It is not the Aleph – Books and Literature

Review of the book “It is not the Aleph”, by Gustavo Fiumano

The good thing about knowing, literary speaking, an author is that, in principle, you can already know in advance what you are going to find when you read it again. But the best, without a doubt, is when the writer manages to surprise you again. Yes, with Gustavo Fiumano I knew more or less what he could offer me (a very personal style that I loved with his novel Why inhabit the real world and whose review you can find here), but when the author changes genre, in this case from a novel to a book of stories, and even manages to change his register to give us totally unique and original stories that manage to surprise, excite, make you laugh… Hat. Words fall short for me.

Yes, as I told you before, Gustavo Fiumano already managed to make me fall in love with his novel Why inhabit the real world (totally highly recommended), with its characters, its dialogues, its thoughts and desires, imagine now with this collection of unique stories in which all those aspects that managed to fool me are multiplied by twenty-nine. Well, crazy. Or, what is the same, magic again. That particular magic that only this author is capable of creating with his words.

And what are you going to find between the pages of It’s not the Aleph? Ah, the big question. I have always had difficulties talking about story books, I imagine it happens to all of us. Because… How can we condense in a single review everything that a book full of different stories can offer us? It seems difficult to me.

I could talk about everything. A whole that is very clear and has to do with that magic, yes, but also with a perfect x-ray of a society carried out through masterful dialogues that deceive and that always take you to the terrain where the characters want you to reach. A kind of spiral between characters and dialogues, between situations and soliloquies, between spaces and reflections. Actually, I think this book is the Aleph, but it’s something I better keep to myself.

In addition to the whole, I could go to the concrete. Say how much I liked some of these stories, how some stories have reached me. It has always seemed unfair to me to talk about favorites (don’t let others get angry), but yes, obviously I have my preferences. To name a few, discreetly: The notebook, Kokomo and the carrier pigeon, A shot of sweetened Jägermeister o curls.

I have already said that for me It’s not the Aleph, actually it is. A little because everything fits within its pages: writers, snobs, God, musicians, actors, footballers; also Buenos Aires, its changes, the past and the present; spiral conversations, notebooks that mark our designs, blind dates, cultural references and music, a lot of music: the Beatles, Charly García, Calamaro, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan…

How could I not fall in love with a book by this author again? It is impossible to emerge unscathed from its pages, from this very original literary style that captivates, excites and, of course, from that humor so acidic, so subtle, so magnificently unique.

You see, readers, this is definitely the Aleph. And I am convinced that you will understand me when you have read it. So, without further ado: read it, do yourself a favor, really.