Customer Reviews

La voragine / The Vortex (Intemporales) (Spanish Edition)

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1 star:		(2)

 

 

The style and the content of this novel are unique. The language is beautiful and the story engrossing, but don't pick it up to learn elementary or intermediate spanish-- it's too difficult. On the other hand, if you want to experience natural, silky Latin American spanish prose at it's finest this book is for you. It provides a unique glimpse into life on the rubber plantations that vanished with the advent of new technology. it's a great adventure story, and it's written in exemplary and, at times, poetic, idiomatic spanish.

Jose Eustacio Rivera was in New York working on a North American edition when he died of pneumonia on his 39th birthday.

I'm biased, in the way that this is my all time favourite, not only because of the narrative, but also because of the prosaic poetry.

When you read this book, you feel swallowed by the jungle, in the same way that you feel like fighting a marlin in "The Old Man and the Sea". But beleive me, you won't feel a bullhorn through your head (litterally), except when you read it.

When I left Colombia, I tried and bring the book with me, but I left it there, halfway through the story. I can finally have it back. It just feels right when you are Colombian and read this book.

Now, I can't speak for the non-spanish talkers, but I know as a fact that the biggest context that you can put yourself to read a book like this is to imagine to be a latin american. But I'll say that you won't feel dissapointed by the pace.

You'll feel the jungle getting thicker when you turn the pages.

Together with Garcia Márquez, Jorge Isaacs and Tomás Carasquilla, Jose Eustasio Rivera is one of the great colombian and latinamerican writers.

Garcia Maquez has written to the world about the "bananero" crisis and Colombia, while Rivera does the same but for the "caucho" plantations situation.

This book is written with probably the same passion that Vincent van Gogh painted. Once you start reading it you will be inmersed in a world that is probably new to you, that of the inclemencies of the south american "selvas" (jungles) and the way they devour those who defy them.

This book is definitely worth reading and is written in a fast paced elegant Spanish.

This was a school reading and it wasnt good at all..very difficult to read and you should stay away from it...

How can I describe the effort it took for me to read this book? It took me almost a month to complete this novel! Not only does the author enjoy writing long, involved sentences, but he makes the narrator, Arturo Cova, drag out his interpretation of every event. I understand that this novel is considered "great" because of its contextual importance (the rubber trees in Colombia and Brazil), but I much preferred the "great" land books Don Segundo Sombra and Dona Barbara. Don't read this book unless you are required to do so.