Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
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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!

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.

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.

Cumpliendo con una de las características más conocidas del autor, "Antes del fin" no es una nueva novela o una nueva postura del autor. Es un recordatorio de principios y grandes inquietudes que se encuentran diseminadas en los anteriores textos de Sábato. Lo que tiene de trascendente es que, ahora, a los más de ochenta años del autor, esos principios e inquietudes no han perdido actualidad. Y es bueno que nosotros escuchemos y reflexionemos sobre esos problemas, porque aún no encuentran solución.

Entre la nostalgia y el idealismo, Sabato nos conduce con humildad a traves de distintos pasajes de una vida cargada de contradicciones y desesperanzas, nos golpea con la crudeza de la realidad humana de fines de siglo y escribe con bravura el epilogo para generaciones futuras �gsolo quienes sean capaces de encarnar la utopia seran aptos para el combate decisivo, el de recuperar de cuanto humanidad hayamos perdido�h. Un libro para elevar lo que de moral le queda al ser humano.

He leido este libro y me gusta mucho, porque Sabato me parece muy sincero, habla de sus errores en su juventud, y de cambios en sus filosofias personales. En Buenos Aires en 2001, este libro fue tambien disponible en unas tiendas como un "audio libro," (libro para escuchar), leido por Ernesto Sabato. Despues de leerlo, tambien lo escucho. Es muy interesante de oir su voz. Frecuentemente escucho este libro (mas de 15 veces).
This is an excellent book in the form of an autobiography with a filosofical and humanistic pulse, describing his stormy moods, passions, ideals, and beliefs lived during his artistically inclined youth, and their changes from middleage to his old age.

I think Sabato is one of the best writers of our times. I'm reading his books again and again and this experience is always incredible.

I want to know if his last book was translated in English or in French...I can't wait to read it. I'm afraid, also, of what Ms. Sabato has to say in the end...Probabily I will rate it with 5 stars...

If you have informations about the translations of Antes del Fin, please contact me at: diana.lefter@flonetwork.com

Habia leido muchos libros de Sabato cuando era adolescente. Hasta tuve el placer de encontrarlo casualmente en Buenos Aires en la decada de los 80, cuando todavia estaba la dictadura militar en Argentina. Lo mas destacado de este libro son pasajes de su vida que desconocia y que de alguna manera ayudan a entender el contenido de su obra. Lo recomiendo, aunque no comparto completamente su vision del estado de la humanidad y del futuro.

En este corto libro Sabato recorre su vida pero no de la manera usual de una memoria. Más bien va dando luces sobre distintos episodios, personajes e ideologías con los que ha tenido contacto a lo largo de su ya larga vida. Más que develar su cronología, lo que hace es incorporar elementos de ésta en lo que se podría llamar un testamento moral. La tesis principal es que la humanidad se ha deshumanizado, y si bien no da soluciones más allá de recuperar las utopías, la perspectiva de un escritor que vivió prácticamente todo el siglo XX no deja de ser relevante.

Es un ensayo oscuro pero no sin esperanza y con la prosa excepcional que caracteriza al escritor.

Sabato is a romantic and idealist living in an era when the triumph of capital and technology has rendered humans into little more than slaves of the machines they have created. He correctly points out the huge disparities of wealth in the world, caused by the single minded pursuit of money and markets to the detriment of social harmony and balance. The book is not a chronological account and jumps from subject to subject which can sometimes be frustrating to follow. But its brief account is not tedious and it brims with hope for humanity. His well-reasoned pleas will in the end fall on the deaf ears of the automatons who daily toil in their jobs, never questioning their predicament, or imagining that there is a more meaningful life, silently marching towards oblivion.