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Los peones son el alma del juego
«Las horas pasaban como fuera de la realidad, en un espacio habitado por el recuerdo y la locura, donde lo pretérito estaba vivo y los difuntos eran espíritus concupiscentes.»
Un joven de dieciocho años llega a la ciudad de México con la secreta intención de convertirse en poeta. Es el final de la década de los cincuenta. Al poco tiempo, comienza a involucrarse en la intensa vida cultural de la capital. Así, se adentra en un mundo de talleres y tertulias, de complicidades sinceras y envidias aún más hondas, cafés y torneos de ajedrez,de intrigas amorosas, vanidades y -a pesar o por encima de todo- de pasión verdadera por la creación literaria.
El joven habrá de convertirse, efectivamente, en poeta y en uno de los protagonistas de la literatura mexicana del siglo xx. También, circularmente, en el autor de esta novela. Por ella pasan personajes que conoció de cerca, como gente cotidiana en un ambiente cotidiano, no como Juan José Arreola, Juan Rulfo, Octavio Paz, Elena Garro, Amparo Dávila, Gabriel García Márquez, Adolfo Bioy Casares, Philip Lamantia, Francisco Toledo, Luis Buñuel, Nahui Olin, entre muchos otros.
Los peones son el alma del juego , obra que comenzó como un diario secreto, es el vivo retrato del México de una época. Es también una lúdica novela en la que el ajedrez opera como una metáfora de la vida.
ENGLISH DESCRIPTION
“The hours passed as if separate from reality, in a space inhabited by memory and madness, where the past was very much alive and the deceased were sensual spirits.”
An eighteen-year-old young man arrives in Mexico City with the secret intention of becoming a poet. It is the end of the fifties. Before long, he begins to partake and be part of the intense cultural life the capital has to offer. Thus, he enters a world of workshops and gatherings, of genuine camaraderie but with even deeper jealousies, cafes and chess tournaments, love intrigues, vanities and —despite or above all—true passion for literary creation.
That young man would indeed become a poet and one of the protagonists of twentieth-century Mexican literature; and coming full circle, the author of this novel. Characters that he knew closely cross these pages as everyday people in an everyday environment, not as the literary greats they Juan José Arreola, Juan Rulfo, Octavio Paz, Elena Garro, Amparo Dávila, Gabriel García Márquez, Adolfo Bioy Casares, Philip Lamantia, Francisco Toledo, Luis Buñuel, and Nahui Olin, among many others.
The Pawns Are the Soul of the Game, a work that began as his private diary, is the living portrait of Mexico of a past era. It is also a playful novel inwhich chess functions as a metaphor for life.
Un joven de dieciocho años llega a la ciudad de México con la secreta intención de convertirse en poeta. Es el final de la década de los cincuenta. Al poco tiempo, comienza a involucrarse en la intensa vida cultural de la capital. Así, se adentra en un mundo de talleres y tertulias, de complicidades sinceras y envidias aún más hondas, cafés y torneos de ajedrez,de intrigas amorosas, vanidades y -a pesar o por encima de todo- de pasión verdadera por la creación literaria.
El joven habrá de convertirse, efectivamente, en poeta y en uno de los protagonistas de la literatura mexicana del siglo xx. También, circularmente, en el autor de esta novela. Por ella pasan personajes que conoció de cerca, como gente cotidiana en un ambiente cotidiano, no como Juan José Arreola, Juan Rulfo, Octavio Paz, Elena Garro, Amparo Dávila, Gabriel García Márquez, Adolfo Bioy Casares, Philip Lamantia, Francisco Toledo, Luis Buñuel, Nahui Olin, entre muchos otros.
Los peones son el alma del juego , obra que comenzó como un diario secreto, es el vivo retrato del México de una época. Es también una lúdica novela en la que el ajedrez opera como una metáfora de la vida.
ENGLISH DESCRIPTION
“The hours passed as if separate from reality, in a space inhabited by memory and madness, where the past was very much alive and the deceased were sensual spirits.”
An eighteen-year-old young man arrives in Mexico City with the secret intention of becoming a poet. It is the end of the fifties. Before long, he begins to partake and be part of the intense cultural life the capital has to offer. Thus, he enters a world of workshops and gatherings, of genuine camaraderie but with even deeper jealousies, cafes and chess tournaments, love intrigues, vanities and —despite or above all—true passion for literary creation.
That young man would indeed become a poet and one of the protagonists of twentieth-century Mexican literature; and coming full circle, the author of this novel. Characters that he knew closely cross these pages as everyday people in an everyday environment, not as the literary greats they Juan José Arreola, Juan Rulfo, Octavio Paz, Elena Garro, Amparo Dávila, Gabriel García Márquez, Adolfo Bioy Casares, Philip Lamantia, Francisco Toledo, Luis Buñuel, and Nahui Olin, among many others.
The Pawns Are the Soul of the Game, a work that began as his private diary, is the living portrait of Mexico of a past era. It is also a playful novel inwhich chess functions as a metaphor for life.
408 pages, Paperback
Published June 22, 2021
1 person is currently reading
27 people want to read
About the author
Homero Aridjis
110 books64 followersHomero Aridjis, a Mexican writer and diplomat, was born to a Greek father and Mexican mother; he was the youngest of five brothers. As a child, Aridjis would often walk up a hillside near his home to watch the migrating monarch butterflies. As he grew older logging thinned the forest. This and other events in his life caused him to co-found the Grupo de los Cien, the Group of 100, an association of one hundred artists and intellectuals that became heavily involved in trying to draw attention to and solve environmental problems in Mexico.
Aridjis has published 38 books of poetry and prose, many of them translated into a dozen languages. His achievements include: the Xavier Villarrutia Prize for best book of the year for Mirándola dormir, in 1964; the Diana-Novedades Literary Prize for the outstanding novel in Spanish, for Memorias del nuevo mundo, in 1988; and the Premio Grinzane Cavour, for best foreign fiction, in 1992, for the Italian translation of 1492, Vida y tiempos de Juan Cabezón de Castilla.1492 The Life and Times of Juan Cabezon of Castile was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Twice the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Aridjis has taught at Indiana University, New York University and Columbia, and held the Nichols Chair in Humanities and the Public Sphere at the University of California, Irvine. The Orion Society presented him with its John Hay Award for significant achievement in writing that addresses the relationship between people and nature. He received the Prix Roger Caillois in France for his poetry and prose and the Smederevo Golden Key Prize for his poetry. In 2005 the state of Michoacan awarded him the first Erendira State Prize for the Arts. Eyes to See Otherwise: Selected Poems of Homero Aridjis is a wide-ranging bilingual anthology of his poetry.
Excerpted from Wikipedia.
Aridjis has published 38 books of poetry and prose, many of them translated into a dozen languages. His achievements include: the Xavier Villarrutia Prize for best book of the year for Mirándola dormir, in 1964; the Diana-Novedades Literary Prize for the outstanding novel in Spanish, for Memorias del nuevo mundo, in 1988; and the Premio Grinzane Cavour, for best foreign fiction, in 1992, for the Italian translation of 1492, Vida y tiempos de Juan Cabezón de Castilla.1492 The Life and Times of Juan Cabezon of Castile was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Twice the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Aridjis has taught at Indiana University, New York University and Columbia, and held the Nichols Chair in Humanities and the Public Sphere at the University of California, Irvine. The Orion Society presented him with its John Hay Award for significant achievement in writing that addresses the relationship between people and nature. He received the Prix Roger Caillois in France for his poetry and prose and the Smederevo Golden Key Prize for his poetry. In 2005 the state of Michoacan awarded him the first Erendira State Prize for the Arts. Eyes to See Otherwise: Selected Poems of Homero Aridjis is a wide-ranging bilingual anthology of his poetry.
Excerpted from Wikipedia.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 30, 2023
Aug 29, 3pm ~~ Review asap.
645pm ~~ I apologize for writing my review of this Spanish language book in English. I probably could manage a review in Spanish, but I am still too shy to try.
My husband Marco and I talk on the phone everyday and three days a week I read from whatever book is the current one in our Zapata Reading Club. I had picked the previous book, one by the same author, titled La Montana De Las Mariposas. When we finished that one and it was Marco's turn to pick, he chose this book so that we could stay a little bit longer in the world according to Homero Aridjis.
The butterfly book talked about the author's childhood. This one described the life of a young poet in Mexico City, striving to make a career for himself in the world of literature and the arts. All of the people in it were well known in that world: the author explains in a short foreword that all of the events were either witnessed by him or told to him by the people who were involved.
We follow a young poet named Alex as he explores his new world. We hang out with him at the Cafe Tirol, walk the streets of Mexico City with him and his friends while they discuss oh, so many topics. We go to parties and wonder at the life lived by the creative people around him, wonder if we really fit into that world.
Alex plays chess, writes poems, observes the world around him, and presents that world with sometimes a sensation of sharing gossip and other times with a poet's wisdom. Marco and I both enjoyed the book very much. Of course, having grown up in Mexico City, Marco was familiar with all of the locations mentioned and most of the people. He said the book showed him a new layer of history, shining a light on various topics from his youth that he had not completely understood at the time.
I have collected a few book titles and also a couple of movies by some of the people mentioned in these pages. Reading the book was like peeking through a window into a new world. Naturally you wonder about the scenery and want to explore more than the small view you are given in the window frame.
Some of the people I would not care to know more about, though. As a matter of fact, I had the autobiography of one woman who had been married to a famous poet during that time. But she was such a stinker in these pages that I had more than enough of her without reading any more and I have already put her book into my giveaway boxes. Thanks for keeping me from wasting time with that one, Mr. Aridjis!
I thought most of the people were interesting, all of them a little bit crazy (I think that comes hand in hand with the creativity) and I liked how the author kept slipping in a few characters that had also been in the butterfly book, like the three blind singers that kept popping up every so often. Surely they were the same ones from the earlier book? Another favorite of mine was the supposed Russian spy who floated in and out of the story. Who was he really? Or perhaps more to the point, who had he been before seeking anonymity in Mexico?
This was a wonderful book, and I want to say thank you to Homero Aridjis for sharing it with us. I have a collection of the author's poetry from more or less the same time frame as the events in this book. I wonder if I will see connections? I will have to jump in soon and find out!
645pm ~~ I apologize for writing my review of this Spanish language book in English. I probably could manage a review in Spanish, but I am still too shy to try.
My husband Marco and I talk on the phone everyday and three days a week I read from whatever book is the current one in our Zapata Reading Club. I had picked the previous book, one by the same author, titled La Montana De Las Mariposas. When we finished that one and it was Marco's turn to pick, he chose this book so that we could stay a little bit longer in the world according to Homero Aridjis.
The butterfly book talked about the author's childhood. This one described the life of a young poet in Mexico City, striving to make a career for himself in the world of literature and the arts. All of the people in it were well known in that world: the author explains in a short foreword that all of the events were either witnessed by him or told to him by the people who were involved.
We follow a young poet named Alex as he explores his new world. We hang out with him at the Cafe Tirol, walk the streets of Mexico City with him and his friends while they discuss oh, so many topics. We go to parties and wonder at the life lived by the creative people around him, wonder if we really fit into that world.
Alex plays chess, writes poems, observes the world around him, and presents that world with sometimes a sensation of sharing gossip and other times with a poet's wisdom. Marco and I both enjoyed the book very much. Of course, having grown up in Mexico City, Marco was familiar with all of the locations mentioned and most of the people. He said the book showed him a new layer of history, shining a light on various topics from his youth that he had not completely understood at the time.
I have collected a few book titles and also a couple of movies by some of the people mentioned in these pages. Reading the book was like peeking through a window into a new world. Naturally you wonder about the scenery and want to explore more than the small view you are given in the window frame.
Some of the people I would not care to know more about, though. As a matter of fact, I had the autobiography of one woman who had been married to a famous poet during that time. But she was such a stinker in these pages that I had more than enough of her without reading any more and I have already put her book into my giveaway boxes. Thanks for keeping me from wasting time with that one, Mr. Aridjis!
I thought most of the people were interesting, all of them a little bit crazy (I think that comes hand in hand with the creativity) and I liked how the author kept slipping in a few characters that had also been in the butterfly book, like the three blind singers that kept popping up every so often. Surely they were the same ones from the earlier book? Another favorite of mine was the supposed Russian spy who floated in and out of the story. Who was he really? Or perhaps more to the point, who had he been before seeking anonymity in Mexico?
This was a wonderful book, and I want to say thank you to Homero Aridjis for sharing it with us. I have a collection of the author's poetry from more or less the same time frame as the events in this book. I wonder if I will see connections? I will have to jump in soon and find out!
February 5, 2022
Brilliant. I learned so much about Mexico City in the 60s. And the inner life of a young poet. I hope this novel will come out in English soon so I can give it to my husband and friends to read!
December 11, 2023
Pretencioso, snob, mamerto, pseudo-bohemio, y lo peor de todo aburrido. Esta colección de cuentitos de barrio sucio y copas de vino barato no es del interés de nadie. Busca enaltecer a la podredumbre de la ciudad de México con diálogos poéticos, listados de cantinas y aspirantes a poetas, pero termina siendo en realidad un desfile de prostitutas y ebrios orinados con nombres que tal vez habrás visto (o no) en alguna librería.
El autor confunde el patetismo con la identidad de cada personaje, o insiste tanto en la mediocridad del marihuano que no hay cómo poner cara de nada cuando se describe algo, o sentir empatía si alguno de ellos se va o se muere; todos olvidables, hablan de concursos literarios, chismes de café, alcohol y drogas; por un rato entretiene como entretienen las diapositivas de tu prima whitexican que fue de visita al DF y se tomó una foto con el gremillo de letrosos que le escriben sonetos a las prostitutas, pero ya para la página 150 lo único que quiere el lector es que alguien se bañe o se calle la boca. No es necesario chutarse las horas de lectura que este mamarracho de libro solicita para atestiguar a un limosnero tropezando por la calle quién sabe cuál rumbo a la fonda quién sabe qué.
La contraportada promete al ajedrez como una metáfora de la vida, dice ser el retrato de la literatura mexicana del siglo xx, en realidad es un chorrazo de agua estancada y apestosa a la que el capitalino está bien acostumbrado, y como no es mi caso, ni tampoco me interesa mucho saber a qué huele el excusado de José Arreola, terminé apurando las hojas buscando pasajes sueltos que hablen de ajedrez o de algo medianamente interesante. Encontré un par de páginas sueltas por ahí, y arrojé el libro que con sus 400 páginas cargadas de condones usados y pedantería me hizo recordar por qué me caen tan mal los escritoruchos de pipa y respuestas en nonasílabos.
El autor confunde el patetismo con la identidad de cada personaje, o insiste tanto en la mediocridad del marihuano que no hay cómo poner cara de nada cuando se describe algo, o sentir empatía si alguno de ellos se va o se muere; todos olvidables, hablan de concursos literarios, chismes de café, alcohol y drogas; por un rato entretiene como entretienen las diapositivas de tu prima whitexican que fue de visita al DF y se tomó una foto con el gremillo de letrosos que le escriben sonetos a las prostitutas, pero ya para la página 150 lo único que quiere el lector es que alguien se bañe o se calle la boca. No es necesario chutarse las horas de lectura que este mamarracho de libro solicita para atestiguar a un limosnero tropezando por la calle quién sabe cuál rumbo a la fonda quién sabe qué.
La contraportada promete al ajedrez como una metáfora de la vida, dice ser el retrato de la literatura mexicana del siglo xx, en realidad es un chorrazo de agua estancada y apestosa a la que el capitalino está bien acostumbrado, y como no es mi caso, ni tampoco me interesa mucho saber a qué huele el excusado de José Arreola, terminé apurando las hojas buscando pasajes sueltos que hablen de ajedrez o de algo medianamente interesante. Encontré un par de páginas sueltas por ahí, y arrojé el libro que con sus 400 páginas cargadas de condones usados y pedantería me hizo recordar por qué me caen tan mal los escritoruchos de pipa y respuestas en nonasílabos.
July 6, 2023
Mexico #12
How often do you read those blurbs on the back of a book? They are by some famous author or person that say how wonderful is the author or the book. I rarely do this until I finish the book. For some strange reason, as I passed the halfway point I took a look.
It was a long list: Octavio Paz, Carlos Fuentes, Luis Buñuel, Juan José Arreola, André Pieyre de Mandriargues and Alejandro Jodorowsky. All are associated with Mexican culture in the latter half of the twentieth century. “Good company,” I thought.
Wait a minute, all of them are characters in the book. Plus of them have praised Homero Aridjis over his long career (Aridjis is 83). Even stranger, all but the French film director Jodorowsky are dead. What is going on here?
Mexico City in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Eighteen year old Alex gets a scholarship and moves to the big city.* He is a chess fanatic and a wanna be poet. He plays chess for money and buys books with his wins. Now if you have read Alejando Zambra’s Chilean Poet or Roberto Bolaño’s Savage Detectives you will say “Doesn’t everyone who moves to a big city want to be a poet?”
Alex hangs out at the Mexican Writers Center and starts to meet writers. First it’s Juan José Arreola, then Juan Rulfo. Yes, of Pedro Páramo fame. Then he meets people who know people in the arts, lovers or whoever. Everyone knows someone. We meet or hear about Octavio Paz, Elena Garro, Leonora Carrington, Carlos Fuentes, Nahui Olin, Pita Amor, even Gabriel García Márquez. The list is a long one.
And there is no shortage of criticism. For example: “The Mexican writers are so bad, only they are resentful, dishonest and maligned. They eat their finger nails, living in a Platonic cave of envy of foreign writers.” If the male Mexican writers are bad, the women, some are lovers, some are writers or artists, some are muses and, well dare I say it, are also “bad” which make their male counterparts even worse. Bad, badder, and badass, one might say. I know where this is going?
Shall we call the book a homage to a feisty time in Mexican history. Feisty? That is a good word. The Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros is in jail, the Mexican president calls out the troops to quell the problems on the street, the beat poets have descended from San Francisco, women have discovered the mini skirt and independence, marijuana, jazz and being cool is the buzz. Getting a coffee at Sanborns is a ritual rite to going somewhere (especially if you are a poet wanna be). Russian spies have infiltrated the coffee shops. And feral cats are everywhere.
Our young hero Alex gets in with the right crowd. Parties all day long. Romance is in the air, how could it not be, and then it isn’t. It’s tales of gossip and hard luck stories. Alex’s father pays him a visit and asks, how is it going? Well I do some poetry but the money is non existent. A good laugh one might say. Throughout the book, I keep wondering what does Alex do for money?
Five years go by and then he meets his girl of his dreams. An American from New York. The ending? It’s a kind of homage to Pedro Páramo. It’s beautiful. It’s surreal. It’s magical.
But one motif kept surfacing. Sombras. Shadows. Shadows cast by the light at noon, in the late evening, even in the bright light of an apartment. Shadows shimmer and fade to black. “When you turn off the light the shadows disappear.” And the shadows cast by thousands of butterflies. It’s surreal almost magical.
I will leave you with a poem from the book,
Golden light at Tehuantepec
men in shadows
against shadows
and solitudes in green phospher
the yellow stones in the air
Fire
Yep, a pretty damn good but strange read. Possibly a 4.5 rating.
*After posting the review I checked out Aridjis online. In 1959, when Aridjis was 19 years old, he won a Rockefeller scholarship for poetry and moved to Mexico City. Our Alex is based on Aridjis’s own story and yes, he did meet all those writers. I am impressed.
How often do you read those blurbs on the back of a book? They are by some famous author or person that say how wonderful is the author or the book. I rarely do this until I finish the book. For some strange reason, as I passed the halfway point I took a look.
It was a long list: Octavio Paz, Carlos Fuentes, Luis Buñuel, Juan José Arreola, André Pieyre de Mandriargues and Alejandro Jodorowsky. All are associated with Mexican culture in the latter half of the twentieth century. “Good company,” I thought.
Wait a minute, all of them are characters in the book. Plus of them have praised Homero Aridjis over his long career (Aridjis is 83). Even stranger, all but the French film director Jodorowsky are dead. What is going on here?
Mexico City in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Eighteen year old Alex gets a scholarship and moves to the big city.* He is a chess fanatic and a wanna be poet. He plays chess for money and buys books with his wins. Now if you have read Alejando Zambra’s Chilean Poet or Roberto Bolaño’s Savage Detectives you will say “Doesn’t everyone who moves to a big city want to be a poet?”
Alex hangs out at the Mexican Writers Center and starts to meet writers. First it’s Juan José Arreola, then Juan Rulfo. Yes, of Pedro Páramo fame. Then he meets people who know people in the arts, lovers or whoever. Everyone knows someone. We meet or hear about Octavio Paz, Elena Garro, Leonora Carrington, Carlos Fuentes, Nahui Olin, Pita Amor, even Gabriel García Márquez. The list is a long one.
And there is no shortage of criticism. For example: “The Mexican writers are so bad, only they are resentful, dishonest and maligned. They eat their finger nails, living in a Platonic cave of envy of foreign writers.” If the male Mexican writers are bad, the women, some are lovers, some are writers or artists, some are muses and, well dare I say it, are also “bad” which make their male counterparts even worse. Bad, badder, and badass, one might say. I know where this is going?
Shall we call the book a homage to a feisty time in Mexican history. Feisty? That is a good word. The Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros is in jail, the Mexican president calls out the troops to quell the problems on the street, the beat poets have descended from San Francisco, women have discovered the mini skirt and independence, marijuana, jazz and being cool is the buzz. Getting a coffee at Sanborns is a ritual rite to going somewhere (especially if you are a poet wanna be). Russian spies have infiltrated the coffee shops. And feral cats are everywhere.
Our young hero Alex gets in with the right crowd. Parties all day long. Romance is in the air, how could it not be, and then it isn’t. It’s tales of gossip and hard luck stories. Alex’s father pays him a visit and asks, how is it going? Well I do some poetry but the money is non existent. A good laugh one might say. Throughout the book, I keep wondering what does Alex do for money?
Five years go by and then he meets his girl of his dreams. An American from New York. The ending? It’s a kind of homage to Pedro Páramo. It’s beautiful. It’s surreal. It’s magical.
But one motif kept surfacing. Sombras. Shadows. Shadows cast by the light at noon, in the late evening, even in the bright light of an apartment. Shadows shimmer and fade to black. “When you turn off the light the shadows disappear.” And the shadows cast by thousands of butterflies. It’s surreal almost magical.
I will leave you with a poem from the book,
Golden light at Tehuantepec
men in shadows
against shadows
and solitudes in green phospher
the yellow stones in the air
Fire
Yep, a pretty damn good but strange read. Possibly a 4.5 rating.
*After posting the review I checked out Aridjis online. In 1959, when Aridjis was 19 years old, he won a Rockefeller scholarship for poetry and moved to Mexico City. Our Alex is based on Aridjis’s own story and yes, he did meet all those writers. I am impressed.
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