qué había anotado.
• ¿Novios? Nada formal.
¿Polvos? Eventuales
¿Hobbies? El bingo
Ahí, pensó Pablo, en ese vicio ordinario y pequeñito, estaba su felicidad
• Sus papás traen un imán de cada ciudad que visitan, lo que a ella le parece un acto de ostentación tremendamente vulgar. Su vocación por acumular es enfermiza.
• Estaban en un café al que iban antes. Antes de ser padres, antes de ser ellos: gente que piensa en plural.
• La mamá de Pablo la odiaría desde el día uno: empezaría denigrándola con términos solemnes —casquivana—, después subiría el tono de su desprecio —“chocho loco” — y terminaría sacándola de su apartamento , de los pelos, al grito de “perra sucia”.
• —Pensé que podrías hacer una lectura más elevada— dijo Pablo
—La verdad es que me parece cursi.
—Porque a ti todo lo que tenga que ver con la idea de patria te parece cursi.
—Obvio
—¿Obvio?
—La sola mención de la palabra me pone los pelos de punta. ¿Qué es esa mierda? ¿Quién nace con la bandera tatuada en la nuca?
• —Tienes que darle un rasgo distintivo, no puede ser un tipo rico, poderoso y malvado. Es una caricatura.
• —Te lo juro —insiste y se arrepiente. Jurar es rogar.
• Debía entonces llamar a Pablo para recordarle que tenían una cena importante. Luego, ir a la cena. Luego, parecer entusiasmada. Y así, ir tirando un poco todos los días.
June 24, 2020
Lucía and Pablo are Columbian immigrants living in the USA. Although they have a nineteen year relationship, for the duration of this book Lucía is living in Miami with their two children and Pablo is living in New Haven, CT, with a heart problem. It is this heart problem that gives the novel its English title (the Spanish title, Tiempo Muerto, translates as Dead Time), although it does often seem that Pablo has had an actual heart attack rather than a normally transient issue given the name Holiday Heart.
This is a book about the breakdown of a relationship (the Spanish title comes from a place where the book asks whether all they have in common, apart from their children, is “piles of accumulated dead time, which nobody has bothered to clear away.”). The overall structure is interesting: very little actually happens in the novel’s present because the damage has already been done and we see this in the multiple flashbacks or memories, seen from both Lucía’s and Pablo’s perspective. For me, the writing style worked well here: neither of the lead characters is likeable and the sardonic language conveys both their uncongenial natures and the gradually increasing emotional distance between them. You always know whether you are in the book’s present or past because the present is in the present tense and the past is in the past tense! But these different time periods are very tightly intertwined and it feels like there’s a conscious effort on the part of the author to blur past and present: Lucía’s and Pablo’s experiences and memories aren’t separate from their present, but they are living with the consequences very directly and I liked the way the language of the book supports that.
But what most intrigued me about the novel is the stuff that bubbles just under the surface. There’s a surreal element to parts of the story (at one point in a flashback, the family ends up on a beach surrounded by ukulele players!). But there’s also a constant feeling that the book is trying to escape from being the story of a marriage breakdown. There’s an ongoing theme about home and homeland: Lucía thinks that a homeland is something that moves with you but Pablo spends much of the book wrestling with a novel he wants to write set where he grew up and where he clearly feels home still is. This leads on to questions about identity and then to prejudice (class and race). It all gets hinted at, but never quite comes to the fore. And I think I might think the book is stronger for that.
This is a book about the breakdown of a relationship (the Spanish title comes from a place where the book asks whether all they have in common, apart from their children, is “piles of accumulated dead time, which nobody has bothered to clear away.”). The overall structure is interesting: very little actually happens in the novel’s present because the damage has already been done and we see this in the multiple flashbacks or memories, seen from both Lucía’s and Pablo’s perspective. For me, the writing style worked well here: neither of the lead characters is likeable and the sardonic language conveys both their uncongenial natures and the gradually increasing emotional distance between them. You always know whether you are in the book’s present or past because the present is in the present tense and the past is in the past tense! But these different time periods are very tightly intertwined and it feels like there’s a conscious effort on the part of the author to blur past and present: Lucía’s and Pablo’s experiences and memories aren’t separate from their present, but they are living with the consequences very directly and I liked the way the language of the book supports that.
But what most intrigued me about the novel is the stuff that bubbles just under the surface. There’s a surreal element to parts of the story (at one point in a flashback, the family ends up on a beach surrounded by ukulele players!). But there’s also a constant feeling that the book is trying to escape from being the story of a marriage breakdown. There’s an ongoing theme about home and homeland: Lucía thinks that a homeland is something that moves with you but Pablo spends much of the book wrestling with a novel he wants to write set where he grew up and where he clearly feels home still is. This leads on to questions about identity and then to prejudice (class and race). It all gets hinted at, but never quite comes to the fore. And I think I might think the book is stronger for that.
October 10, 2018
Me gustó mucho el manejo del ritmo de la lectura, la creación de la identidad y psicología de los dos personajes principales tan diferentes entre sí. También disfruté el análisis que se hace de la relación de pareja y la forma tan particular que tiene de ver la maternidad Lucía. Señalé muchos de los planteos que se proponen y me dejaron pensando largo rato. Este libro es un gran ejemplo de cómo puede hacerse una gran novela, con personajes creíbles y bien armados a partir de una historia mínima.
June 24, 2020
Unlikeable Characters will Repulse
Review of the Charco Press paperback edition (2020) translated from the Spanish language original Tiempo muerto (Time-Out) (2017)
The unlikeable protagonist is definitely a challenge for a writer. In that sense Robayo sets herself an even greater challenge by having two of them, and then even adding several same-inclined cameo players alongside them. And yet, I kept reading on. Probably in the hopes of some redemption or salvation which never materialized. Overall this was a 1-star “did not like”, but rates a bump up for the attempt and for the writing. The only relief came in the child-caregiver and the daughter as far as I can remember. There was an attempt at a breakout to an idyllic retreat to an isolated beach by the family as a whole in a flashback, which it seemed that the mother attempted to re-create in the climax without the husband being there. Both characters are still left lost and unfulfilled in the end.
I read Holiday Heart as part of the Borderless Book Club which has been organized by Peirene Press and 7 other UK independent publishers for a 16 week period (May 14 to August 20, 2020) during this current world pandemic situation. It is the successor to the earlier Translated Fiction Online Book Club which was organized for 6 weeks.
Trivia and Link
Holiday Heart is an actual real-life cardiac syndrome which is named for a possible reaction to over-indulgence during get-away / vacation experiences.
Review of the Charco Press paperback edition (2020) translated from the Spanish language original Tiempo muerto (Time-Out) (2017)
The unlikeable protagonist is definitely a challenge for a writer. In that sense Robayo sets herself an even greater challenge by having two of them, and then even adding several same-inclined cameo players alongside them. And yet, I kept reading on. Probably in the hopes of some redemption or salvation which never materialized. Overall this was a 1-star “did not like”, but rates a bump up for the attempt and for the writing. The only relief came in the child-caregiver and the daughter as far as I can remember. There was an attempt at a breakout to an idyllic retreat to an isolated beach by the family as a whole in a flashback, which it seemed that the mother attempted to re-create in the climax without the husband being there. Both characters are still left lost and unfulfilled in the end.
I read Holiday Heart as part of the Borderless Book Club which has been organized by Peirene Press and 7 other UK independent publishers for a 16 week period (May 14 to August 20, 2020) during this current world pandemic situation. It is the successor to the earlier Translated Fiction Online Book Club which was organized for 6 weeks.
Trivia and Link
Holiday Heart is an actual real-life cardiac syndrome which is named for a possible reaction to over-indulgence during get-away / vacation experiences.
November 6, 2017
Margarita García Robayo maneja el tiempo en esta novela con tanto cuidado y habilidad que sorprende.
July 27, 2020
A sharply observed and well written but brutally pessimistic novel about the disintegration of a marriage.
July 3, 2020
Absolutely hysterical. SO funny. I loved the depressed, sluggish feeling of this book, and the theme of exhausted marriage. It reminded me of Alvaro Enrigue's "Hypothermia" (in terms of the themes of educated, middle-class Latinos in the US).
May 9, 2019
Una historia cruda, perfectamente posible en la vida conyugal y de como muere el amor.
He de decir que este libro pasó sin mucha pena ni gloria.
He de decir que este libro pasó sin mucha pena ni gloria.
November 21, 2023
This was kinda sad. It’s about a woman, Lucía who finds out her husband, Pablo, has a heart condition but also that he’s been sleeping with other women, and so she takes the children to Miami to be away from the father.
The book jumps around in time to before Lucía found out about Pablo’s infidelity to explore the nature of their relationship and explains why Pablo ended up acting like he did. The whole plot is quite sad as Lucía ruminates on whether they will be able to repair the broken relationship but ultimately realises she’s never seen anyone be able to repair it before.
It’s sad because it shows the really blunt reality of betrayal and how quick and harsh the breakdown of a relationship l can be. The kids in it were really annoying but I felt sorry for them not knowing anything that was happening.
I wasn’t sure whether I enjoyed Robayo’s writing but it’s more the subject matter which I’m finding not as interesting in her books I’ve read so far. From what I know about her third book in English, The Delivery, it’s going to be a lot better so I’m excited to read that one soon.
The book jumps around in time to before Lucía found out about Pablo’s infidelity to explore the nature of their relationship and explains why Pablo ended up acting like he did. The whole plot is quite sad as Lucía ruminates on whether they will be able to repair the broken relationship but ultimately realises she’s never seen anyone be able to repair it before.
It’s sad because it shows the really blunt reality of betrayal and how quick and harsh the breakdown of a relationship l can be. The kids in it were really annoying but I felt sorry for them not knowing anything that was happening.
I wasn’t sure whether I enjoyed Robayo’s writing but it’s more the subject matter which I’m finding not as interesting in her books I’ve read so far. From what I know about her third book in English, The Delivery, it’s going to be a lot better so I’m excited to read that one soon.
November 26, 2020
Holiday Heart is a complex and very much... modern book. And by modern I mean written in a style that I think I notice more and more often in works by young contemporary writers - it contains several strong topics of our modern world (feminism, pros and cons of family life, sexuality and desire, complicated relationships, "you can't have it all", career and intellectualism), but they all seem to be thrown in together in a story that doesn't really have a clear start and a clear end. A story that keeps you going because it feels like it's getting somewhere, but then leaves you hanging with a question mark above your head. As if it's a snapshot of the middle part of what's really going on.
Yes, this book gets you thinking on the above-mentioned strong topics of our modern world:
What makes a family stay together?
If children are supposed to keep two people together, why are they also often responsible for pushing them further apart?
Does becoming successful in your career need to change you in your family?
Does becoming less successful than your partner need to generate tension?
Is cheating on your partner excusable depending on the circumstances?
And while appreciate that we shouldn't always be looking for answers in the books we read, that they are often there to make us think for ourselves, I couldn't help but feel a bit underwhelmed by having so many serious topics raised without at least getting some sort of closure in the story of our main characters that was used to raise the questions in the first place. Not so I could judge whether they're right or wrong, but to get a closure of their story so that I can also draw my own conclusions to these questions.
Yes, this book gets you thinking on the above-mentioned strong topics of our modern world:
What makes a family stay together?
If children are supposed to keep two people together, why are they also often responsible for pushing them further apart?
Does becoming successful in your career need to change you in your family?
Does becoming less successful than your partner need to generate tension?
Is cheating on your partner excusable depending on the circumstances?
And while appreciate that we shouldn't always be looking for answers in the books we read, that they are often there to make us think for ourselves, I couldn't help but feel a bit underwhelmed by having so many serious topics raised without at least getting some sort of closure in the story of our main characters that was used to raise the questions in the first place. Not so I could judge whether they're right or wrong, but to get a closure of their story so that I can also draw my own conclusions to these questions.
October 3, 2023
"And I said
"What do you do with the pieces of a broken heart?
"And how can a man like me remain in the light?"
- M. Ward, Chinese Translation
I couldn't help, unfairly, thinking about a film I watched recently which also meditates on the intimate intricacies of a marriage breaking. Our Time, by the inimitable Carlos Reygadas, overlaps with Robayo's piece in discouraging ways. The film far surpasses this work because although Reygadas is equally willing to expose the dark underbelly of sometimes violent difference between a husband and wife as they suffer irreconcilable drifting, Reygadas is able to apply this drama to many areas of human experience including the artfulness of the very film itself as one views it. It is sprawling and messy but it works very hard to find a catharsis for its characters.
Holiday Heart, which I found irrideemably ugly, makes no such effort. So the novel becomes a wail of frustration for two characters who are very quick to draw general conclusions about People and Society from their personal experience but unwilling to communicate with each other.
I understand that dissonance, exile, and the naturally bigoted myopia that results is a theme for Robayo but without the further examination of these themes nor any attempt to answer the questions she sets out to ask I wonder if the author is really using the entirety of her canvas or if this novel is just a very long short story in disguise.
"What do you do with the pieces of a broken heart?
"And how can a man like me remain in the light?"
- M. Ward, Chinese Translation
I couldn't help, unfairly, thinking about a film I watched recently which also meditates on the intimate intricacies of a marriage breaking. Our Time, by the inimitable Carlos Reygadas, overlaps with Robayo's piece in discouraging ways. The film far surpasses this work because although Reygadas is equally willing to expose the dark underbelly of sometimes violent difference between a husband and wife as they suffer irreconcilable drifting, Reygadas is able to apply this drama to many areas of human experience including the artfulness of the very film itself as one views it. It is sprawling and messy but it works very hard to find a catharsis for its characters.
Holiday Heart, which I found irrideemably ugly, makes no such effort. So the novel becomes a wail of frustration for two characters who are very quick to draw general conclusions about People and Society from their personal experience but unwilling to communicate with each other.
I understand that dissonance, exile, and the naturally bigoted myopia that results is a theme for Robayo but without the further examination of these themes nor any attempt to answer the questions she sets out to ask I wonder if the author is really using the entirety of her canvas or if this novel is just a very long short story in disguise.
November 22, 2017
Es una novela muy corta. Tal vez demasiado, pero a pesar de ser una narración bien llevada hasta cierto punto, parece no haber terminado de contar la historia. Toda la novela es un episodio que se va tejiendo, pero que al final no remata ninguno de los hilos que quedan sueltos.
February 20, 2019
Para mí no solamente es un relato sobre el fin del amor o del matrimonio (razón por la que lo compré y leí), sino sobre la vulgaridad de la vida de la que algunos no pueden escapar y otros ni siquiera saben que habitan.
December 16, 2022
Este libro me dejó un sinsabor algo particular y a este punto creo que era un poco la intención de la escritora. No entendí si muchos de los comentarios que se hacían con respecto las relaciones de género, raza y clase eran a modo de crítica, pero supongo que sí eran intencionales de todas formas. El libro es corto y se lee superrápido. Creo que no recomendaría esta novela, pero sí volvería a leer algo de la autora.
January 16, 2018
Tiempo muerto, la última novela corta de Margarita García Robayo, tiene pocos personajes y la autora logra que todos, en algún momento, nos caigan mal: Pablo, el esposo infiel y pusilánime; Lucía, la esposa fría y dura; los papás de ella, pedorros y ordinarios; Cindy la empleada, llenadora y bullosa; Rosa y Tomás, los hijos... hasta los niños, tan idealizados en toda la literatura, por no decir en toda la historia, aparecen acá como inoportunos, o cansones. Niños que viven pegados a las pantallas para que no estorben.
Cada línea de esta novela parece construida con escalpelo: es precisa en los cortes que produce. No es amable, no es condescendiente, no es dulce. La vida tampoco lo es y en particular las relaciones de pareja pueden llegar a niveles de crueldad inesperados en personas que se supone que son buenas, que se quieren. El matrimonio logra sacar también lo peor de cada cual y de eso se encarga esta novela: de narrar el derrumbe de una relación que viene rota de tiempo atrás.
Es una obra sobre el fin del matrimonio, pero también sobre la inmigración. La protagonizan unos colombianos que viven en New Haven, son vecinos de unos argentinos y Lucía, el eje del relato, parte de vacaciones con sus hijos a Miami en donde la atiende Cindy, una gringa de origen cubano. Toda esa mezcla de desarraigo y adaptación hace parte de la novela.
Así mismo es un relato sobre la maternidad: sobre el quiebre que producen los hijos en una pareja y también en las vidas individuales de los papás. "Estaban en un café al que iban antes. Antes de ser padres, antes de ser ellos: gente que se piensa en plural", escribe la autora en una frase corta, que como todas las del libro, logra condensar en pocas líneas todo el drama de un desgarramiento que se vive con la aparente fortaleza de dos personajes que se niegan a llorar o a reflexionar sobre su fracaso. La vida es así. Punto. La vida tiene que seguir. Punto. Así son los personajes de esta novela contemporánea, que mezcla racismo, clasismo, arribismo y soledad en dosis pequeñas de ironía y sarcasmo, página tras página. Como quien administra veneno.
Ver más en: http://secretodelectura.blogspot.com....
Cada línea de esta novela parece construida con escalpelo: es precisa en los cortes que produce. No es amable, no es condescendiente, no es dulce. La vida tampoco lo es y en particular las relaciones de pareja pueden llegar a niveles de crueldad inesperados en personas que se supone que son buenas, que se quieren. El matrimonio logra sacar también lo peor de cada cual y de eso se encarga esta novela: de narrar el derrumbe de una relación que viene rota de tiempo atrás.
Es una obra sobre el fin del matrimonio, pero también sobre la inmigración. La protagonizan unos colombianos que viven en New Haven, son vecinos de unos argentinos y Lucía, el eje del relato, parte de vacaciones con sus hijos a Miami en donde la atiende Cindy, una gringa de origen cubano. Toda esa mezcla de desarraigo y adaptación hace parte de la novela.
Así mismo es un relato sobre la maternidad: sobre el quiebre que producen los hijos en una pareja y también en las vidas individuales de los papás. "Estaban en un café al que iban antes. Antes de ser padres, antes de ser ellos: gente que se piensa en plural", escribe la autora en una frase corta, que como todas las del libro, logra condensar en pocas líneas todo el drama de un desgarramiento que se vive con la aparente fortaleza de dos personajes que se niegan a llorar o a reflexionar sobre su fracaso. La vida es así. Punto. La vida tiene que seguir. Punto. Así son los personajes de esta novela contemporánea, que mezcla racismo, clasismo, arribismo y soledad en dosis pequeñas de ironía y sarcasmo, página tras página. Como quien administra veneno.
Ver más en: http://secretodelectura.blogspot.com....
February 17, 2023
Me encanta cómo Margarita García Robayo logra traspasar a palabras el tedio y los resentimientos de una relación que se sostiene más en la costumbre que en el amor. Una mirada a la familia y al matrimonio, a lo que hay detrás de la estructura de este modelo tensado al máximo.
March 7, 2018
I stayed up all night reading this! The narrative of this novel alternates between a married couple, Lucia and Pablo, and charters the unravelling of their marriage - bouncing back and forth in time from a fixed present day platform (in which they are appear to be temporarily apart). The concept behind this novel is deceivingly simple but Garcia Robayo exposes the tangled complications within the marriage/family life through flashbacks, scenes, thoughts, ideas that help us understand their present day predictament - it is a also very much a discourse the role that children inflict on marriage. However, this is also a very specific story, about two very vivid and well rounded people (Garcia Robaya's style is economical, she gives us sparing details but they are precise, spot-on and determining). There is fluidity of thought, identity, place in this novel that is so refreshing and innovative - the narrative flows directionless and expansively, digging deep into those dark corners which expose ourselves to ourselves. An absolutely brilliant read!
July 31, 2020
Far more interesting than the breakdown of a marriage (which didn't feel particularly original - and that I think is the point, that all of these stories are similar) was the story of privileged immigrant experience. Not all immigrants are equal, snobbery and racism can be rife - and I think it's quite hard for people to acknowledge that. We need all these different depictions of the immigrant experience.
Full review here: https://findingtimetowrite.wordpress....
Full review here: https://findingtimetowrite.wordpress....
June 10, 2020
I loved Charco's previous book by this author Fish Soup and had high hopes for this one as well, but alas, it was not to be. It is well told but I tire of stories about cheating husbands and bad marriages coming apart.
December 11, 2017
3,75.
Read
February 28, 2018Estuve demasiado distraída durante su lectura.
Sería injusto calificarla.
Pero creo que es bueno.
Sería injusto calificarla.
Pero creo que es bueno.
September 27, 2018
Para resumirlo en tres palabras: banalidad, sinsentido & vulgaridad gratuita.
July 24, 2020
3.5 stars
August 25, 2021
El nombre del libro es perfecto para lo que ocurre a lo largo de esta novela, ver como se lleva a cabo una relación cuando el amor ha muerto, esas que siguen por inercia y costumbre. Para alguien extremadamente romántica como yo llegar a lo que describen en este libro (mas con hijos de por medio) me da pavor, hubo una frase del libro que me quedó sonando mucho:
"Preferiría una vida desgraciada pero cierta, a lo impredecible de la felicidad".
"Preferiría una vida desgraciada pero cierta, a lo impredecible de la felicidad".
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