emily’s review of The Week of Colors > Likes and Comments

yay, glad that you enjoyed this one. It's a shame that its publication fell under the radar--on the basis of these stories alone Garro deserves to be considered among the foremost Latin American writers. 'What Time Is It...?' was my favourite story I read last year. It's one of the more conventional stories in the collection, but it felt like stumbling upon a classic story, in the strongest sense of the term

foldfree wrote: "yay, glad that you enjoyed this one. It's a shame that its publication fell under the radar--on the basis of these stories alone Garro deserves to be considered among the foremost Latin American wr..."

Glad we share the same sentiment : ) To be fair the cover design isn't helping at all, it basically looks like a textbook in the art department/alike. Funnily enough, I got Garro mixed up with Krasznahorkai (as I was reading them both together) whilst I was finishing this one late at night trying not to fall asleep (because I want to finish it quite desperately). And I was thinking like 'Krasznahorkai writes women so well??' only to feel pretty silly after realising I was actually reading Garro instead of him. Garro might have ruined Krasznahorkai for me (her work is just far more impressive and stylistically enticing/elegant somehow even though she's (like you've mentioned) wildly under-read).

haha, I liked the cover actually, although I suppose I'm swayed by the french flaps and crisp paper of the edition--I agree that it doesn't really fit the madness of the book itself.

as for Krasznahorkai, I reckon he's a writer who I arrived at too late. I'm hardly ever impressed by him, although he's obviously a strong writer, certainly worthy of the Nobel. It's difficult for me to fully 'believe' in his vaguely baroque, mythical visions of apocalypse, which just jar with the very real urgency of his topics: depression, or social/political decay. I'm just not convinced that elaborate apocalyptic fantasies made up of complicated run-on sentences are an accurate depiction of melancholy or despair or hopelessness, what have you (I've never been a black metal person, either...). It feels like he lacks attentiveness, or maybe intimacy(?), some kind of attention to detail anyway, although I realise I am firmly in the minority here... (and he might've changed--I've only read two early novels of his)

foldfree wrote: "haha, I liked the cover actually, although I suppose I'm swayed by the french flaps and crisp paper of the edition--I agree that it doesn't really fit the madness of the book itself.

as for Kraszn..."

I feel very similarly about Krasznahorkai . I've also only read two of his work, but like even though I think I appreciate his other one more (A Mountain to the North, a Lake to the South, Paths to the West, a River to the East) , stylistically speaking, in comparison to the current one I'm reading, I reckon he tends to like leaning on/using East Asian 'culture' / 'inspiration' (or simply fragments of whatever he's used to carry/drive his plot) but not going deep enough about it (yet to me, it is those fragments that shine most brightly in his work?) - to say simply, I feel his writing lacks substance (to me, it feels slightly pretentious , here and there). Or perhaps I'm just not a perceptive/sensitive enough reader for his work. I don't really 'get' him but I'm sure he writes 'well'. Also I agree with you on the tattered/not-quite-convincing intimacies of his writing. And yes, syntactically, I'm not really into it either. But I think I'll read at least one more of his 'fuller' novels and see how I feel later on, haha .

Now I really want to read this collection, Emily. I liked poems by Octavio Paz. But as usual it s quite unfair she was in his shadow as far as I understand. I also want to read Barrera's bio of her.. But probably this stories first. The quotes you've shared are so enigmatic. Imho Krazno's work after War&War is overrated. I loved his earlier novels, but now He just churns out the same stuff and the style is a bit gimmicky. After reading 5 books by him, I do not plan to read more of him for quite a bit. (But I know I am in minority and happy to be that way:-)).

Thanks for putting a new name on my radar!

Katia wrote: "Now I really want to read this collection, Emily. I liked poems by Octavio Paz. But as usual it s quite unfair she was in his shadow as far as I understand. I also want to read Barrera's bio of her..."

Hope you do , Katia, I'd love to know your thoughts : ) . I 'browsed' and read a few of her stories from her collection, By Elena Garro Recollections of Things to Come a while back - I thought those were brilliant too but for one unrelated reason or other I got distracted and have not return/finished them yet. I also like Paz' poetry : ) , Read a few recently translated by Eliot Weinberger, thought they complement one another quite well as poet/translator. Really love when that happens.

Haha, your views on Krazno made me laugh : ) (and honestly who can blame you for feeling that way, not me that's for sure), thank you for sharing , Katia. I might do Satantango as a last straw or whatever the appropriate phrase, but you know what I mean : )

Ken wrote: "Thanks for putting a new name on my radar!"

: ) gladly, Ken. Hope you enjoy when/if you get to it ! It's a really good one, this, I can confidently confirm