La montaña de las mariposas

by Homero Aridjis

Homero discovers his double First, when experimenting with the ephemeral substance of life in front of danger when with a shotgun he hurts a bird that is his own body and the second, during his convalescence, as he finds his destiny in books and makes the decision to be a writer. This is a novel of initiation to love and literature, where realism is the beginning and the end for imagination. Description in En La montaña de las mariposas, Homero niño, hijo de Nicias y de Josefina, descubre su doble el primero, al experimentar la sustancia efímera de la vida frente al peligro de su muerte cuando con una escopeta hiere al ave que es su propio cuerpo& y el segundo, durante su convalecencia, al encontrar su destino en los libros y tomar la decisión de ser un escritor. En esta novela de iniciación al amor y la literatura, donde el realismo es principio y fin para la imaginación, Homero Aridjis vuelve sobre la memoria, y desciende por los laberintos velados de la biografía para cumplir su máxima posar en palabras la vida invertida, aquella que sin cesar se condena al olvido y que espera ver la luz de lo innombrable en la escritura.

336 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published September 1, 2001

About the author

Homero 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.

Reviews

[Debbie Zapata · Rating 5 out of 5]

Time for a reread, starting 2-23-2023
And finishing today, April 15, 2023

Apr 15, 7pm ~~ Saturday is Book Day for the Zapata family and we finished this book today. I imagine Marco will make a comment soon about his thoughts. I know I enjoyed the book even more this time around and also understood it better.

I can not think of anything else to add to this little update, except that I do wish I could give five more stars.

Oh, and on our next Book Day we will start another novel by Homero Aridjis, one that apparently will tell the rest of the story of his early years. We finished today by leaving Contepec, the author's birthplace, ready for poetry, university and whatever else Life has to offer in Mexico City during the 1960's.

Marco and I will meet him there on Tuesday!

Feb 23, 2023 ~~ Well, here we are back with Homero and the butterflies to start our Zapata Reading Club phone call reading of this book. On Book Days (every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday) I read for about half an hour and then we talk about the book and then we go on to all of our many other topics.

We have had a lot of fun with this reading project but this is the first Spanish language book I've read aloud over the phone. I stumbled with some words today (when I read silently I don't have any trouble at all....lol) but I know that by the time we finish I will be reading better; it is the best way to practice a language.

So I will be back to sign off on this review (again) in a few weeks when we are finished.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Original review

Feb 11, 9pm ~~ I nearly stopped reading this book after the first few pages. Not because it was not good or because I was stuck with any of the Spanish words, but because I could tell right away that I wanted my husband to be able to hear it. I thought I would stop and save it for a future Zapata Reading Club selection that we could read together over the phone.

But I was selfish. I wanted to see what kind of childhood Homero Aridjis had in his Mexican pueblo so close to the mountain where Monarch butterflies spend their winters. What would it be like to live there? What events from his youth formed this man into a poet and activist, one of Mexico's most respected authors?

I kept reading, but I did tell Marco about the book and we agreed that when I was finished it would go into the ZRC pile on my desk. After we finish Pelé: The Autobiography it will be my turn to pick the next title and even though I have told Marco I would not pick this book so soon, I am going to change my mind: I want him to hear it right away, I can't wait to talk about it with him!

Will he be as enchanted with Tia Ines as I was? (She was my favorite character after Homero himself.) Will he appreciate the author's style and ease of expression? Will he laugh when I did and worry about the people and the butterflies the way I have?

I hope so!

I'll be back in about a week or so to set the book up for its second reading. See you then!

[Josue Olvera · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ah, Aridjis. Fue un respiro entre mis lecturas comenzar de una buena vez con esta autobiografía novelada del gran poeta mexicano. Indudablemente su poética se asoma en varias partes de la obra, aquí y allá, desde su infancia y su adolescencia, con un buen ritmo y capítulos cortos no interconectados (como es la memoria) pero sí cronológicos, que facilitan una lectura frenética. La historia se acaba bastante rápido pero deja profundas marcas y preguntas, sorpresa y en algunos casos horror.
La vida cotidiana, vista desde unos ojos observadores, curiosos y además con alma de poeta, seguro puede transformarse en una fuente inagotable de motivos para crear historias. Tan solo el acto de recordar es buen mecanismo para comenzar a narrar una historia, la que cada quien tiene, la historia propia. Y si además se adicionan hechos y personas inusuales, se vuelve todavía más interesante.
Aridjis reconstruyó de tal forma varios de los hechos que narra que varias veces me preguntaba qué tanto de lo que contaba era real y qué parte inventada, si es que inventó algo o sólo lo recreó. Se nota que investigó y completó las lagunas de la memoria con alguna otra fuente, una especie de trabajo periodístico sobre su propio pasado, que me resulta un ejercicio sumamente interesante. ¿Cuántos hurgamos en nuestro pasado de esa forma? Casi ninguno, generalmente nos quedamos sólo con lo que la memoria nos trae de vez en cuanto o lo que recuerdan nuestros familiares cercanos, que suelen acordarse, de entre todas las cosas posibles, principalmente de lo que nos avergüenza.
Dejo por aquí algunos fragmentos:
“-Cuando estoy cerca de un tesoro, otros lo encuentran primero –se quejó.” Pág. 134.
“-En esta parte del mundo se cree que la poesía es cursi o no es poesía –me susurró Marina. Pág. 166.
“-El enamorado ve a su amor en todos los crepúsculos.” Pág. 287.