- Hardcover: 330 pages
- Publisher: Quercus (20 Nov 2008)
- Language English, Spanish
- ISBN-10: 1847244858
- ISBN-13: 978-1847244857
- Product Dimensions: 21.8 x 14.2 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 728,911 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Armies
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Amazon.co.uk Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
Unquestionably one of the most important Latin American novels of the last few years - El Universal
...a timeless epic...which intends to bear witness to the madness of a country adrift in the crossfire - El Pais
… discomfiting evocation of the turmoil wrought on ordinary lives by conflict … heart-wrenching - Metro.
It is a story of horror and despair, beautifully told - Standpoint Magazine.
The Armies is a swift and engaging piece of prose. In Anne McLean's fine translation, often beautifully rhythmic and economical, Ismael's voice brings the reader into the heart of the human experience …. Evelio Rosero's book is all the more powerful for it - The Independent.
Rosero's ability to depict vulnerability and insanity is unrivalled, and his style favours precision over description. He has that ability that distinguishes great writers: an ability to peer into the human heart. The result is a well-grounded narrative form with a strong sense of direction that carries the reader on its shoulders almost effortlessly - Latin American Review of Books.
...a timeless epic...which intends to bear witness to the madness of a country adrift in the crossfire - El Pais
… discomfiting evocation of the turmoil wrought on ordinary lives by conflict … heart-wrenching - Metro.
It is a story of horror and despair, beautifully told - Standpoint Magazine.
The Armies is a swift and engaging piece of prose. In Anne McLean's fine translation, often beautifully rhythmic and economical, Ismael's voice brings the reader into the heart of the human experience …. Evelio Rosero's book is all the more powerful for it - The Independent.
Rosero's ability to depict vulnerability and insanity is unrivalled, and his style favours precision over description. He has that ability that distinguishes great writers: an ability to peer into the human heart. The result is a well-grounded narrative form with a strong sense of direction that carries the reader on its shoulders almost effortlessly - Latin American Review of Books.
El Pais
...a timeless epic...which intends to bear witness to the madness of a country adrift in the crossfire
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Conventionally, novels dealing with conflict are fairly closely linked to reality, to the specifics of a given historical event. Think of all the novels depicting a the World Wars, Vietnam, Cambodia or the ongoing atrocities between the Israelis and the Palestinians. The point of these books is very often to give a human face, an emotional understanding to great historical events. I mention this, because on the face of it 'The Armies' looks set to do the same thing set as it is in a small town in Colombia that becomes the frontline in fighting between the military and unnamed rebel forces.
In fact though, Rosero's book sticks two fingers up at the conventions of the war novel. Here is a book called 'The Armies' that never once talks about the combattants, neither to explain who they are nor why they are fighting. This novel, from the outset sets to ridicule the reader and war reporting in general; Rosero seems to say 'you want to know about every horror, every detail but you don't care why this is happening, so I won't tell you'. As if to underline this voyeuristic element of war reportage, Rosero gives us a central protagonist a dirty old man, a lech, a peeping Tom.
This is a novel that will tell you nothing about Colombia and nothing about the origin or context of the conflict it portrays. Instead it delights in showing you in graphic detail the confusion and depravity that such a conflict engenders. The reviewers listed on this site praised the book for its depiction of the horrors of war and its emotional impact, but to do this without social or historical context is simply to revel in plumbing the depths of human behaviour.
Right to the end, the 'Profesor' (our lecherous, yet respected former school teacher narrator) takes in as much as he can of what is going on around him. He's an elderly man, yet he doesn't decide to hide from the action, to cower in fear. No, he decides to go around the town, ostensibly looking for his wife. The novel is fuelled not by a coventional story but by the human desire to observe, to see the affliction of others no matter how terrible. Our 'Profesor' states that he wants to be put out of his misery, but it is not because he is suffering - he seems immune to the privations of food, comfort or sleep - but because in observing the horrors around him and the women in particular, he knows he is doing that he shouldn't. The message is overt and accusatory: Why are you reading about all this horrible stuff and legitimising it as emotional reportage? That his novel has gone on to win prizes for its emotional portrayal of the horrors of conflict is I'm sure, a delicious irony not lost on its author.
In fact though, Rosero's book sticks two fingers up at the conventions of the war novel. Here is a book called 'The Armies' that never once talks about the combattants, neither to explain who they are nor why they are fighting. This novel, from the outset sets to ridicule the reader and war reporting in general; Rosero seems to say 'you want to know about every horror, every detail but you don't care why this is happening, so I won't tell you'. As if to underline this voyeuristic element of war reportage, Rosero gives us a central protagonist a dirty old man, a lech, a peeping Tom.
This is a novel that will tell you nothing about Colombia and nothing about the origin or context of the conflict it portrays. Instead it delights in showing you in graphic detail the confusion and depravity that such a conflict engenders. The reviewers listed on this site praised the book for its depiction of the horrors of war and its emotional impact, but to do this without social or historical context is simply to revel in plumbing the depths of human behaviour.
Right to the end, the 'Profesor' (our lecherous, yet respected former school teacher narrator) takes in as much as he can of what is going on around him. He's an elderly man, yet he doesn't decide to hide from the action, to cower in fear. No, he decides to go around the town, ostensibly looking for his wife. The novel is fuelled not by a coventional story but by the human desire to observe, to see the affliction of others no matter how terrible. Our 'Profesor' states that he wants to be put out of his misery, but it is not because he is suffering - he seems immune to the privations of food, comfort or sleep - but because in observing the horrors around him and the women in particular, he knows he is doing that he shouldn't. The message is overt and accusatory: Why are you reading about all this horrible stuff and legitimising it as emotional reportage? That his novel has gone on to win prizes for its emotional portrayal of the horrors of conflict is I'm sure, a delicious irony not lost on its author.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is a tremendously focused, first-person account of the horrors of being caught up in a war that settles upon a poor Columbian town like a pestilence. Why are the townsfolk so passively accepting? And how would we be in the same circumstance? This fine novel, excellently translated by Anne McLean, provokes much thought, much soul-searching. It is not a cheerful subject. Thank God it is so well-constructed. The fine, flowing, sometimes stream-of-consciousness prose compels our attention as we journey towards an inevitable, and very dark conclusion. Sobering, but recommended.
Format:Paperback
Beautifully written, but shocking. It starts slowly and somewhat unpromisingly - I had to check the back cover text to remind myself what it was about, as the first chapter has an old man watching his neighbour sunbathing naked. But the way it is written matches the changing pace of life from fairly normal (read: slow) to what happens when the front line of war reaches the village. The reviewer of a later edition gives a fantastic summary in her review: The Armies (New Directions Paperbook) You can read many things into this book's existence as other reviewers have suggested, which is no bad thing, but you can also get caught up in the story and enjoy some quality writing.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Was this review helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
