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Luis Sepulveda

Peter Bush

The Old Man Who Read Love Stories Paperback – July 14, 1995

by Luis Sepúlveda (Author)

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In a remote river town deep in the Ecuadoran jungle, Antonio José Bolívar seeks refuge in amorous novels. But tourists and opportunists are making inroads into the area, and the balance of nature is making a dangerous shift. Translated by Peter Bush.

Print length

144 pages
Language

English
Publisher

HarperVia
Publication date

July 14, 1995
Dimensions

5.25 x 0.36 x 8 inches
ISBN-10

0156002728
ISBN-13

978-0156002721
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In a remote Ecuadorean river town, an elderly widower-who finds comfort in reading romance novels brought to him by the visiting dentist-joins in the hunt for an enraged ocelot whose cubs were killed by a gold prospector.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Luis Sepúlveda (born October 4, 1949) is a Chilean writer, film director, journalist and political activist. Luis Sepúlveda was born in Ovalle in Chile in 1949. After secondary school in Santiago, he studied theatre production at the National University. In 1969, Sepúlveda was given a five-year scholarship to continue his drama studies at the Moscow University, but it was withdrawn after five months on account of 'misconduct' (he made friends with some dissidents, and had to go back to Chile).

Luis Sepúlveda was politically active first as a leader of the student movement and in the Salvador Allende administration in the department of cultural affairs where he was in charge of a series of cheap editions of classics for the general public. He also acted as a mediator between the government and Chilean companies. After the Chilean coup of 1973 which brought to power General Augusto Pinochet he was jailed for two-and-a-half years and then obtained a conditional release through the efforts of the German branch of Amnesty International and was kept under house arrest. He managed to escape and went underground for nearly a year. With the help of a friend who was head of the Alliance française in Valparaíso he set up a drama group that became the first cultural focus of resistance. He was rearrested and given a life sentence (later reduced to twenty-eight years) for treason and subversion. The German section of Amnesty International intervened again and his prison sentence was commuted to eight years of exile, and in 1977 he left Chile to fly to Sweden where he was supposed to teach Spanish literature. At the first stopover in Buenos Aires he escaped and managed to go to Uruguay but since many of his Uruguayan and Argentinian friends were dead or in prison because of the respective dictatorships he went first to São Paulo in Brazil and then to Paraguay. He had to leave again because of the local regime and finally settled in Quito in Ecuador guest of his friend Jorge Enrique Adoum.

He directed the Alliance Française theatre, founded a theatrical company and took part in a UNESCO expedition to assess the impact of colonization on the Shuar Indians. During the expedition he shared the life of the Shuars for seven months and came to an understanding of Latin America as a multicultural and multilingual continent where the Marxism-Leninism he was taught was not applicable to a rural population that was dependent on its surrounding natural environment. He worked in close contact with Indian organizations and drafted the first literacy teaching plan for the Ibambura peasants' federation, in the Andes.

In 1979 he joined the Simón Bolívar international brigade which was fighting in Nicaragua and after the victory of the revolution he started working as a journalist and one year later he left for Europe.He went to Hamburg in Germany because of his admiration of German literature (he learnt the language in prison) especially the romantics as Novalis and Friedrich Hölderlin and worked there as journalist traveling widely in Latin America and Africa.I n 1982 he came in contact with Greenpeace and worked until 1987 as a crewmember on one of their ships. He later acted as co-ordinator between various branches of the organization.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ HarperVia; First edition (July 14, 1995)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 144 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0156002728
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0156002721
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 4.3 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.25 x 0.36 x 8 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #180,513 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,952 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction
- #11,382 in American Literature (Books)
- #11,511 in Literary Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
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Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5

142 global ratings

5 star		79%
4 star		15%
3 star		4%
2 star		1%
1 star		1%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Bre

Best Assigned Reading Book

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 12, 2016

Verified Purchase

This was a very good book that I had to read for my English 101 course. My professor picked the book because it was the shortest book and based on her previous students they tended to like this book compared to the other reading list options.

Sepulveda's writing style is very descriptive and captivating, The different character voices had me in awe as they didn't all sound the same. I have never stepped foot in a jungle let alone one in Ecuador.

There are eight chapters total in the book and I'm sure it could be read in under 3 days total. There are very graphic and violent scenes that can be little disturbing throughout the book. There is strong language in this book which expresses a variety of curse words but does not contain any F-bombs. There is also sexual content but mostly expressing the differences in culture.

I do not recommend this book to younger audiences such as under highschool age. But to anyone else I DO recommend to give this book a chance and by the end of the first chapter the real stuff literally had me turning the pages. Sepulveda;s characters are very 3-dimensional espcially the old man.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Jenna

Great Book

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 26, 2022

Verified Purchase

I had to read this book for a class, expecting to be bored out of my mind, but I could not put it down. Although a short read, a great book. Very graphic descriptions but overall, loved the story behind it.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 21, 2010

Verified Purchase

Antonio Jose Bolivar Proano aka "old man" forgot he knew how to read. Reading had been so foreign to him. The only time he read was during election time which occurred very seldom in El Idilio==a town with few inhabitants. Being able to read was a requirement for voting, a process Antonio did not fully understand. It was not until two government officials set up a table to give the inhabitants of El Idilio the opportunity to cast their secret ballot for the upcoming presidential election that Antonio remembered he could read. This new and exciting revelation sent Antonio on a mission to find books he could enjoy reading.

"It was the most important discovery of his whole life. He could read. He possessed the antidote to the deadly poison of old age. He could read. But he had nothing to read."

After traveling to El Dorado and going through numerous books in the library, Antonio finally comes across a book that keeps his attention.

Sepulveda takes the story further inserting wit, humor, and sarcasm, to explore the issues of a "civilized population" attempt to belittle and force their way of life on unsuspecting natives or the "uncivilized population." Though it is the "uncivilized population" who have mastered and understands what it takes to live in the jungles, it is the "civilized population" who finds themselves inept in surviving the same terrains.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Kathryn Boyd Lane

A gem in the jungle

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 12, 2013

Verified Purchase

The South American author Luis Sepulveda, who sometimes lives in Germany and the former Yugoslavia, having been cast out of most of South Ameica, is a master in the use of language (although very likely some of the plaudits most go to his translator). The lead character in the short novel is a backjungle recluse, who, having discovered that he can read, even though he wasn't sure he could, finds new life in books. He takes six months a volume, which might be a lesson for the rest of us who rush through books in a day or so, and having tried all different kinds of books, finds that he much prefers love stories. When an injured jungle cat threatens his village, the old man is forced to set his books aside, and, call on the skills learned from the Indians during a former life.

I discovered this wonderful volume when it was mentioned in the foreign film, "My afternoons with Margueritte" which I would also like to recommend.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

c

Compelling story, gorgeous writing.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 8, 2019

Verified Purchase

Vivid, crisp and poetic. Has that South American almost-but-not-quite fantasy feel. Somehow rich and spare at the same time.

An engrossing story that conveys some of the ways experience can shape perspective. It touches on cultural and environmental issues and on consciousness, but the story is front and center and the book is hard to put down.

A lot of writing pontiffs say that one should never to open a story with the weather. This is an example of why some rules were made to be broken. If you can write like Sepulveda, open however you please.

3 people found this helpful

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Gerry Durisin

My first novel by Luis Sepulveda won't be my last

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 29, 2020

Verified Purchase

I would love to read more by Sepúlveda, who died in April 2020 from COVID-19. That his first novel, about an old man in the Amazonian jungle, could so enthrall me, seems to bode very well for the quality of his subsequent works. His writing is spare but evocative, bringing the setting and his characters clearly to life without a single wasted word.

Helpful

Jessica

I would of thought this was about a love story but it was more of adventure...

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 11, 2016

Verified Purchase

A really interesting book I had to read for my english class. I would of thought this was about a love story but it was more of adventure in the jungle kind of book. With some mystery toss in here and there. And dead people. I usually don't finish most of the book I read but this book kept me hooked on the entire time. Definitely a fun book to read on your free time.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

R. Averett

Interesting book and author

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 22, 2020

Verified Purchase

This was a first time read for me and I will enjoy more of this interesting author.

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

A Desert Island Pick.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 14, 2017

Verified Purchase

A book i consider a literary and personal reference.
One of the books that has touched me the most. Sepulveda's writing is grounded in deep humanism and humility.
And his humanism is one which embraces the Earth and the consciousness of the natural world.
This book is sadly, so relevant to our off-kilter times. The forests are crying.