Perpendicular Lives
Book
Paperback/Softback
120 pages
978-1-62897-514-7 (ISBN)
Description
Born under strange circumstances to a high-society teenager and a pentagenarian
entrepreneur, Jeronimo Rodriguez Loera is off to an inauspicious start-then things get worse.
Through an assemblage of records, letters, and firsthand testimony of Jeronimo's past lives,
Alvaro Enrigue creates a rich, observant, and dryly humorous account of class and clashing in
Mexican society. Perpendicular Lives opens in 1930s Guadalajara, but as Jeronimo struggles toward maturity in a
family plagued with infidelities, vanities, and favoritism, the story delves into Jeronimo's
previous lives as, among others, the Mongolian widow of a cloth merchant and a monkhunter
with a penchant for gunslinging and public defecation. Under the breakdown of his ostensible
parents' marriage, political turmoil, and the hypocrisy of New World gentry, Jeronimo must
fight for his place in his family-and the world.
Named as one of the Bogota39 and recipient of the Joaquin Moritz Prize, Alvaro Enrigue is one
of the foremost voices in Latin American literature. In Perpendicular Lives, Enrigue's historical
genius and mastery of myriad genres create an unconventional, unforgettable narrative that
evokes the wry humor of Twain and the formal freedom of Joyce. The result is a mind-bending and absurdist bildungsroman that explores the meaning of the ties that bind us across class,
continents, and time.
entrepreneur, Jeronimo Rodriguez Loera is off to an inauspicious start-then things get worse.
Through an assemblage of records, letters, and firsthand testimony of Jeronimo's past lives,
Alvaro Enrigue creates a rich, observant, and dryly humorous account of class and clashing in
Mexican society. Perpendicular Lives opens in 1930s Guadalajara, but as Jeronimo struggles toward maturity in a
family plagued with infidelities, vanities, and favoritism, the story delves into Jeronimo's
previous lives as, among others, the Mongolian widow of a cloth merchant and a monkhunter
with a penchant for gunslinging and public defecation. Under the breakdown of his ostensible
parents' marriage, political turmoil, and the hypocrisy of New World gentry, Jeronimo must
fight for his place in his family-and the world.
Named as one of the Bogota39 and recipient of the Joaquin Moritz Prize, Alvaro Enrigue is one
of the foremost voices in Latin American literature. In Perpendicular Lives, Enrigue's historical
genius and mastery of myriad genres create an unconventional, unforgettable narrative that
evokes the wry humor of Twain and the formal freedom of Joyce. The result is a mind-bending and absurdist bildungsroman that explores the meaning of the ties that bind us across class,
continents, and time.
Reviews / Votes
"A story of history plunging forward and the world at a defining moment. Rackets are raised; the court looms large. Finally a tale that truly defies the bounds of the novel."-Enrique Vila-MatasMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Normal, IL
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 215 mm
Width: 139 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-62897-514-7 (9781628975147)
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Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Alvaro Enrigue was a Cullman Center Fellow and a Fellow at the Princeton University Program in Latin American Studies. He has taught at New York University, Princeton University, the University of Maryland, and Columbia University. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Believer, The White Review, n+1, London Review of Books, El Pais, among others. This novel-his first translated into English-was awarded the prestigious Herralde Prize in Spain, the Elena Poniatowska International Novel Award in Mexico, and the Barcelona Prize for Fiction, and has been translated into many languages. Enrigue was born in Mexico and lives in New York City.