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Delirio
Aguilar returns home after a short business trip only to find that his wife, Agustina, has gone mad. Having no idea what could have happened, he begins to investigate. What he discovers are deep and disturbing facts hidden in the past of the woman he loves. Delirio is a story of love and madness, mysteries and secrets in the midst of the breakdown of Colombian society. The...more
Paperback, 303 pages
Published
April 1st 2007
by Punto de Lectura
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I read this book about 6 years ago, so the details are kind of fuzzy.
It's mostly about insanity, and what being insane actually means, kind of like Paulo Coelho's "Veronika Decides to Die" where he explores why and how some people are considered sane and others are considered "crazy"
Pretty deep stuff, meanwhile a really interesting love story develops and sucks you in.
The main characters are Agustina and Aguilar. They are married and Aguilar is very happy and ...more
It's mostly about insanity, and what being insane actually means, kind of like Paulo Coelho's "Veronika Decides to Die" where he explores why and how some people are considered sane and others are considered "crazy"
Pretty deep stuff, meanwhile a really interesting love story develops and sucks you in.
The main characters are Agustina and Aguilar. They are married and Aguilar is very happy and ...more
I really enjoyed reading this book. The book is about the story of the hope and despair of a man (Aguilar) in love with his mentally ill lover (Augustina).
Aguilar, a former university teacher leaves the city to spend 3 days with his 2 sons (from a previous marriage) and leaves at home his younger lover Augustina. When he comes back, instead of finding Augustina waiting for him, he finds just a couple of voice messages on the telephone from an unknown man, asking him to come to get his lov...more
Aguilar, a former university teacher leaves the city to spend 3 days with his 2 sons (from a previous marriage) and leaves at home his younger lover Augustina. When he comes back, instead of finding Augustina waiting for him, he finds just a couple of voice messages on the telephone from an unknown man, asking him to come to get his lov...more
Translated from Spanish this is the tale of a woman's madness (delerium) and the lives of three people central to her story. Set in Columbia in the midst of political turbulence, Aguilar goes away on a trip to visit his grown children from his first marriage and returns to find his wife, Augustina, in a hotel having gone crazy. As the narrative unfolds we are introduced to several other characters and the details of how and why she went mad are slowly developed and divulged. We meet her g...more
It’s a good book but it’s very unclear and difficult to understand too because it’s written in this particular way: the author divided the story into little extracts that at first don’t fit at all! But the more you read, the more you get the plot anyway. Maybe she did this in order to connect it with the title: “Delirium”. The main character descended from a family with mental disdorders which she endured also. It describes her story and how her husband struggled to find a cure or at least an an...more
Is it possible to remain sane in an insane place? Colombian author Laura Restrepo's sixth novel, which won the 2004 Premio Alfaguara and the 2006 Grinzane Cavour Prize in Italy, provides a multifaceted answer to this question. In exploring how madness affects many levels of society, from government to family, Restrepo offers an intriguing, superbly written (and translated), and psychologically rich novel that reads like a mystery unraveled backward. Critics agreed that some voices, including McA
...more
Like Gabriel Garcia Marquez, except accessible. I prefer Restrepo's writing style, her voice and characters. This book shoved aside all the others in my currently reading pile and demanded to be finished. I wouldn't call it profound as much as well done; the plotting and pace are excellent. The ending doesn't resolve until the literal end... but then a book about mental illness should be unpredictable. I am especially impressed with the use of the mental illness as a character: throughout t...more
«Todos los secretos están guardados en un mismo cajón, el cajón de los secretos, y si develas uno, corres el riesgo de que pase lo mismo con los demás.»
Es de mis libros preferidos. Resume las increibles y hermosas incongruencias de la sociedad en la que viví por un rato y en la que cualquiera puede volverse loco, como la protagonista. Tuve la fortuna de conocer a Laura Restrepo en la presentación de este libro y cuando la oi hablar entendí la facilidad que tiene para que uno se enamore...more
Es de mis libros preferidos. Resume las increibles y hermosas incongruencias de la sociedad en la que viví por un rato y en la que cualquiera puede volverse loco, como la protagonista. Tuve la fortuna de conocer a Laura Restrepo en la presentación de este libro y cuando la oi hablar entendí la facilidad que tiene para que uno se enamore...more
I bought this book because of a couple of reviews I read, and in both, Delirio is compared to One Hundred Years of Solitude.
To be quite frank, the first half of the book did not fulfill my expectations. I have to admit I only read a few pages a day and did not allow for cohesiveness and continuity.
I decided to give the second half of the book a more fair chance and dug into it. I was in for a very pleasant experience.
Regardless of the fact that the book is in many ...more
To be quite frank, the first half of the book did not fulfill my expectations. I have to admit I only read a few pages a day and did not allow for cohesiveness and continuity.
I decided to give the second half of the book a more fair chance and dug into it. I was in for a very pleasant experience.
Regardless of the fact that the book is in many ...more
From a marketing perspective, this is one of the most overrated books I've ever seen. The front, back and inside covers feature hyperbolic praise from from all the major newspapers, from Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Jose Saramago, Vikram Seth, and even Harold Bloom for god's sake. But as a friend pointed out, the the hyperbolic praise gets less and less hyperbolic the more you read it. The words are carefully chosen to sound like they're saying a lot, while they only say very little or remain very va...more
Kam
rated it
·
review of another edition
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
People looking for even a flimsy background on Colombia in the 80s
Recommended to Kam by:
Book group
I'm always amazed when the difference between my gut feeling about a book and, say, the great reviews in widely read papers, or in extreme cases, the best-seller list, don't jive at all.
I thought, and I felt as I was reading it, -- CAUTION SPOILERS (I think) -- that her madness was just a device to get us to go through the Columbia history. That Restrepo couldn't come up with a better device to tell story, or implications, of the damage to a country and its people, to their psycholo...more
I thought, and I felt as I was reading it, -- CAUTION SPOILERS (I think) -- that her madness was just a device to get us to go through the Columbia history. That Restrepo couldn't come up with a better device to tell story, or implications, of the damage to a country and its people, to their psycholo...more
esto se lo posteé a Mer en su sitio:
No estoy de acuerdo para nada con esta calificación. Algo te pasó con este libro porque me confesaste que lo leíste 2 veces sin haberte dado cuenta que ya lo habías leído antes. Yo estuve todo el día pensando en que lo iba a subir a esta lista. Tardé siete meses entre que me lo regaló Mariana y finalmente lo leí. Me resultó hipnótico, como esa fotografía que ilustra la tapa. La narración avanza hacia atrás, hasta el momento aquél en que el protago...more
No estoy de acuerdo para nada con esta calificación. Algo te pasó con este libro porque me confesaste que lo leíste 2 veces sin haberte dado cuenta que ya lo habías leído antes. Yo estuve todo el día pensando en que lo iba a subir a esta lista. Tardé siete meses entre que me lo regaló Mariana y finalmente lo leí. Me resultó hipnótico, como esa fotografía que ilustra la tapa. La narración avanza hacia atrás, hasta el momento aquél en que el protago...more
The writing was complex and interesting as was the storytelling. The points of view switched often and perhaps this was part of what made it hard for me to connect with the characters. I thought they were interesting and drawn with unique detail, but I didn't find myself very involved with them or with what happened to them. I think part of the problem for me is the atmosphere of this book, sort of CSI in Mexico -drug lords and mobsters and such. The problem for me with this subject matter i...more
«Todos los secretos están guardados en un mismo cajón, el cajón de los secretos, y si develas uno, corres el riesgo de que pase lo mismo con los demás.»
Un hombre regresa a casa después de un corto viaje de negocios y encuentra que su esposa ha enloquecido completamente. No tiene idea de qué le pudo haber ocurrido durante los tres días de su ausencia, y con el fin de ayudarla a salir de la crisis empieza a investigar, sólo para descubrir lo poco que sabe sobre las profundas perturbaci...more
Un hombre regresa a casa después de un corto viaje de negocios y encuentra que su esposa ha enloquecido completamente. No tiene idea de qué le pudo haber ocurrido durante los tres días de su ausencia, y con el fin de ayudarla a salir de la crisis empieza a investigar, sólo para descubrir lo poco que sabe sobre las profundas perturbaci...more
This is a compelling read but one that asks the reader to do a little work. There are multiple storylines, three or four narrative voices, and the relationships among all the characters take some time to become clear. Restrepo also uses long, meandering, multiply-claused sentences which are technically incorrect (run-ons) to create a dreamy mood. So if this sounds too demanding, best leave this one alone.
However, all that said, the book is very engaging. A man comes home from a busin...more
However, all that said, the book is very engaging. A man comes home from a busin...more
Relatively unknown throughout the English-speaking world, Colombian novelist Laura Restrepo has been widely acclaimed nearly everywhere else. Already the recipient of a number of international literary awards, Restrepo won the prestigious Alfaguara Prize in 2004 for Delirium. Praised by such luminaries as José Saramago, Gabriel García Márquez, and Harold Bloom, Delirium is an enthralling and inconceivably harrowing story, the likes of which bear no comparison to any novel in recent memory. Na...more
Talvez devesse ter marcado mais do que marcou. Muito bom, muito bom, não lhe falta nada. E, no entanto, é daqueles que talvez precise de uma segunda revisão para me marcar. Talvez por causa das expectativas que mantinha dele. Talvez, talvez. Lá está, nos meus preferidos. O que falha, pergunto-me?
As personagens, tão bem caracterizadas. O enredo, a genialidade por trás da história. O vocabulário, que nos leva ao êxtase em poucas linhas. As referências culturais, a ironia, o estilo.
Vou de...more
As personagens, tão bem caracterizadas. O enredo, a genialidade por trás da história. O vocabulário, que nos leva ao êxtase em poucas linhas. As referências culturais, a ironia, o estilo.
Vou de...more
I liked this book a lot. I tend to see the world in psychological terms and I found this book did as well. Restrepo uses an unusual paragraph and punctuation. The narrative style shifts from narrator POV to character POV within a paragraph, sometimes a sentence ended with a comma instead of a period. At first this is disconcerting but I thought it was a good choice to go with the nature of delusional thinking in which all the characters indulge, not just Augustina. (I read the book in Spanish bu...more
Aprender a ser pacientes con la locura, reconciliarse con el absurdo, lidiar con las incoherencias; dejarse perseguir, golpear, ahogar por la confusión que se enmascara con prejuicios y deseos; intentar evitar que el delirio ajeno se convierta en propio. Qué bonito regalo de navidad fue esta novela.
Primer libro que leí de Laura Restrepo, como seguidora del Premio Alfaguara (todos los años espero con entusiasmo el anuncio del premio y espero con ansiedad que llegue a Venezuela para comprarlo y leerlo ... no siempre con resultados favorables). "Delirio" fue uno de los casos exitosos.
Laura Restrepo es una gran escritora y "Delirio" un gran libro.
Laura Restrepo es una gran escritora y "Delirio" un gran libro.
The book really throws you into the story with no exposition; four voices revolve in sections and not until a good deal into the book do you figure out who they are and how they are related to each other. It didn't deter me, though I can see how it might for others. It calls for active reading, and I always enjoy that. There's also a lot of commentary through these characters on Colombia and its tumultuous history...it's definitely a bit hard to try to explain the novel, but I liked it because i...more
Read this for book group and only finished it for that reason.
I'm bewildered by the good comments about it in NYTBR, etc. I felt cheated by each chapter being from the point of view of one of the 4 main characters. That seems so much easier to write than a book that gracefully integrates different points of view into one narrative.
One thing Delirium does very well is display the effects of mental illness on family members and even generations of family members.
And the ...more
I'm bewildered by the good comments about it in NYTBR, etc. I felt cheated by each chapter being from the point of view of one of the 4 main characters. That seems so much easier to write than a book that gracefully integrates different points of view into one narrative.
One thing Delirium does very well is display the effects of mental illness on family members and even generations of family members.
And the ...more
El episodio de locura en casa de la ex es extraordinariamente gracioso. Si la felicidad es por episodios como esos y otros que describe Aguilar, todo lo demás vale la pena sufrirlo.
A great piece of literature. This book is not only about Colombia and Latin Amrican`problems and issues , it is also a story about love, human behavior and the effects of society on people.
Very interesting to read in Spanish, but also a good read in English. Restrepo masters vivid images in this contemporary Spanish-American novel.
Me encanto este libro!!!! es verdad eso que confunde un poco por los saltos de persona, pero le pillas el truco y te gusta!!!
Read it a while ago and loved it, it's not a linear story, but they all converge and share a slice of the same pie...
One of the few Colombians (besides Gabo) who has been translated into English. This ranked 4 instead of 5 stars for me, because it took me awhile to figure out the construct. Once i did, however, i was hooked - great characters and development - i loved them all by the end, even the creeps.
A bit like peeking into secret lives in Colombia circa 1985.
Looking forward to reading The Dark Bride.
A bit like peeking into secret lives in Colombia circa 1985.
Looking forward to reading The Dark Bride.
Took forever to get through. Did not feel very rewarded for my minimal efforts. Seriously considered giving up halfway.
A tense psychodrama that is as much mystery as anything - unraveling the clues to Agustina's descent into madness. Set in Colombia and written by a native, the translation seems exceptional, without a feeling of being in translation. The mosaic of voices - Agustina as a child, her revered grandfather, adored but feared father, a former lover with serious drug lord connections, and of course her husband who returns from a business trip to find her already over the edge - works extremely well to...more
Not sure I finished it. Should try it again.
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Laura Restrepo is a Columbian writer. Her first fiction novel, Isle of Passion, is based on historical facts from Clipperton Island.
She is an award winning author. In 1997, she won the "Premio Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz" prize at the Guadalajara Book Fair for her novel The Angel of Galilea. In 2002 she won the "Premio Arzobispo San Clemente" Award for her novel Leopard in the Sun...more
More about Laura Restrepo...
She is an award winning author. In 1997, she won the "Premio Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz" prize at the Guadalajara Book Fair for her novel The Angel of Galilea. In 2002 she won the "Premio Arzobispo San Clemente" Award for her novel Leopard in the Sun...more
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“Guerra o indiferencia, no se sabe cuál de las dos es más fácil de lidiar.”
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