The prologue Lolita Bosch is very revealing and anticipate-and all indications are that inadvertently, the conclusions to be drawn from the interviews. In an informal poll on Facebook, Bosch discovers that the opinion of his friends is that American literature is the best of the twentieth century. But we also discover that very few knew the literature of English-speaking countries other than their own. The search result is this book and the festival.
But interviews confirm this informal survey. Balmaceda choose the pairs of writers divergent possible to do the interviews: different generations, countries and aesthetic trends. In most of the interviews (and on the tables of the festival) that causes the sensation of being in a remix: two voices shouting at once without listening or trying to listen to the other. The readings in common? "To the extent that there are" typically American writers, that Latin Americans place a very high rank. The ghosts of Joyce and Borges cross the book, but are slightly different each time ghosts. Almost none of the respondents read their contemporary national or read only by recommendation. In summary, known in English traditions outside their own, with one exception importantly, each writer seems to choose another country, one country, apart from yours, to found his own mythology. Many turn toward Argentina. The least, to Spain. But everyone turns to North America or rather to the books that America has become part of their canon. In short, the contemporary American novel is first passed through American literature.
emphasize three interviews. That opens the book with Luis Humberto Crosthwaite and Israel Centeno, who seem to compete for what is the worst country in Latin America, Mexico or Venezuela, but in which at least seems that the writers end up being interested in each other's reality. The interview with Carlos Velazquez and Sergio Chejfec that starting from a very personal and different aesthetic finish to defend and agree on key issues to literary work and the interview that closes the book, Yuri Herrera and Pablo Ramos, that while dialogue never appears to be the most fun of all.
I draw much attention to the choice of the pair of writers. It may seem a nonsense (indeed made the tables were tense and bizarre festival), but I think the end is a success. Both Bosch and could have chosen Balmaceda pairs more similar than they had given up the idea that there is more communication in Latin America. By choosing this way the tables and interviews, it is a good snapshot the state of literature in Latin America, its strength and its dispersion, which could well be one of the main reasons for not so strong as to the literature. An important document.
