Antes del fin / Before the End (Spanish Edition) (Memorias) [Paperback]

Ernesto Sabato (Author)

Book Description

Series: Memorias | Publication Date: January 1, 2003

Las memorias de Ernesto Sabato, es un libro unico que constituye su testamento espiritual. Es la historia de un joven nacido en La pampa, que emprende con exito una carrera altamente especializada en el mundo cientifico y llega incluso a trabajar en el centro Curie de Paris, para luego, en contacto con los surrealistas, abandonar la ciencia por la literatura y el arte, en un gesto valeroso y retador, y con su primera novela, rechazada por multitud de editores, obtener el reconocimiento de Albert Camus y Thomas Mann. Es tambien, por otra parte, la historia de un hombre rebelde, afin desde muy pronto al anarquismo y a la izquierda revolucionaria, que descubre y denuncia las mascaras del totalitarismo sovietico para luego, ya en su vejez, presidir con extraordinario coraje personal la comision que investiga el horror de los desaparecidos en Argentina y desvelar la magnitud del genocidio. La alianza de rigor etico, acento lirico y firme voluntad solidaria con los desposeidos confiere a Antes del fin el caracter de un libro unico: constituye, como pocas obras de hoy en dia, el legado esencial de un gran escritor para las generaciones que lo suceden.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Planeta; 6 edition (January 1, 2003)
• Language: Spanish
• ISBN-10: 8432216054
• ISBN-13: 978-8432216053
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #385,208 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #15 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > Latin American
  • #26 in Books > Libros en español > Literatura y ficción > Historia y Crítica > Europea
  • #46 in Books > Libros en español > Biografías y memorias > Memorias

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Un testimonio de luz, October 24, 1999

By 

Carlos A Bas (Puerto Rico) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Antes del Fin (Biblioteca Breve (Barcelona, Spain)) (Spanish Edition) (Paperback)

Acabo de leerlo de una sentada y es quizá el mejor relato de una vida dedicada a la búsqueda del sentido de la vida misma que haya leído. La honestidad, la pasión, el amor, la amistad y la lealtad, el servicio a los demás. La búsqueda de la utopía, la denuncia de la realidad imperante y de la injusticia, venga de donde venga. Todo esto narrado por este gigante de las letras y de la humanidad de una manera enternecedora a veces, vigorosa en otras: Sabato, que sería de nosotros sin testimonios de luz como el tuyo!

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Late-life ruminations of an exceptional writer, April 6, 2000

By 

Carlos R. Lugo-Ortiz - See all my reviews

This review is from: Antes del Fin (Biblioteca Breve (Barcelona, Spain)) (Spanish Edition) (Paperback)

Ernesto Sabato is one of the leading moral lights of the 20th century. His novels 'El tunel', 'Sobre heroes y tumbas', and 'Abaddon el exterminador' will stand as monuments to the pain of the searching soul. His essays, too, although oftentimes metaphisically obscure and highly idiosyncratic, are interesting and can generate considerable and fruitful debate. Now, with 'Antes del fin', Sabato offers us some ruminations from the perspective of a long life (he is close to his 89th birthday), a very personal testament to an age that appears to have lost perspective of the apocalypses that is bringing upon itself by promoting selfishness and wastefulness.

Although I agree with Sabato's indictment of the terrible things that are happening around us, I find his invocation of the 'Absolute' quite uncomfortable. It seems that, in his old age, Sabato is trying to look for a 'deity' that would save us all, that would give meaning to our lives, and he calls it the 'Absolute'. I would have thought that, after all these years of suffering and searching, Sabato would have found more answers, and hope, in simple human beings than in the highly questionable grail of the 'Absolute'. Evidently, however, I was mistaken. To me, as to many humanists, it's not a matter of an ultimate goal, of reaching the 'Absolute' in one's every action; it's, simply, a matter of realizing that we are all human beings with the same basic necessities, just one species among millions, and that we should respect everybody and the world around us just for that. No invocation of a deity is needed; no 'Absolutes' are required. Sabato is, I'm afraid, painfully wrong and dissapointing on that account.

Even though I enjoyed the book, with its gripping prose, I must admit that I didn't learn much about Sabato from it. To me, the powerful and real Sabato is in his novels, particularly in 'Sobre heroes y tumbas'. However, if you haven't been introduced to Sabato's world, 'Antes del fin' would be a good introduction. Only on that account I recommend this book.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Back to ultimalte realities, June 7, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Antes del Fin (Biblioteca Breve (Barcelona, Spain)) (Spanish Edition) (Paperback)

Someone said here in Colombia that "Antes del Fin" bears witness to a century that is passing away. We've been told that ultimate realities are a sort of nonsensical by-product of the Western culture. Well, here is one of the greatest wise men of our century taking us back to ponder on ultimate realities. What is worth to live for? This type of questions (Hollywood hates them) led Sabato's life into the battlefield of authenticity and honesty. May the young people, especially of Latin America, be so sensible as to pay a serious attention to a voice that definitely is yelling in the desert.