A Brief Life [Hardcover]

Juan Carlos Onetti (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1976

The English translation of a novel by the Uruguayan novelist Juan Carlos Onetti, which concerns an advertising copywriter who seeks release both from himself and the physical world that torments him.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This novel by the Uruguayan author of the acclaimed The Shipyard (Classic Returns, LJ 7/93) concerns Breusen, who seeks to escape the dreary existence of his everyday life by channeling his consciousness into other people--some real, some imagined. A solid title for public and academic foreign literature collections.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Review

"'Latin American literature has few secrets to divulge to the English speaking world, but one of them is the Uruguayan novelist Juan Carlos Onetti' Guardian 'Laconic, elegant, literary' London Review of Books 'Onetti's novels and stories are the foundation stones of our modernity. To those of us who are his followers, he brings a lesson of narrative intelligence and of immense love for the literary imagination' Carlos Fuentes" --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 292 pages
• Publisher: Viking Pr (January 1976)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670190691
• ISBN-13: 978-0670190690
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,019,685 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The creation of a new territory in literature, February 20, 2001

By 

Patricio O'Kon - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Brief Life (Extraordinary Classics) (Paperback)

This book was fist published in 1950 (yes, 50 years ago!) and although it has not achieved the "fame" as others latin american books that later exploded in the so called boom, ABL was the first in many things:

1) It created the concept of a new way to write. The mixture of reality and fiction and then this two again (but is this not magical realism?) permits the reader to ellaborate many a book within the book, as then a lot of writers did

2) Onetti is usually "benchmarked" with Faulkner. Yes, they both created their own space (Santa Maria) but there is where the similarities stop. Santa Maria is the first Macondo, the newest, paradoxically, way to be at leisure in its own territory.

3)Onetti's book was not an instant hit, but in certain circles , and thru viral marketing, ABL virtually dissappeared. The same happened later with other books, especially with the first edition of 100 years of Solitude.

Finally, ABL created the first step in the ladder of extraordinary works of art that came out of Latin America in the 50/60s, that, again, was badly depicted as a boom. It was more the creation of a new current, and a new way to say, new, and old things.

This book will allow you to fully understand this period, and it will open and broaden the way you read

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars remains relevant, January 1, 2010

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Brief Life (Extraordinary Classics) (Paperback)

In Santa Rose, Brausen has mixed feelings about being the caretaker of his wife who has been ill for a long time. On the one hand he misses their caresses and kisses while on the other he feels guilt for being increasingly non-understanding and empathetic towards her.

To mentally survive, he has become a listening voyeur as he listens through the wall to the married couple next door making love. He fantasizes that it is he kissing the breasts, scar and long legs of Gertrudis. Over time that becomes not been enough; so in between the neighbors' sexual trysts, he fills the void by creating the adventures of Dr. Diaz Grey in the make believe town of Santa Maria. Tired, Brausen seeks emotional escape from his all too lonely "brief life".

This is a reprint translation of a super 1950 tale that remains relevant even more so today than when the late great Uruguayan author Juan Carlos Onetti wrote it. The story line is filtered through the battered mind of Brausen who emotionally, mentally, and physically is feeling the toll of his wife's illness and has turned to neighbors serendipitously and his imagination for escape from reality. Readers will appreciate this cautionary tale in which Mr. Onetti almost six decades ago warned society to not ignore the plight of a family caretaker who will feel immense stroke level pressure; as it is easy to sympathize with the sick person but not the seemingly healthy individual caring for the long term ill loved one.

Harriet Klausner