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No será la Tierra
En el vértigo de la historia, tres mujeres entrecruzan sus destinos.
La bióloga soviética Irina Gránina contempla el derrumbe del comunismo y, con él, la rebeldía de su hija Oksana, primera víctima del triunfo del capitalismo. En el otro extremo del mundo, Jennifer Moore, funcionaria del Fondo Monetario Internacional, lucha con su ambicioso marido y con su hermana Allison, su exacto reverso, activista contra la globalización. Por último, Éva Halász, genio de la informática, se empeña en descubrir los secretos de la inteligencia, siempre torturada por sus cambios de ánimo y sus múltiples y cada vez más celosos amantes.
No será la Tierra narra las grandes transformaciones de nuestro tiempo: la caída del Muro de Berlín, el golpe de Estado contra Gorbachov y el ascenso de Yeltsin, la guerra bacteriológica y el Proyecto Genoma Humano. Relato científico, fábula detectivesca, suma de géneros, esta novela de Jorge Volpi es una fascinante exploración de la avaricia que mueve al ser humano a la vez que un despiadado examen de la pasión y el egoísmo que dominan a nuestra especie.
La bióloga soviética Irina Gránina contempla el derrumbe del comunismo y, con él, la rebeldía de su hija Oksana, primera víctima del triunfo del capitalismo. En el otro extremo del mundo, Jennifer Moore, funcionaria del Fondo Monetario Internacional, lucha con su ambicioso marido y con su hermana Allison, su exacto reverso, activista contra la globalización. Por último, Éva Halász, genio de la informática, se empeña en descubrir los secretos de la inteligencia, siempre torturada por sus cambios de ánimo y sus múltiples y cada vez más celosos amantes.
No será la Tierra narra las grandes transformaciones de nuestro tiempo: la caída del Muro de Berlín, el golpe de Estado contra Gorbachov y el ascenso de Yeltsin, la guerra bacteriológica y el Proyecto Genoma Humano. Relato científico, fábula detectivesca, suma de géneros, esta novela de Jorge Volpi es una fascinante exploración de la avaricia que mueve al ser humano a la vez que un despiadado examen de la pasión y el egoísmo que dominan a nuestra especie.
528 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
21 people are currently reading
621 people want to read
About the author
Jorge Volpi
87 books324 followersJorge Volpi (México, 1968) Es licenciado en Derecho y maestro en Letras Mexicanas por la unam y doctor en Filología Hispánica por la Universidad de Salamanca.
Es autor de las novelas A pesar del oscuro silencio (Joaquín Mortiz, 1992; Planeta, 2000), Días de ira, en el volumen Tres bosquejos del mal (Siglo XXI, 1994; Muchnik Editores, 2000), La paz de los sepulcros (Aldus, 1995; Seix Barral, 2007), El temperamento melancólico (Nueva Imagen, 1996; Seix Barral, 2004) Sanar tu piel amarga (Nueva Imagen, 1997; Algaida, 2004) y El juego del Apocalipsis (DeBolsillo, 2000) y de los ensayos La imaginación y el poder. Una historia intelectual de 1968 (Editorial Era, 1998) y La guerra y las palabras. Una historia del alzamiento zapatista (Editorial Era en México y Seix Barral en España, 2004).
En 1999 obtuvo el Premio Biblioteca Breve por su novela En busca de Klingsor (Seix Barral, 1999), con la cual inició una "Trilogía del siglo xx", y de la cual se han publicado ediciones en veintisiete idiomas y más de treinta países. En 2004 publicó la segunda parte de la trilogía, El fin de la locura (Seix Barral) y en 2006 la última parte, No será la Tierra (Alfaguara).
Ha sido profesor en las Universidades de Emory, Cornell y Las Américas de Puebla y ha dado conferencias numerosas instituciones educativas en México, Europa, América Latina y Asia. Fue miembro del Sistema Nacional de Creadores de México y becario de la Fundación John S. Guggenheim. Actualmente es director del Canal 22, televisión cultural del Estado mexicano.
Es autor de las novelas A pesar del oscuro silencio (Joaquín Mortiz, 1992; Planeta, 2000), Días de ira, en el volumen Tres bosquejos del mal (Siglo XXI, 1994; Muchnik Editores, 2000), La paz de los sepulcros (Aldus, 1995; Seix Barral, 2007), El temperamento melancólico (Nueva Imagen, 1996; Seix Barral, 2004) Sanar tu piel amarga (Nueva Imagen, 1997; Algaida, 2004) y El juego del Apocalipsis (DeBolsillo, 2000) y de los ensayos La imaginación y el poder. Una historia intelectual de 1968 (Editorial Era, 1998) y La guerra y las palabras. Una historia del alzamiento zapatista (Editorial Era en México y Seix Barral en España, 2004).
En 1999 obtuvo el Premio Biblioteca Breve por su novela En busca de Klingsor (Seix Barral, 1999), con la cual inició una "Trilogía del siglo xx", y de la cual se han publicado ediciones en veintisiete idiomas y más de treinta países. En 2004 publicó la segunda parte de la trilogía, El fin de la locura (Seix Barral) y en 2006 la última parte, No será la Tierra (Alfaguara).
Ha sido profesor en las Universidades de Emory, Cornell y Las Américas de Puebla y ha dado conferencias numerosas instituciones educativas en México, Europa, América Latina y Asia. Fue miembro del Sistema Nacional de Creadores de México y becario de la Fundación John S. Guggenheim. Actualmente es director del Canal 22, televisión cultural del Estado mexicano.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
July 20, 2015
DISCLAIMER: I am the publisher of the book and thus spent approximately two years reading and editing and working on it. So take my review with a grain of salt, or the understanding that I am deeply invested in this text and know it quite well. Also, I would really appreciate it if you would purchase this book, since it would benefit Open Letter directly.
September 28, 2013
Boasting such promise, Season of Ash crashed inert, leaving nary a sound in my frustrated forest. It is admitted that I wanted to kick a tree or simply throw this novel out into the street. I didn't. I do have values. These standards are routinely tested by violation. Don't worry, there's always remorse. The novel links Chernobyl, the IMF and astrophysics in a mediocre tapestry fraught with every suspense cliche availible this side of Breaking Bad.
I dare say avoid this.
I dare say avoid this.
February 28, 2010
The strange thing about this book is that I finished it. This book is concrete proof that writing about important and heartbreaking subjects does not in itself make a book important and heartbreaking.
All of the drama in the book comes from the inherent drama and tragedy of the last 70 years of history -- the highs and lows of Stalinism, Chernobyl, the fall of the Wall, AIDS, eco-terrorism, Wall Street's various booms and busts, the Martha Stewart trial are all there -- but the overall effect is very much like reading the Wikipedia entries for these events: Dry, detail filled, occasionally inaccurate and more than a little tendentious.
Volpi's characters (unlike the historical events they live through) are totally unreal, cardboard cutouts manipulated for his schematic ends at best, laughably improbable and unlifelike at worst. Nearly all are hateful, which makes for a long slog through their various ups and downs. To take only the character I felt most qualified to assess from a personal perspective, Jennifer, the IMF economist depicted as a shrewish unstable control freak, came across as so demented, unlikeable and unable to play well with others that it was unfathomable that she had reached the pinnacle of success as an economist in an era ( beginning late 60s, early 70s) when a woman would have had to be "twice as good" to have had even a fraction of the success Jennifer is meant to have had. (Interestingly, despite the emphasis on historical detail, neither Jennifer nor Eva, a computer scientist prodigy who enters MIT as a teenager in the early 70s, ever confronts any gender related obstacles to a brilliant career. Indeed, any historical or social realism in this regard is simply dispensed with at the outset -- Jennifer attends Harvard in 1963, a full 10 years before such a thing would have been possible). Knowing how unrealistically Jennifer, her equally unlikeable venture capital husband and the moneyed NY/Washington milieu in which they lived were depicted, it became very hard to put any stock in the portrayals of the more exotic Soviet characters. One suspects that they are equally one-dimensional and divorced from any real emotional context. The characters are clearly only mouthpieces for Volpi's history -- but it's hard to get through a book without caring about, or for, anyone.
The writing (or translating) or both was atrocious. The use of Iliad-like epithets to describe people and places (Gorbachev, shepherd of men, Washington DC, axis of the cosmos, Brezhnev, the cunning mummy) over and over again is at first distracting, then annoying and finally comic in its clumsiness and repitition. If I had a dollar for everytime someone "fell upon [someone else's:] sex" in this novel, I'd be a rich woman. First of all, "sex"? These body parts have names, and those names have been in common use in literature for most of a century now. Second of all, it breaks up any flow the novel might have to hear Yeltsin described as "he of strong arms" for the literally 100th time. Nothing is shown in this novel, everything is told, without regard to formal or dramatic niceties.
Finally, and it's a minor point when everything else is wrong, but the printed translation is full of distracting typos. I get saving money, but a little proofreading never hurt. There are also internal consistency errors -- Jennifer's father is born in 1895 on one page, and 1905, the next, a character is born in Berlin, and later in Turkey, etc. I really wish editors would catch these things -- I always do.
I read this book shortly after reading Sepherad, an equally sweeping book that takes in the tragedies of the 20th century and beyond. The contrast between the two could not be sharper, however. Sepharad adds emotional depth and personal insight to these events, bringing them home, raising important questions about loss, identity, love, place etc., and the reader is forced to think and grieve in new ways. Season of Ash is like spending a few days with the Google News headlines of the 20th century -- overwhelming, dry, numbing, and as a result, ultimately inconsequential.
All of the drama in the book comes from the inherent drama and tragedy of the last 70 years of history -- the highs and lows of Stalinism, Chernobyl, the fall of the Wall, AIDS, eco-terrorism, Wall Street's various booms and busts, the Martha Stewart trial are all there -- but the overall effect is very much like reading the Wikipedia entries for these events: Dry, detail filled, occasionally inaccurate and more than a little tendentious.
Volpi's characters (unlike the historical events they live through) are totally unreal, cardboard cutouts manipulated for his schematic ends at best, laughably improbable and unlifelike at worst. Nearly all are hateful, which makes for a long slog through their various ups and downs. To take only the character I felt most qualified to assess from a personal perspective, Jennifer, the IMF economist depicted as a shrewish unstable control freak, came across as so demented, unlikeable and unable to play well with others that it was unfathomable that she had reached the pinnacle of success as an economist in an era ( beginning late 60s, early 70s) when a woman would have had to be "twice as good" to have had even a fraction of the success Jennifer is meant to have had. (Interestingly, despite the emphasis on historical detail, neither Jennifer nor Eva, a computer scientist prodigy who enters MIT as a teenager in the early 70s, ever confronts any gender related obstacles to a brilliant career. Indeed, any historical or social realism in this regard is simply dispensed with at the outset -- Jennifer attends Harvard in 1963, a full 10 years before such a thing would have been possible). Knowing how unrealistically Jennifer, her equally unlikeable venture capital husband and the moneyed NY/Washington milieu in which they lived were depicted, it became very hard to put any stock in the portrayals of the more exotic Soviet characters. One suspects that they are equally one-dimensional and divorced from any real emotional context. The characters are clearly only mouthpieces for Volpi's history -- but it's hard to get through a book without caring about, or for, anyone.
The writing (or translating) or both was atrocious. The use of Iliad-like epithets to describe people and places (Gorbachev, shepherd of men, Washington DC, axis of the cosmos, Brezhnev, the cunning mummy) over and over again is at first distracting, then annoying and finally comic in its clumsiness and repitition. If I had a dollar for everytime someone "fell upon [someone else's:] sex" in this novel, I'd be a rich woman. First of all, "sex"? These body parts have names, and those names have been in common use in literature for most of a century now. Second of all, it breaks up any flow the novel might have to hear Yeltsin described as "he of strong arms" for the literally 100th time. Nothing is shown in this novel, everything is told, without regard to formal or dramatic niceties.
Finally, and it's a minor point when everything else is wrong, but the printed translation is full of distracting typos. I get saving money, but a little proofreading never hurt. There are also internal consistency errors -- Jennifer's father is born in 1895 on one page, and 1905, the next, a character is born in Berlin, and later in Turkey, etc. I really wish editors would catch these things -- I always do.
I read this book shortly after reading Sepherad, an equally sweeping book that takes in the tragedies of the 20th century and beyond. The contrast between the two could not be sharper, however. Sepharad adds emotional depth and personal insight to these events, bringing them home, raising important questions about loss, identity, love, place etc., and the reader is forced to think and grieve in new ways. Season of Ash is like spending a few days with the Google News headlines of the 20th century -- overwhelming, dry, numbing, and as a result, ultimately inconsequential.
July 12, 2015
I read this book because it was on an NPR list of best foreign fiction of 2009. The author is Mexican and founded a literary group that is attempting to move Mexican literature beyond the bounds of magical realism. This book follows several characters: mostly scientists, economists, and business types with a few dissidents and poets thrown in the mix. It takes place almost everywhere: Moscow, Zaire, the West Bank, Germany, Boston...to name a few. The characters seem to become somehow involved in every major event in the late 20th century. The book talks about Chernobyl, Israeli occupation of the West Bank, the WTO protests in Seattle, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the mapping of the human genome, etc. (A reviewer from the New York Times aptly wrote the book could have been called "We Didn't Start the Fire- A Novel.")
Overall, it was just too much. It had a lot of potential, but there was just too much going on. None of the characters were all that likable or memorable, which is odd, given the amount of time dedicated to characterization. Some of the historical context was interesting, but it never seemed fully developed. One of the characters works for the IMF, first in Mobutu's Zaire and then in post-communist Russia. The process of trying to privatize Russia's economy after years of communism is fascinating, but it was too complicated for me to sort through in the book.
I really wanted to like this book, but sadly, it just never pannned out.
Overall, it was just too much. It had a lot of potential, but there was just too much going on. None of the characters were all that likable or memorable, which is odd, given the amount of time dedicated to characterization. Some of the historical context was interesting, but it never seemed fully developed. One of the characters works for the IMF, first in Mobutu's Zaire and then in post-communist Russia. The process of trying to privatize Russia's economy after years of communism is fascinating, but it was too complicated for me to sort through in the book.
I really wanted to like this book, but sadly, it just never pannned out.
July 12, 2010
Striking, striving novel attempting to tell the story of the USSR in the latter half of the 20th century and throwing a little science (genome-hunting) in for good measure. Written by a mexican, writing as a russian journalist. Meta bordering on gimmick, but it avoids preciousness or over-cleverness by the sheer scope and density of the story. The characters are not overly developed, but neither are they archetypes, exactly--they are players on a larger stage, and they give skin to history, which makes the weight of it slightly more manageable. I liked it quite a bit, which sets me apart from most of the other reviews here. Oh well. Certainly not light reading, by any stretch of the imagination, but if you enjoy your fiction with a healthy dose of history, it's rewarding.
March 20, 2016
This was one hell of a good read. Spanning most of the 20th century, focusing on the US financial industry and general Soviet history, the book follows three families through the majority of the major events of the century. Sweeping in scope, it also deeply focused on the characters themselves, and balances intimate intertwined relationships with a broad view of a century's worth of history.
The book doesn't do anything flashy, it just tells a solid and complex story, with high quality prose and well fleshed out characters. Well worth checking out.
(I know it's biased of me, but I never for a moment thought this book - with its "Translated from the Spanish by [...]" on the front cover - would deal extensively with the day to day of soviet life.)
The book doesn't do anything flashy, it just tells a solid and complex story, with high quality prose and well fleshed out characters. Well worth checking out.
(I know it's biased of me, but I never for a moment thought this book - with its "Translated from the Spanish by [...]" on the front cover - would deal extensively with the day to day of soviet life.)
October 22, 2017
Una mezcla de historias de varias partes del mundo que se entrelazan; mostrando la miseria humana ligada al capitalismo en el mundo. Partiendo de la entrada de la URSS al libre comercio y la caída del muro hasta la resolución del genoma humano.
Le falta algo para terminar de enganchar al lector. Pero nos permite ver la vida cotidiana de las personas que estuvieron presentes en los últimos momentos críticos del mundo en el siglo XX.
Le falta algo para terminar de enganchar al lector. Pero nos permite ver la vida cotidiana de las personas que estuvieron presentes en los últimos momentos críticos del mundo en el siglo XX.
April 4, 2021
3/5 El capitalismo que tanto deseábamos. Primero un capitalista exitoso le arranca sus ahorros a la gente y luego la policía muele a palos a quienes protestan.
Debo decir que al terminar el libro (lo que a propósito me costó una eternidad) quede con un sentimiento profundo de desasosiego ya que tenía la triste percepción de haber perdido mi tiempo, en un inicio se me dificulto demasiado avanzar con la lectura, me irritaba de sobre manera el hecho de que se estuviese narrando algún acontecimiento histórico o las vivencias de algún personaje y de repente sin ningún tipo de hilo conductor o afinidad con la historia se saltara a otro personaje o hecho sin más, a veces ni siquiera de un párrafo a otro sino también de un renglón a otro. Además está el hecho de que la narración en todo el libro es continua, y no se hace distinción en las conversaciones que tienen los personajes ignorando por completo las reglas gramaticales, lo que a pesar de que se pueda atribuir al estilo literario del autor, en realidad entorpece y ralentiza la lectura. El último fallo en mi opinión es la cantidad tan grande de personajes, algunos con nombres imposibles que aparecen una vez y después se olvidan. Aunque debo admitir que la segunda y tercer parte fueron un poco más dinámicas pero de todas formas no lo suficiente como para engancharme a la historia y había momentos en los que de hecho tenía que leer en voz alta para comprender lo que estaba sucediendo.
Entonces después de todo esto por qué no le di una puntuación más baja, la verdad es que después de varios días de reflexión me di cuenta de que a pesar de todas mis críticas el libro me movió y no me dejo igual que antes de leerlo, y la muestra está en todas las páginas de anotaciones sobre datos curiosos, frases o acontecimientos que me gustaron en el momento de la lectura. Por otra parte también considere el hecho de que el libro para mi fuese muy enredado puesto que no tenía claros los hechos históricos de la guerra fría lo cual claramente no es culpa del autor, pero me motivo a buscar información adicional y a educarme mucho más al respecto lo que por supuesto es muy bueno. En fin no es un libro que releería pero no me disgusto del todo. Eso si el final me pareció súper flojo.
Debo decir que al terminar el libro (lo que a propósito me costó una eternidad) quede con un sentimiento profundo de desasosiego ya que tenía la triste percepción de haber perdido mi tiempo, en un inicio se me dificulto demasiado avanzar con la lectura, me irritaba de sobre manera el hecho de que se estuviese narrando algún acontecimiento histórico o las vivencias de algún personaje y de repente sin ningún tipo de hilo conductor o afinidad con la historia se saltara a otro personaje o hecho sin más, a veces ni siquiera de un párrafo a otro sino también de un renglón a otro. Además está el hecho de que la narración en todo el libro es continua, y no se hace distinción en las conversaciones que tienen los personajes ignorando por completo las reglas gramaticales, lo que a pesar de que se pueda atribuir al estilo literario del autor, en realidad entorpece y ralentiza la lectura. El último fallo en mi opinión es la cantidad tan grande de personajes, algunos con nombres imposibles que aparecen una vez y después se olvidan. Aunque debo admitir que la segunda y tercer parte fueron un poco más dinámicas pero de todas formas no lo suficiente como para engancharme a la historia y había momentos en los que de hecho tenía que leer en voz alta para comprender lo que estaba sucediendo.
Entonces después de todo esto por qué no le di una puntuación más baja, la verdad es que después de varios días de reflexión me di cuenta de que a pesar de todas mis críticas el libro me movió y no me dejo igual que antes de leerlo, y la muestra está en todas las páginas de anotaciones sobre datos curiosos, frases o acontecimientos que me gustaron en el momento de la lectura. Por otra parte también considere el hecho de que el libro para mi fuese muy enredado puesto que no tenía claros los hechos históricos de la guerra fría lo cual claramente no es culpa del autor, pero me motivo a buscar información adicional y a educarme mucho más al respecto lo que por supuesto es muy bueno. En fin no es un libro que releería pero no me disgusto del todo. Eso si el final me pareció súper flojo.
February 22, 2021
A highly ambitious book that packs too much in to its 400-odd pages to be completely successful, but still a good read. There are some rather annoying idiosyncrasies, and a generous helping of distracting typos, but it doesn’t warrant all the negative reviews here. We need ambitious writers in the world who want to achieve great things, even if they do fall somewhat short, and Volpi tries pretty hard to make this the ultimate novel encompassing the latter half of the 20th century. As I say, it encompasses way too much in the end but at least it is asking the reader to question things. If you liked In Search of Klingsor (which is truly wonderful) you will appreciate this and I’d like to see more of Volpi’s novels translated into English.
July 2, 2022
4/5. I really enjoyed so many elements of this book! I liked the historical and investigative journalism aspects, was fascinated by all the main characters, and felt a complex range of ideas and themes were touched on. It would be a 5 star rating if it wasn't for the part about the Korean man at the end. Not only did it feel racist, rather than nuanced or satirical the way the rest of the book was, it felt like an overly convenient plot device. It was such a small portion of the book yet it left an incredibly bad taste in my mouth despite being such a small part of the book. It's unfortunate because I really enjoyed every other part of this book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 18, 2022
...esta "Trilogia del siglo XX" fue leida y escuchada como si hubiera sido una sinfonia de Brahms. Solamente voy a decir que fue sensacional la trilogia y que "No sera la tierra" me dejo queriendo descubrir que hay un cuarto movimiento a esta brillante pieza de arte. En Mejico no solo hubo realismo magico a finales del siglo XX, tambien hay otros mares por abrir y partir en el siglo XXI.
July 3, 2017
A uno y otro lado del telón de acero, mientras se difuminan antagonismos y las vidas de los personajes, se intenta escribir "No será la tierra" para no olvidar.
January 11, 2018
Buenas ideas, tratamiento cansino, los personajes no despiertan mucha empatía que digamos. Aún así, fascinante el recuento histórico.
December 16, 2019
Uno de mis favoritos de Volpi
October 26, 2020
It may be the translation, but this was simply unreadable. It plodded along.
September 9, 2021
No me gusto. Nunca encontré el clímax que uniría a los personajes principales y los finales que les dio fueron aburridos.
December 11, 2023
Écriture remarquable. Ce mélange fiction et réalité est passionnant
August 25, 2024
Una crónica de la caída de la URSS a través de un buen ensamblaje de personajes ficticios y reales en los acontecimientos.
September 10, 2023
Update Sept. 2023: Just came across this book that I read in like 2007 (this review was originally published on my old blog in 2009) and kind of forgot about since then. In light of recent international events and what I've learned from them, I think it might warrant a reread. This review feels very naive and very, very college.
*****
Season of Ash is a history book written as fiction. Thanks to Volpi, I know why the Berlin Wall fell, what happened at Chernobyl, how Soviet communism collapsed into the economic oligarchy it is today, and how Gorbechav's glasnost policy may have precipitated said collapse but really only threw the lid off problems that had been simmering for decades. Yet every protagonist Volpi focuses on is the product of Volpi's imagination. Jennifer Moore Wells, rich, miserable American economist; her greedy, philandering Wall Street husband Jack Wells; her iconoclastic sister Allison Moore; Arkady Granin, political prisoner and fanatical dissenter and his wife Irinya Granina, who is more principled than he is; their daughter Okshana, the lost poet; Hungarian-American Eva Hálasz, a tormented, cynical computer/biology/DNA genius; Yuri Chernishevsky the news-breaking journalist, human rights activist, and murderer; and various others - all of these rub shoulders with the elite history-makers of the recent past, from Bill Clinton to Boris Yeltsin to Mobutu Sese Seko Nkuku Ngbendu wa Za Banga to Imre Nagy to Norbert Wiener. It's impossible to tell who's real and who isn't.
Now some have argued that History is a neo-Platonic entity that acts on its own and merely sweeps humans along with it. Marxist historiography, for instance, posits that a universal ahistorical force (class struggle) overrides all other variables and tends toward certain inevitable outcomes (i.e. class warfare). It derives from Hegel's notion of the "World-Spirit," an embodiment of transcendent truth that can be discerned in the stories of disparate nations. History, in other words, is an epic narrative built upon a singular base superstructure.
Or is it? History, as the chronicle of human civilization, is ultimately human. In a novel concerned with, among other things, the Human Genome Project, Volpi portrays history as an "organism" made up of individual humans: as its cells that reproduce and perpetuate it, and as its genes that carry the information to move it along and develop it. A revolution is a genetic mutation that enables the species to either adapt or fail. The behavior of a few humans can alter a whole society (for example, Jennifer Moore's recommendation that price controls be abolished, which caused 99% of Russians to lose their life savings). For what are humans but products of evolution and biology, like every other species known to exist?
Each of Volpi's characters is concerned with becoming something greater than themselves: Jack and his money, Arkady and Irina and their ideals, Oksana and her poetry, Allison and her ideals, Eva's drive to understand the secrets of life and consciousness, and so forth. The Soviet Union and communism themselves were attempts to perfect the human experience and call down Heaven to Earth - to build a worker's paradise where there would be no slavery and exploitation. But Jack, Arkady, Allison, Oksana, Eva, and the Soviet Union all fell. In the end - what is the point? Why do we continue to strive? Are we bound by our genes? Will unraveling our DNA finally reveal the meaning of our lives, a question once answerable only through religion?
Soviet biologist (and Season of Ash character) Trofim Denisovich Lysenko once contorted science and crammed it into Marxist parameters (genes and chromosomes, it seemed, were a "bourgeoisie lie"), earning him the acclaim of Stalin himself. Volpi refuses to do such a thing to history: twist it until it reveals the truth of a single political ideology. History is human. The course of individual human lives sometimes reveal the course of history. Season of Ash is a grand epic, but that is the thread that binds the whole big story together. For better or worse, people act, and history is made.
Review Copy
Original Review
*****
Season of Ash is a history book written as fiction. Thanks to Volpi, I know why the Berlin Wall fell, what happened at Chernobyl, how Soviet communism collapsed into the economic oligarchy it is today, and how Gorbechav's glasnost policy may have precipitated said collapse but really only threw the lid off problems that had been simmering for decades. Yet every protagonist Volpi focuses on is the product of Volpi's imagination. Jennifer Moore Wells, rich, miserable American economist; her greedy, philandering Wall Street husband Jack Wells; her iconoclastic sister Allison Moore; Arkady Granin, political prisoner and fanatical dissenter and his wife Irinya Granina, who is more principled than he is; their daughter Okshana, the lost poet; Hungarian-American Eva Hálasz, a tormented, cynical computer/biology/DNA genius; Yuri Chernishevsky the news-breaking journalist, human rights activist, and murderer; and various others - all of these rub shoulders with the elite history-makers of the recent past, from Bill Clinton to Boris Yeltsin to Mobutu Sese Seko Nkuku Ngbendu wa Za Banga to Imre Nagy to Norbert Wiener. It's impossible to tell who's real and who isn't.
Now some have argued that History is a neo-Platonic entity that acts on its own and merely sweeps humans along with it. Marxist historiography, for instance, posits that a universal ahistorical force (class struggle) overrides all other variables and tends toward certain inevitable outcomes (i.e. class warfare). It derives from Hegel's notion of the "World-Spirit," an embodiment of transcendent truth that can be discerned in the stories of disparate nations. History, in other words, is an epic narrative built upon a singular base superstructure.
Or is it? History, as the chronicle of human civilization, is ultimately human. In a novel concerned with, among other things, the Human Genome Project, Volpi portrays history as an "organism" made up of individual humans: as its cells that reproduce and perpetuate it, and as its genes that carry the information to move it along and develop it. A revolution is a genetic mutation that enables the species to either adapt or fail. The behavior of a few humans can alter a whole society (for example, Jennifer Moore's recommendation that price controls be abolished, which caused 99% of Russians to lose their life savings). For what are humans but products of evolution and biology, like every other species known to exist?
Each of Volpi's characters is concerned with becoming something greater than themselves: Jack and his money, Arkady and Irina and their ideals, Oksana and her poetry, Allison and her ideals, Eva's drive to understand the secrets of life and consciousness, and so forth. The Soviet Union and communism themselves were attempts to perfect the human experience and call down Heaven to Earth - to build a worker's paradise where there would be no slavery and exploitation. But Jack, Arkady, Allison, Oksana, Eva, and the Soviet Union all fell. In the end - what is the point? Why do we continue to strive? Are we bound by our genes? Will unraveling our DNA finally reveal the meaning of our lives, a question once answerable only through religion?
Soviet biologist (and Season of Ash character) Trofim Denisovich Lysenko once contorted science and crammed it into Marxist parameters (genes and chromosomes, it seemed, were a "bourgeoisie lie"), earning him the acclaim of Stalin himself. Volpi refuses to do such a thing to history: twist it until it reveals the truth of a single political ideology. History is human. The course of individual human lives sometimes reveal the course of history. Season of Ash is a grand epic, but that is the thread that binds the whole big story together. For better or worse, people act, and history is made.
Enough freezing me with fear,
I'll invoke Bach's chaconne
and a man will enter when it's over
who will not be my beloved husband,
but we together will be so fearsome
that the twentieth century will be shaken to the root.
Not wanting to I confused him
with the mysterious envoy of destiny,
the one with whom bitter suffering would arrive.
He'll come to my Fontanka Palace,
very late, on that night of fog,
to toast the New Year with wine.
And he will keep in his memory Epiphany night,
the maple tree at the window, the nuptial candles
and the mortal flight of the poem . . .
But it is not the first bouquet of lilies,
nor the ring, nor the sweet prayers:
It's death, that's what he brings me.
Review Copy
Original Review
January 24, 2018
I feel like I need to reread this book as it was packed full of information and the writing timeline takes a moment to catch up to. It's a decent book but requires a pallet that's accustomed to a certain slog. Overall it's average where it could have been good.
May 11, 2010
Jorge Volpi (1968-) is one of the leading voices in contemporary Mexican literature, who has written several novels that have received critical acclaim within and outside of Mexico. His most famous novel is In Search of Klingsor (En busca de Klingsor), the winner of two major international literary awards, which "explores the nexus between science and human nature and how they shaped the world in the aftermath of World War II." He is one of the founders of the 'Crack' literary movement in Mexico, whose members seek to revisit the roots of the Latin American literary boom of the 1960s, and go beyond magical realism and other standard forms which have characterized much of the literature from the region in recent years.
Season of Ash (No será la tierra) was originally published in Spanish in 2006. It was translated into English by Alfred Mac Adam and published by Open Letter Books in 2009.
The novel, which is separated into three acts, begins at the nuclear plant in Chernobyl in 1986, on the day of the disastrous accident. The first act follows this prelude, and we are introduced to the three main characters: Irina, a Soviet biologist; Eva, a Hungarian computer scientist; and Jennifer, an American economist. Each mourn the death of someone dear to them on the next to last day of 2000. The narrator then introduces himself, and tells us that these apparently disparate stories and characters are linked through him, and that one of them will reach a tragic end.
Volpi describes the lives of the main characters and those close to them, through historical fictional accounts of the Soviet Union and Russia from Stalin to Yeltsin, the 1929 stock market crash, financial crises in Zaire, Mexico and Russia, human rights movements in the US and abroad, and other topics. Their stories are told separately but chronologically, in a manner that was very readable, unique and interesting to me.
In the final act, Volpi links the lives of the characters through the narrator, and the novel is transformed into a detective story and a murder mystery. Unfortunately this was where Season of Ash became a major disappointment to me, as the fusion was not a successful one, and the novel ended abruptly and incompletely.
Season of Ash (No será la tierra) was originally published in Spanish in 2006. It was translated into English by Alfred Mac Adam and published by Open Letter Books in 2009.
The novel, which is separated into three acts, begins at the nuclear plant in Chernobyl in 1986, on the day of the disastrous accident. The first act follows this prelude, and we are introduced to the three main characters: Irina, a Soviet biologist; Eva, a Hungarian computer scientist; and Jennifer, an American economist. Each mourn the death of someone dear to them on the next to last day of 2000. The narrator then introduces himself, and tells us that these apparently disparate stories and characters are linked through him, and that one of them will reach a tragic end.
Volpi describes the lives of the main characters and those close to them, through historical fictional accounts of the Soviet Union and Russia from Stalin to Yeltsin, the 1929 stock market crash, financial crises in Zaire, Mexico and Russia, human rights movements in the US and abroad, and other topics. Their stories are told separately but chronologically, in a manner that was very readable, unique and interesting to me.
In the final act, Volpi links the lives of the characters through the narrator, and the novel is transformed into a detective story and a murder mystery. Unfortunately this was where Season of Ash became a major disappointment to me, as the fusion was not a successful one, and the novel ended abruptly and incompletely.
November 27, 2014
No será la Tierra es una extensa novela que abarca una cronología de eventos históricos entre el año 1929 y el 2000. Se podría catalogar como una novela histórica, diría yo casi épica, que parece más bien un ensayo con innumerables reflexiones científicas, históricas y políticas de enorme interés. La lista de los eventos centrales acontecidos en el siglo XX incluye: la catástrofe de Chernóbil, la caída del muro de Berlín, el desmoronamiento del comunismo, el golpe de estado contra Gorbachov y el proyecto del genoma humano, entre muchos otros. Se puede apreciar claramente que a parte de sus dotes de escritor, Jorge Volpi es un intelectual y que dedicó mucho tiempo a la investigación de su obra.
Los personajes ficticios son también interesantes aunque no se podrían caracterizar como entrañables. La trama narra la vida de tres mujeres enfrentadas a un destino desesperanzador donde la lucha entre el poder y el intelecto siempre está latente. Irina, la bióloga, Jennifer, la funcionaria del Fondo Monetario y Éva, el genio de la informática, viven una catástrofe tras otra que no solo tienen que ver con los acontecimientos de la época, sino con sus rasgos personales y los de los otros personajes que las rodean, como por ejemplo la sed de poder y pasiones mal llevadas del despreciable Jack Wells, la activista, Allison y el escritor y narrador que es también culpable de un crimen. Creo que como personaje literario disfruté mucho más a la lúgubre y melancólica Oksana por su vínculo con la extinta poeta.
Pienso que el autor expone en su obra la iniquidad del hombre y las consecuencias de los conflictos ideológicos y políticos y presenta al arte y el intelecto como aspectos positivos que nos pueden dar la redención. En resumen la obra de Volpi es un repaso soberbio a muchas transformaciones históricas recientes y un complejo entrelace formado por personajes históricos y ficticios que aunque a veces abruma con temas didácticos, mantiene el interés y siempre deleita.
Los personajes ficticios son también interesantes aunque no se podrían caracterizar como entrañables. La trama narra la vida de tres mujeres enfrentadas a un destino desesperanzador donde la lucha entre el poder y el intelecto siempre está latente. Irina, la bióloga, Jennifer, la funcionaria del Fondo Monetario y Éva, el genio de la informática, viven una catástrofe tras otra que no solo tienen que ver con los acontecimientos de la época, sino con sus rasgos personales y los de los otros personajes que las rodean, como por ejemplo la sed de poder y pasiones mal llevadas del despreciable Jack Wells, la activista, Allison y el escritor y narrador que es también culpable de un crimen. Creo que como personaje literario disfruté mucho más a la lúgubre y melancólica Oksana por su vínculo con la extinta poeta.
Pienso que el autor expone en su obra la iniquidad del hombre y las consecuencias de los conflictos ideológicos y políticos y presenta al arte y el intelecto como aspectos positivos que nos pueden dar la redención. En resumen la obra de Volpi es un repaso soberbio a muchas transformaciones históricas recientes y un complejo entrelace formado por personajes históricos y ficticios que aunque a veces abruma con temas didácticos, mantiene el interés y siempre deleita.
February 19, 2016
No será la Tierra, es el tercer volumén de una trilogía histórica-ficción, donde Jorge Volpi narra los acontecimientos claves que terminaron con la guerra fría y la caida del muro de Berlín. Busca describir de una forma novelada, las situaciones que rodearon el debacle del mundo socialista. De una forma un tanto ambiciosa, Volpi se adentrá al mismo tiempo en el mundo cibernético y en la era de la información, al tratar de adicionar aquellos sucesos que propiciaron el descubrimiento del genoma humano.
Volpi utiliza las vidas de tres mujeres nacidas en diferentes sitios : URSS, USA y Europa; pero cuyas vidas se entrecruzan y ayudan a narrar los hechos más importantes de los años 80s y 90s. Esto representa un ambicioso proyecto literario, al tratar de abarcar tantos temas con una gran cantidad de personajes.
En mi opinión, el principio fue más favorable, y su descripción ayudó a engarcharme, comenzando con el desastre de Chernobyl. Sin embargo, Volpi pierde fuerza narrativa, y a mi parecer, logra terminar la novela por compromiso forzando a cerrar todos los ciclos que había dejado abierto durante la novela. La mejor recomendación es tener paciencia y disciplina para terminarlo, por eso le otorgo solo 3 estrellas.
Volpi utiliza las vidas de tres mujeres nacidas en diferentes sitios : URSS, USA y Europa; pero cuyas vidas se entrecruzan y ayudan a narrar los hechos más importantes de los años 80s y 90s. Esto representa un ambicioso proyecto literario, al tratar de abarcar tantos temas con una gran cantidad de personajes.
En mi opinión, el principio fue más favorable, y su descripción ayudó a engarcharme, comenzando con el desastre de Chernobyl. Sin embargo, Volpi pierde fuerza narrativa, y a mi parecer, logra terminar la novela por compromiso forzando a cerrar todos los ciclos que había dejado abierto durante la novela. La mejor recomendación es tener paciencia y disciplina para terminarlo, por eso le otorgo solo 3 estrellas.
August 5, 2011
Loved it. Covers the years between Chernobyl and approx. 2000, and is ambitious in its scope (the fall of the Soviet Union, the human genome project, the stock market shenanigans, the IMF, loans to 'developing' nations, the corporate world vs. oligarchy, the Berlin Wall, and I haven't even mentioned political prisoners or chemical weapons). The novel follows three women, their children, and three couples over the years while also providing a background to the main characters (an American, a Russian and a Hungarian) by painting an ever so detailed portrait of their parents.
At first the book was dense, so full of characters and detail it made my head spin (it starts off at Chernobyl and with three unrelated scenes in which someone has died). If you can get through the gnarly, disturbing start, you may find yourself hooked to what can only be called a page-turner, and a minor doorstop, clocking in at 400 pages of tiny print.
Kudos to the translator. What a fabulous job. My only criticism would be the warped historical details. Does anyone fact check these days? Does it matter? Why would anyone be so ambitious to cover three or four or five complex systems, and events, and get most of it right, but some of it wrong? How does that happen? Is that artistic license?
At first the book was dense, so full of characters and detail it made my head spin (it starts off at Chernobyl and with three unrelated scenes in which someone has died). If you can get through the gnarly, disturbing start, you may find yourself hooked to what can only be called a page-turner, and a minor doorstop, clocking in at 400 pages of tiny print.
Kudos to the translator. What a fabulous job. My only criticism would be the warped historical details. Does anyone fact check these days? Does it matter? Why would anyone be so ambitious to cover three or four or five complex systems, and events, and get most of it right, but some of it wrong? How does that happen? Is that artistic license?
February 7, 2016
Das dritte Volpi Buch in seiner Trilogie des 20ten Jahrhunderts.
Es geht um die Schicksals von drei Frauen, die alle mit dem Zeitgeschehen des 20ten Jahrhunderts verschränkt sind. Erzählt wird meist aus der Sicht eines Protagonisten, der den Tod einer der drei Frauen verschuldet.
Prinzipiell rechnet Volpi dabei mit den "Systemen" der vorigen Jahrhunderts ab. Dem unmenschlichen sowjetischen und dem unmenschlichen kapitalistischen. Allerdings lässt der Ton der Erzählung keine wirkliche Leidenschaft verspüren. Ja, es werden wichtige historische Ereignisse als Hintergrundbilder verwendet : Chernobyl, der Fall der Mauer in Berlin, Jelzin, Gorbatschow, die Vollendung des Human Genome Projekts etc. Allerdings belässt es Volpi bei der Aufzählung der Ereignisse, aehnlich einem Reporter.
Was Volpi sehr gut gelingt, ist eine Schilderung der kompletten Hoffnungslosigkeit der menschlichen Existenz im Angesicht der unmenschlichen Systeme. Dieser Grundton und die Aneinanderreihung von Unglücksfällen und Verzweiflung machen das Buch für mich leider nur dunkel aber leider bar jeder neuen Einblicke.
Es geht um die Schicksals von drei Frauen, die alle mit dem Zeitgeschehen des 20ten Jahrhunderts verschränkt sind. Erzählt wird meist aus der Sicht eines Protagonisten, der den Tod einer der drei Frauen verschuldet.
Prinzipiell rechnet Volpi dabei mit den "Systemen" der vorigen Jahrhunderts ab. Dem unmenschlichen sowjetischen und dem unmenschlichen kapitalistischen. Allerdings lässt der Ton der Erzählung keine wirkliche Leidenschaft verspüren. Ja, es werden wichtige historische Ereignisse als Hintergrundbilder verwendet : Chernobyl, der Fall der Mauer in Berlin, Jelzin, Gorbatschow, die Vollendung des Human Genome Projekts etc. Allerdings belässt es Volpi bei der Aufzählung der Ereignisse, aehnlich einem Reporter.
Was Volpi sehr gut gelingt, ist eine Schilderung der kompletten Hoffnungslosigkeit der menschlichen Existenz im Angesicht der unmenschlichen Systeme. Dieser Grundton und die Aneinanderreihung von Unglücksfällen und Verzweiflung machen das Buch für mich leider nur dunkel aber leider bar jeder neuen Einblicke.
April 12, 2011
My gosh, this was a book i read tidbit by tidbit at as time; intriguing since we had lived in Russia. It felt like a report of the underbelly, the dark side of the moon, except it was the intrigue and the dark side of earth and its earthlings. There is an excellent review of same at Amazon; i encourage everyone to read it. Time and words, and my lack of both, are operative here. It's a must read I think because the author captures in excellent prose, the events of the 'day', and if i didn't have another world view of the upcoming oneness of humanity, the forces of light so to speak against this literary unveiling of the forces of darkness, i'd buried my head in a sand pile somewhere. this is a puzzling book - who's on first; disjointed on one level, but astonishingly revealing; i'd love comments when people go for it and get the book!
March 20, 2014
Como siempre con Volpi y sus novelas histórico-políticas aprendo muchas cosas. Esta vez me hice una buena idea de Chernóbil, del socialismo, del Proyecto Genoma Humano, de cómo trabaja la bolsa de valores, del activismo. No deja duda de que su forma de escribir es excelsa, no obstante este libro (tomando como referencia los otros dos que sumados a este forman la trilogía) me pareció muy complejo en su desarrollo, muchos, muchos personajes, tantos que no podía mantener el hilo de la trama. Eso hizo que me tardara mucho en leerlo, no me atrapó como con sus otros textos, y el final es bastante rápido, en un sólo capítulo de 20 páginas termina con la trama que duró todo el libro; creo que si el libro tuviese muchas menos páginas se volvería mucho más atractivo y por lo tanto más recomendable.
August 7, 2011
Un libro lúcido como pocos. Es más, a pesar de mi regular aversión a los autores lationamericanos, a pesar de mi origen, confieso que fue excelente. Se requiere, eso sí, estar enterado muy bien de la historia, si no se pierde uno y el libro se vuelve poco fluido y complicado, aunque enseña mucho. Sin embargo, para los que sepan la historia, la complejidad de la trama deja un pequeño entrevisto en la complejidad y lo vertiginoso de los eventos que dieron lugar a la caida del imperio soviético. Simplemente lo recomiendo.
September 18, 2015
Me ha impresionado leer críticas negativas sobre este libro, especialmente algunas cercanas a su fecha de edición original (2006). Aunque es cierto que, en ocasiones, puede ser un poco enciclopédico en su narración, es igualmente innegable que Volpi ha creado personajes desgarrados por la lucha entre el impulso individualista y los límites inherentes a su entorno, logrando que sucesos fundamentales del siglo XX, que pueden haberse vuelto gélidos por el tratamiento académico objetivizante, adquieran en la página una vitalidad muchas veces agresiva.
February 19, 2013
What is this superb novel about? The collapse of the USSR, the corruption of science by both capitalist greed and Soviet ideology, complicated unhappy families. Not generally the kind of thing that would much interest me, but Volpi weaves the tale--essentially one of 5 women and their lives--so smartly that I was hooked.
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