From the Bookshelf of The Roundtable…

The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll

Álvaro Mutis,

Edith Grossman

Start date: April 1, 2016

Finish date: May 1, 2016

Discussion: Around the World 2016

Discussion leader: Lauren

Why we're reading this: Winner of our ATW South America poll
[close] Winner of our ATW South America poll

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Around the World 2016

* December ATW "catch-all" month group discussion
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last updated Nov 24, 2016 04:33PM

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last updated Jun 30, 2016 10:54AM

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What Members Thought

Jan 30, 2008 Rosana rated it it was amazing

Shelves: latin-american, favorites

I read and reread this book many times. Mostly I now open it at random and let Alvaro Mutis’ prose carry me to magical places. But Mutis writing, as beautiful and effortless as it is, pales on the strength of the character he created. Maqroll is an anti-hero always in the margins of society, always traveling from port to port, meeting people in an underworld of brothels and bars. Maqroll’s quest is never defined, and never attainable. He is a voyager from another realm, someone lost in a dream. ...more

7 likes · Like · see review

Mar 29, 2016 El rated it really liked it

Shelves: big-effing-books, 20th-centurylit-late, wanderlust, nyrb-editions, put-it-in-your-journal

Recently I mentioned something vague about finishing up a 700-page book this weekend, and one friend asked which book that was. It was this one, and he responded he had never even heard of it. Another friend (one of my old college professors) exclaimed gleefully that I was the only other person he had heard of who read this book too. Apparently this isn't a popular book out there in the real world, but here on Goodreads it seems to have a fair amount of love. Another friend had recommended this Recently I mentioned something vague about finishing up a 700-page book this weekend, and one friend asked which book that was. It was this one, and he responded he had never even heard of it. Another friend (one of my old college professors) exclaimed gleefully that I was the only other person he had heard of who read this book too. Apparently this isn't a popular book out there in the real world, but here on Goodreads it seems to have a fair amount of love. Another friend had recommended this to me a while back, and I got this on my birthday one year, but then it sat on my dresser with my other NYRB editions since then, because sometimes a 700-page, somewhat obscure, novel by a Colombian author just isn't on the top of my list of reading priorities.

But a few of us read it together as a group here on Goodreads, and let's be honest, anything that is compared frequently to Don Quixote is probably worth moving to the top of our TBRs. I was glad to finally get to this, though I didn't always enjoy reading it, if that makes any sense.

This book is so freaking large because it's a compilation of novellas surrounding this Maqroll character that Mutis wrote over a period of years. They jump around in Maqroll's life for the most part, and some novellas are told from his perspective, in a diary format, from the perspective of other people. I like the play on perspective, though realized quickly that some perspectives worked for me personally better than others.

What doesn't change throughout this behemoth is the skill Mutis (who I just learned died only three years ago at the age of 90) had at telling a compelling story. Some of that can probably be attributed to the translator here, Edith Grossman, who is fantastic as far as I can tell and seems to be universally adored. But Grossman probably couldn't have done as amazing a job if Mutis hadn't wrote an incredible story.

Maqroll is a fun character. I hesitate to say he's as fun as Don Quixote, but that's only because Don Quixote and I have a very special relationship. Maqroll has many adventures and (as the title directly implies) misadventures, and Mutis wrote them all in great detail. Like pages-length paragraphs. It flows well, you don't always even realize you just read a really long sentence unless you stop to think about it. (Hint: You're better off not thinking too much about the length of the sentences.) This is no Proust, exactly, but there are some comparisons I can make.

What I especially loved about this story is the amount of detail Mutis included. There is so much detail, and you're either going to dig it or you're not. It's entirely personal preference. This is the sort of book you need to be in the right mood to read - I was not always in the right mood to read this, and it definitely colored the way I read some of the sections. But in the end, that last novella, it all came together so beautifully and artfully that I was so glad to have read each of the components.

I highly recommend this, but recognize it's not for everyone. One must have patience for this book, and just let the stories happen. Don't fight it. Sometimes it feels Mutis liked to write extensively about what was happening to Maqroll, but what was actually happening to Maqroll wasn't quite that extensive. That makes complete sense to me - there's a lot of elaboration here, and I feel that's where the beauty comes from. But I can also see how that would make for a frustrating read to a lot of people who would prefer an author cut to the chase and stop beating around the bush.

Fun detail: Mutis was good friends with Gabriel García Márquez, and Gabo actually makes a brief cameo. ...more

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