José Donoso’s The Obscene Bird of Night is a monument of vulgarity and erudition, perfused by an eerie air of alluring, unsettling ambiguity. An intensely oneiric work, it was originally published in 1970 and is now being released in a new unabridged translation by Megan McDowell for New Directions that constitutes a major literary event.
Donoso’s novel attempts to give decisive language to the ineffable. It’s the progeny of Borges, its language as technically adroit and stunning as Gabriel García Márquez’s. But instead of lovely, tragic lyricism, Donoso spins wicked sentences, suggesting a corruption of Marquez’s romanticism.
The Obscene Bird of Night is defined by its unexpected swoops into surrealism and litany of exciting developments and imagery. The ridiculous isn’t rendered believable, as Donoso’s prose is governed by the logic of a realm that exists only in the mind of our ever-ruminating, ever-rambling, and quite unreliable narrator,...
Donoso’s novel attempts to give decisive language to the ineffable. It’s the progeny of Borges, its language as technically adroit and stunning as Gabriel García Márquez’s. But instead of lovely, tragic lyricism, Donoso spins wicked sentences, suggesting a corruption of Marquez’s romanticism.
The Obscene Bird of Night is defined by its unexpected swoops into surrealism and litany of exciting developments and imagery. The ridiculous isn’t rendered believable, as Donoso’s prose is governed by the logic of a realm that exists only in the mind of our ever-ruminating, ever-rambling, and quite unreliable narrator,...
- 4/10/2024
- by Greg Cwik
- Slant Magazine
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