Customer Reviews

The Tunnel

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This amazing short novel (only about 100 pages)provides a view inside the mind of a man who is tortured by obsessive love for a woman who seems to be his mirror image; i.e., another tormented soul inhabiting the existential void. Or she may just be a superficial being who enjoys adding a famous painter to her list of conquests. The "action" takes place almost entirely in the mind of the narrator, Castel. We never really know who the few other characters are or what they are thinking. Sabato's ability to capture Castel's tortured thought processes is stunningly on point and makes for sometimes painful reading -- our 1990's psychology tells us Castel should have it all worked out; but the fact that he cannot escape his obsessions is the essence of his humanity. The bilingual edition makes it convenient to compare the translation with the original.

Mind's labyrinth has reached very few times such level of anxiety, desperation, loneliness, introspection and madness as you will experience with this story.

Ernesto Sabato wrote one of his three masterpieces with such eloquence and conviction that you will wonder after having read it why this monumental work is not better known.

This notable writer and thinker, not only paid his personal debt to Poe, but all a gallery of inquisitions, observations and statements about the human nature, will integrate this colossal portrait of Castel and Maria.

E.S.belongs to that dynasty of major Latin American novelists with admirable figures such Borges, Cabrera Infante, Cortazar, Quiroga, Asturias. He has been a man of sharp intelligence, astonishing erudiction and refined culture. I really hope you to read this book and from the first page you will be struggled by an invisible arm that will envolve you in this passionate and extraordinary portrait.

In last instance there was only a dark and lonely tunnel: mine!

This incredible little book is in fact an existential tour de force. Probably one of the most important short novels of the 20th century. If you speak spanish you can enjoy it in original, which is the only version in print at the moment.

Certainly not adecuate for troubled minds "El tunel" is basically the confession of a murderer. But you won't find the "usual" criminal here; along its first person, unrelenting narrative "El tunel" reveals how an intelligent and educated man can be driven to insanity and even crime by his own doubts and the obsessive strive for the love of a woman. Clever and gripping from beggining to end, "El tunel" clearly deserves to be placed in the first team of Argentine writing.

A painter observes people looking at his work at a gallery. He holds them in contempt. Then one woman seems to focus on the key element of one of his paintings. He becomes determined to find her, and find her he does.

Most of this novel happens in the painter's head. Interactions, or lack thereof, with the woman lead him to vastly over-think what has happened, and to create fanciful scenarios in explanation of what he does not know. In many cases his invented scenarios drive him to a lather. As the woman's life appears complicated, the painter has a lot to work with.

He eventually becomes obsessed with the woman's life, his knowledge of which is mostly of his own invention. The result is tragic.

Early on I was quite empathic with the painter, for I am one of those who over-thinks interactions with others. But as he moves toward obsession it becomes clear that he in not entirely sane. The denouement is a shock, and shows he has clearly crossed the line to insanity. The transition comes a bit suddenly for me, but I suppose there is no rational process by which someone goes insane.

If you like intense, psychological novels that play out in someone's mind you should like this one. It occurs to me that it is a bit like Dostoevsky writ small. But if you like your fiction to be about "real" actions rather imagined ones this is not the book for you.

The publisher provided me a copy for review.

Note that a 2012 reissue is planned: The Tunnel (Penguin Classics)

I am extremely disappointed that this is the first I have come across Ernesto Sabato because he is FANTASTIC! He has been compared to Gogol, Camus, Mann, and Greene and he certainly deserves that place amongst the greats. For the first time in almost 30 years, "The Tunnel" is being reprinted and it would behoove you to pick up a copy. I'm only thinking out for you on this one!

Though it was written in 1948, the story couldn't be more contemporary. The narrator, Juan Pablo Castel, is a successful artist who falls for a woman he sees at one of his exhibits. His adoration for her quickly becomes obsession and eventually paranoia which could put his love and life at risk.

The story is exceptional. It is dark, eerie, and has a very heavy atmosphere. Basically, it's everything that I look for in a book. The language is sublime and not a single word is wasted. Still, the most amazing aspect of the book is the narration. At first, it seems very straight-forward in which Castel speaks directly to the reader about his past infractions. However, it quickly becomes clear that Castel is not a reliable narrator and his paranoia has made him delusional. Therefore, the novel changes from being about a heinous act and becomes a psychological drama that spirals further and further into Castel's own psychosis. It is beautiful!

Juan Pablo Castel is a tormented and insane painter who falls for Maria, a woman he meets at an art exhibition. She is married to a blind man -the subject of Sabato and Saramago's obsession- and has a house in the countryside. She is also the mistress of her own cousin. Castel discovers this and goes mad with jealousy. We have no way to know the truth, because everything in the novel happens inside Castel's mind.

When I first read the novel, in 1989, I thought it was a great psychological thriller, a true gem of existentialism. My praise for it has diminished, though, as I have come to dislike the guy. On a superficial level, it's just about the mad obsession of a lonely and depressive loser who is unable to cope with his passion and that leads him to commit a crime. If you find it profound and revealing, then enjoy it.

Ernesto Sabato is best known for the second of his three novels, ''On Heroes and Tombs,'' a massive, intricate chronicle of murder and passion set in the Argentina of the 1950's. In his 1948 debut novel, ''The Tunnel,'' these themes are already on display, but in a simplified, almost fabulistic form. Mr. Sabato's narrator introduces himself, his crime and the object of his passion in the very first sentence: ''It should be sufficient to say that I am Juan Pablo Castel, the painter who killed Maria Iribarne.'' He then launches into an account of his affair with Maria, a married woman who first draws his attention at an art exhibit. Once their affair begins, however, her elusiveness provokes his jealousy, plunging him into a ''personal hell of analyzing and imagining.'' Does she see other men? Does she actually love her frail, blind husband? Does she love Castel himself? His attempts to answer these questions grow increasingly contorted and obsessive; finally, his crazed solipsism displaces romantic passion as the real subject of the novel. While Castel crouches, knife in hand, in the shrubbery outside Maria's weekend retreat, he makes his condition explicit: ''After all there was only one tunnel, dark and solitary: mine, the tunnel in which I had spent my childhood, my youth, my entire life.'' When it was first published in Spanish, ''The Tunnel'' won the applause of Thomas Mann and Albert Camus and was described as an existentialist classic. Still, in this fine new translation by Margaret Sayers Peden, Mr. Sabato's novel retains a chilling, memorable power.

esta pequena novela, nos muestra la mentalidad torcida de un hombre quien mata a la mujer que supuestamente ama ya que es la unica capaz de descifrar su cuadro y por ende de entenderlo, de entender ese mundo enmartanado en que vive, lleno de obsesiones y de celos, un mundo muy parecido al del personaje de crimen y castigo, en que la soledad ha mermado al personaje hasta hacerlo un guinapo. muy buena lectura.

LUIS MENDEZ luismendez@codetel.net.do

juan pablo castel is the mind of men who strive to find a meaning to their existence. juan pablo's mind is a world of fanatasies that puts him on the verge of reality. here we have to examine the labyrinth of his mind and find that all he was searching for is merely the return to his infancy. we shouldnt be surprised that every men with an extraordinary intelligence, finds himself trapped in this purposeless universe. when men discover that they're left alone responsible for their actions, they seek nourishment from an idealized concept. in this case, this concept is maria iribarne. knowing that god doesn't exist (at least in the way we wish to beleive) juan pablo travels backwards in time to the origin with the hope of understanding his chaotic existence. this is where juan pablo becomes an existentialistic individual who simply wishes to be non-existential. the tunnel here refers simply to his mind. castel finds himself in the middle of nowhere, with no purpose at all. the paint refers to the door that will open his mind to maria that represents an illogical mind. though from the surface, we might think that it is castel's mind that's twisted, unpredictable and perhaps deviant, i must say that there exist order, pattern, and lucidity. it is maria's mind that is illogical with a lack of sense of the world that surrounds her. castel is the only victim of a cruel and insensible game that leads him to the deepest state of mind that could be nearly impossible to recover from.