Loves That Bind [Hardcover]

Julian Rios (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 28, 1998

From one of Spain's most distinguished--and daring--writers comes this intensely erotic and shamelessly literary adventure through the streets of London.

Emil, the mysterious narrator, has been abandoned by the woman he loves. Filled with doubt and nostalgia, bent on therapy or distraction or revenge, he wanders the city in search of her. Driven by the anguish of rejection and desire, he writes twenty-six letters to his fugitive lover, each an intricately detailed account of his affairs with twenty-six women who
preceded her. Each of these figures bears an uncanny resemblance to a famous literary heroine, from Proust's Albertine to Fitzgerald's Daisy to Nabokov's Lolita to Queneau's Zazie.

One by one, in alphabetical order, Emil's letters adopt the tone, style, and substance of the great novelists of the twentieth century, while, in recollection, his past love affairs grow increasingly extravagant and hallucinatory. As we follow his physical and creative journey, we try to unravel fact from fantasy, emotion from delusion, while searching for clues to the novel's amorous alphabet, the building blocks of modernist and postmodernist literature.

A seductive puzzle saturated with wordplay, Loves That Bind is a linguistic tour de force of remarkable agility and wit.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Literary love letters or love letters to literature? Each of the 26 missives in Julián Ríos's Loves That Bind stands for one love affair, one letter of the alphabet, one famous literary heroine. As the narrator Emil moons around London mourning the disappearance of his latest lady friend, he embarks on a most unusual way of getting her back: an alphabetical catalogue of his past passions, all of whom look oddly familiar. Witness this homage to a fellow linguistic magician: "Lo! Lovely! No, how terrible: she has returned. The living image. In her majorette or is it minorette pink miniskirt, closing and opening-closing-opening her knees." Or this irreverent reworking of one of the most famous passages in 20th-century literature: "...she roundly refused to rehearse the original scene of the chamber pot when she spoke in streams, the streams of gold of Erin, that coursing current, and had to say in her Irish accent L'odore, L'eau d'or, je suis ravie, content in the shower of gold, the waters of Lahore pouring now, those of the Orinoco rushing now, go to hell! And she said no I won't No." Translator Edith Grossman reproduces the quicksilver turnings of R&iacoute;os's prose with wondrous skill--no small task, given his predilection for wordplay and puns. There's a fine line between the pleasures of seduction and the pleasures of language, and Ríos straddles it with infectious delight. Part satire, part inspired postmodern pastiche, Loves That Bind woos the reader with both sensuality and wit. --Mary Park

From Booklist

This inventive yet sweet novel by one of Europe's most imaginative and playful novelists engages first the mind and eventually the heart. Emil, our poor, bedraggled narrator, addresses his many stories and musings to the mysterious woman who abandoned him. Wandering about London, he recounts his past lovers, a sort of postmodern version of Julio Iglesias singing "To All the Girls I've Loved Before." In true Rios manner, the list follows alphabetically and contains only women who bear a striking resemblance to literary heartbreakers, beginning with Proust's Albertine, Fitzgerald's Daisy, and on to Nabokov's Lolita. This could all be construed as fun and games--indeed, Rios includes a heady dose of wordplay and punning--or perhaps as mere frustration for those not up on their world literature. But Rios--the author of Larva: Midsummer's Night's Babel (1990) and Poundemonium (1997)--is after more than this. Emil's obsessive musings about these grand, extravagant loves serves to contextualize, memorialize, and, in a strange way, humanize his own lost love. It is as though only by invoking literary archetype can this most erudite and experimental of novelists make an ex-lover come movingly to life. Cerebral stuff but also passionate. Expertly and stylishly translated by Edith Grossman. Brian Kenney

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 243 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; First edition. edition (April 28, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375400583
• ISBN-13: 978-0375400582
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,883,281 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing!, August 27, 1998

By 

Evic846 "belleslettres" (Bloomfield, New Jersey USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Loves That Bind (Hardcover)

Mr. Rios' tour de force performance reminded me of the defunct TV show "The Copy Cats" (subtitled "The Impressionist"). Although I must admit, there were a few heroines/authors I drew blanks on, this did not keep me from enjoying Rios' delightful play on words! If his aim was to dazzle his reader with the broadness of his literary knowledge and wit, he has succeeded superbly ... at least with this reader. I kept wishing my Spanish was good enough so I could read this in the original version, perhaps read both versions in tandem for a double shot of delight!

5.0 out of 5 stars Loves that Bind Review/Opinion by Maylin Ramos, July 22, 2011

By 

Maylin Ramos - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Loves That Bind: A Novel (Paperback)

This novel is insane and strange, yet fulfilling. Rios painted a masterpiece, containing everything from sexual orgies to love, betrayal, friendship, hate, and murder; providing the reader with a sense of `experience'.
The narrator, Emil, is filled with despair and disillusion when he realizes that the woman he loves has abandoned him. The novel consists of chapters that begin alphabetically as Emil wanders around the city of London in search of his lost love. He hopes that one day she will receive these letters.
As the novel progresses, he encounters several affairs; increasingly scandalous events that will change the way you view life.

2 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A book to avoid, May 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Loves That Bind: A Novel (Paperback)

It is beyond me why so many people thinks this book is so inventive and entertaining. To me it is nothing but a literary trick, and the trick is on the reader. The style is precious. The story (or what loose fragments there are) is hard to follow, and the subject is not sufficiently interesting to make it worth the considerable effort Rios demands from the reader.

If you are interested in contemporary Spanish fiction, forget Rios and read Javier Marias who, before long, will surely win -- and deserve -- the Nobel Prize. Julian Rios is a pretender. Javier Marias is the real thing.