Narrative
El Loco
Not translated into English
Arturo Borda · 1966
Synopsis
A world-book in three volumes, the intimate confession of a man whom the title calls the Madman. Narrative, dialogue, poem and essay take turns without apparent order: the society of La Paz is observed and judged, the psychology of the speaker is probed, and the thought ranges from philosophy to the quest for beauty. Esotericism, the romantic idea of genius and a taste for scandal occupy a large place in it.
Context
The pages were written over half a century, from 1901 to 1950. On the author's death, his brother Héctor entrusted the manuscripts to the architect couple Mesa Gisbert, who prepared the edition; the municipality financed and published it in 1966, in three volumes and 1,659 pages, with an introduction by the two architects. The manuscripts have since been lost. In 2013 the Ministry of Cultures drew an anthology from it, and in 2021 the city issued a corrected edition in a single volume.
Who it is for
In Spanish, with no French translation. One thousand six hundred and fifty-nine pages without a plot, in which dazzling passages alternate with repetition.
Prizes and reception
Counted among the fifteen fundamental novels of the country, and held by some to be the work of the greatest Bolivian writer, known first as a painter.
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