- Paperback: 122 pages
- Publisher: Noonday Pr (Sep 1990)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0374522391
- ISBN-13: 978-0374522391
- Product Dimensions: 20.6 x 13.7 x 1 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 3,753,287 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
A novel which describes the last few hours in the life of an unnamed young man who is on the run in Havana during the violent tyranny of Batista. The author - who was amongst the first to use "magic realism" - has also written "Explosion in a Cathedral" and "The Lost Steps".
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
'The Chase' is Alfred Mac Adam's translation of Carpentier's 1956 short novel 'El Acoso' (which might also be translated as 'The Manhunt' or 'The Harrying'). The great Cuban novelist had already written the books for which he is now best remembered; but 'The Chase' is well worth reading in its own right.
The story is set in a country that is probably Cuba - but might stand for any of a number of Caribbean countries - and probably in the period of the dictatorship of Machado (1925-33), of whose prisons the author had first-hand experience. A young man - a student turned revolutionary - is being hunted through the night by two former associates. He takes refuge in a concert hall where, for the space of the performance, he is safe.
Carpentier breaks what might in outline be a simple tale into multiple facets, moving backwards and forwards in time and switching points of view. His prose - the 'new world baroque' that was to be so influential on Marquez and the other writers of the Latin American 'boom' - is extraordinarily sensuous, glutted with sounds and sights and smells. Gradually the reader comes to understand the irony behind Carpentier's selection of Beethoven's Third Symphony, with its famous inscription, for his protagonist's final concert.
'Explosion In A Cathedral' 'The Lost Steps' and 'The Kingdom of This World' may be better known, but it was a real pleasure to make the acquaintance of this book. Carpentier is now one of the most overlooked of Latin American writers; 'The Chase' reminded me of his virtues.
The story is set in a country that is probably Cuba - but might stand for any of a number of Caribbean countries - and probably in the period of the dictatorship of Machado (1925-33), of whose prisons the author had first-hand experience. A young man - a student turned revolutionary - is being hunted through the night by two former associates. He takes refuge in a concert hall where, for the space of the performance, he is safe.
Carpentier breaks what might in outline be a simple tale into multiple facets, moving backwards and forwards in time and switching points of view. His prose - the 'new world baroque' that was to be so influential on Marquez and the other writers of the Latin American 'boom' - is extraordinarily sensuous, glutted with sounds and sights and smells. Gradually the reader comes to understand the irony behind Carpentier's selection of Beethoven's Third Symphony, with its famous inscription, for his protagonist's final concert.
'Explosion In A Cathedral' 'The Lost Steps' and 'The Kingdom of This World' may be better known, but it was a real pleasure to make the acquaintance of this book. Carpentier is now one of the most overlooked of Latin American writers; 'The Chase' reminded me of his virtues.
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Carpentier was one of the leading writers of his time; and The Chase sees his baroque style - juggling time, thought and action - reeled out in the service of an almost incidental plot. It's a novella about a student caught up in revolutionary politics, who volunteers for violence and is tortured into betrayal before meeting his own end. Recognisable Carpentier themes - conspicuously architecture, music and religion - weave around the anxieties of the author's typically egocentric 'hero'. There is no 'magical realism' here. The translation is good, but not as strong as Harriet de Onis' work on Carpentier's more substantial 'The Lost Steps'. The overall effect is a bit like seeing a full orchestra brought together solely to play an interlude: simultaneously impressive and underwhelming.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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2 reviews
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Nightmares between the covers
7 July 2000
Format:Paperback
The Chase is a novel where the psychological plot line is equal to the narrative plot line - as the unnamed student tries to survive in a world of political intrique where he is the hunted not the hunter. Attention to detail - details that are constant varients on preceding detail - build the tension to a stunning climax.
Well written and worth your attention.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
A classic relatively unknown and under-appreciated in USA
19 Jan 2011
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Short, atmospheric, tightly crafted, and subtle, The Chase is one of the greatest novels of the 20th century, and considered one of the classics of Latin American literature. Banned from publication and distribution in the United States for a few years during the cold war because its author is Cuban, it is consequently relatively unfamiliar to US readers. It is the classic that Fuentes and other Latin American authors claim to have inspired their later development of "magic realism," but isn't, in itself, really a magic realist novel, though it introduces many of the trademark literary techniques of magic realism, such as its treatment of time and history imbedded into a multi-dimensional psychologically-charged present. It is a philosophically-oriented, genre-defying tale, more in the tradition of Camus's The Stranger, structured on the surface as a thriller, but really something more nuanced, less obvious underneath. A man is being sought after by, at first, rather shadowy, unknown pursuers. As the novel progresses, we come to realize that "the chase" is really seeking deeper, less-visible prey.
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