Customer Reviews

The Centaur in the Garden

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What a book. That's one of those books that keep you turning the pages rapidly, until you get to the end. But then you just have to take another look at the first pages, and before you know it you are in the middle of a second round. The main character tells his story retrospectively, starting from the night a winged horse flew over his parents house at the time of his birth - a Jewish Centaur somewhere in Brazil. His parents are terrified at first, but afterwards he is grown as a regular... well, centaur. It's no use even trying to tell anything of this strange, fascinating book. Two things, however, are certain: this is a book that you will be thinking about for a long, long time, and this is NOT a children's book. Read it. If I can't convince you... well, imagine yourself living your life without knowing that "One hundred years of solitude" existed. What a loss.

"The Centaur in the Garden" is a superb novel by Brazilian writer Moacyr Scliar. The text has been translated from Portuguese into English by Margaret A. Neves. This brilliant fantasy describes the life of Guedali Tartakovsky, who is born to a Russian Jewish family that has emigrated to Brazil. The family is shocked when, at the baby's birth, they discover that he is a centaur: a being who is human from the waist up, but who possesses a horse's four-legged body below.

The novel's hero thus enters the world marked as an outsider. As his life unfolds, we see his quest to educate himself, to embrace his Jewish identity, to experience sex, to find love, and ultimately to determine his place in the world. Along the way are many stunning surprises--for both Guedali and the reader.

"Centaur" seems to me to exemplify the concept of "magical realism." The book deftly blends elements of fantasy, science fiction, and social satire. Scliar explores many types of relationship: between European and Native American, Jew and Gentile, man and woman, parent and child. This is a deeply moving, truly brilliant novel by one of the most extraordinary voices in Latin American literature.

This book written by Moacyr Scliar can be hard to find. I happened to come across it by accident when browsing books at the bookstore. The moderately popular book, "Max and the Cats", attracted me but it appeared too short for me. I wanted something more substantial to read. So, I searched for other books and this one was the other novel available. All other novels by Scliar are out-of-print. You can however get his other books probably through another library if your library does not own it.

It would be unfair to go beyond the description of the novel. So, I will start with the main character, Guedali Tartakowsky, who is a centaur born into a normal Jewish family. Amazingly, his family tries everything so that he fits into their small community. There are clashes with other people as Guedali wants to escape the safety of his family to meet others. It may seem a little mystical and ridiculous. But, Guedali is not so unlike everyone else who must find himself by living on his own. Many of the qualities in Guedali shows how much more human than us. He may have hooves but his emotions and longing to be accepted and thoughts about growing up normal.

Our reaction to deformities resonates strongly in today's society. If we could change things like remove a large mold, then would it significantly change our life for the better? In most cases, the answer is yes and who knows if the mold was malignant. But, what if it is not so bad and everyone around doesn't mind it. Would you risk changing it for other people who feel uncomfortable? That may be a complete simplification of Guedali's problem but you see where I am going...

So many issues are addressed about knowing yourself. What makes you happy? How do you deal with matters of your identity as a Jew? Who are really your friends or enemies? How does society deal with such deformities? Do other people with this deformity handle daily situations? Scliar deals with all of these issues with a good balance between humor and seriousness. This version is a good translation and no real problems in reading this English print.

This fable (or is it a true story) of a man who is born with the body of a horse is more about the man becoming who he is that what he thought he was. After spending most of his life running away (pun intended) from being different, he becomes comfortable with that difference. This is really a story of what it's like to be an outsider trying to fit in, and in many ways, what it means to be different even among the outsiders.

A Jewish Centaur, what could be more of an outsider. Even though he tries to be a Jew (he is circumcised and bar mitvah-ed); but because he has four hooves (duh!) he is ashamed of what he is. Running away from home and joining the circus and becoming a star is one way of using his 'uniqueness'. But after a while he has to leave because he tries to be like everyone else, and that can't be allowed. He meets a female centaur and they develop a sympathetic relationship. Who else but another centaur can understand what they are going through?

But because he is jewish and she isn't (he wants her to convert) they can't have a full relationship. Face it, even among the outsiders, you have to conform to be accepted. After they have operations to make them bipedal, they still are different because they still have one set of hooves which they hide from the world. Eventually they move into a gated community where they and their friends create their own world. But he is not happy, he wants to be a centaur again. In the end he realizes that he is the same person on the inside and that the rest is just cosmetic.

The power of this story, and the translation is done beautifully, is the 'normalness' the Skleer brings to life. (I mean except for the centaur thing.) A marvelous story of the power of love and the ability of all people and things to find their place in the world if they only look inside themselves.

Zeb Kantrowitz

I read Scliar's columns in the newspapers regularly, but this was the first of his novels that I read. Scliar has recently been accepted to the ABL (Brazilian Academy of Literature) and while reading about him I came across several people's opinions on this book saying it was one of his best work. I can't really compare it to any other book he wrote, however I can say that this story kept me interested from beginning to end. The interesting thing is how the character tries so hard to fit into society, in spite of his "handicap" which cannot be easily hidden. I kept thinking about how I would react if I were in his situation, with the same "problem". When you think that nothing else will happen, there's a nice twist in the end. This is a great book. I recommend it.

This book is hard to describe without the plot sounding like a dream, or a narrative for a children's book... its about the life of boy born a centaur, who doesn't want to be one. And then is confused about what this means for his sense of self. But it is oddly absorbing-- I definitely could not put it down, and the plot unfolded in an urgent way that left me disturbed and excited to see what would happen next. It also sort of made me examine my own life, in terms of whether I am true to my sense of self. In this way I see the connections to Kafka (besides the obvious cockroach-metamorphosis thing). Anyway, a very interesting read.

The story is about a person who is born as a centaur. It may seem foolish and nonsense, but it isn't. The book deals with the problems any "human being" half hoarse would sufer. Telling you more of the story would take the enjoyment out.

It is great: the reader will imidiatively see that he is a centaur himself. How? The society demands us to be padronized, identical with each other, but we just can't and shouldn't! We are different, no matter how we try being as our neighbor, in other words, each of us are centaurs in same way. We must have our diferencies (unfortunetlty, some people want to be the same as the "majority", the so called "normal people"). That's the meaning of the book.

(You americans should try reading books from authors of my country. Then you'll find out how rich and great our literature is.)