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The Dream of Heroes
At the end of carnival 1927, Emilio Gauna had an experience that he knew was the culmination of his life. The problem is that Gauna can only dimly remember what happened: he was out on the town wtih his raucous, reckless friends when a masked woman appeared. Several hours later, gasping and horrified, Gauna awoke at the edge of a lake. Three years later, he tries to solve...more
Hardcover
Published
by Dutton Books
(first published 1954)
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Nov 26, 2008
Leonardo
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Anyone looking for some "mind-shattering" literature.
Recommended to Leonardo by:
Cecilia
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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adolfo bioy casares, famed argentine novelist and short story writer, was a close friend and collaborator of jorge luis borges. thus, it is unsurprising to see shared elements in each of their respective bodies of work. bioy, perhaps best remembered for his fantastical novella, the invention of morel, left behind a legacy of writings that continues to inspire latin american writers today. the dream of heroes (el sueño de los héroes), originally published in 1954, while not as illusory a story as...more
Terrible. The prose is so Borgesian it's a joke, while the plot is so freeform (read non-existent) it's like Roberto Arlt's The Seven Madmen without the grit or inspiration. Testament to the dangers of being friends with a genius. You can see Bioy invoking Arlt to free himself from Borges and failing miserably.
Casares, a contemporary and friend of Jorge Luis Borges, constructs a novel so full of potent machismo and swagger, and magic. The book is firmly in the magical realism genre and presages the Magus by John Fowles. Emilio Gauna has a dream-like experience at the 1927 carnival that even the happiness brought by marrying and settling down can't shake. His visions of a masked girl, a reeling dance, and a knife fight under the silver moon eventually drive him to reconstruct that mystical night, despi...more
En este libro, lo fantástico ocurre al principio, y al final. El contenido de por medio es más que todo cotidiano, y algunas veces hasta puede ocasionar que el lector se pregunte: ¿Para qué está todo esto aquí? ¿Adonde está la magia, la fantasía? La respuesta se encuentra en la conclusión de la historia, donde la importancia del contenido de por medio se aclara sin lugar a duda. Repentinamente, este se transforma en un relato absolutamente fantástico, que ocurrió de imprevisto debajo de sus prop...more
Pues va a ser verdad que Bioy Casares era misógino. Porque el odio que siente Emilio Gauna por su mujer, Clara, es fiel reflejo del que siente Bioy Casares por las mujeres. Y no me extraña que tuviera celos de su compadre Borges, porque Borges escribe mucho mejor. "Estaba en un estado que pudo imaginar cualquier cosa"; "Vagamente sospechó ya haber estado en ese lugar". ¿Qué forma de escribir es esa?
Novela cansina que gira en torno a una premonición (que termina por cumplirse) que hubiera dado p...more
Novela cansina que gira en torno a una premonición (que termina por cumplirse) que hubiera dado p...more
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Even though The Dream of Heroes is far from the quality of The Invention of Morel, it has a certain allure, based both on the style and on the plot itself, that qualifies this novel as one of the finest works of art.
The story itself is quite simple. At a carnival in 1927, Emilio Gauna gets drunk with some of his friends. At which point there's a sequence of hazy events that he almost forgets entirely, except for a masked woman. This strange apparition makes Gauna want to try to see her again. So...more
The story itself is quite simple. At a carnival in 1927, Emilio Gauna gets drunk with some of his friends. At which point there's a sequence of hazy events that he almost forgets entirely, except for a masked woman. This strange apparition makes Gauna want to try to see her again. So...more
Destiny is the stuff of military movies and love stories. Meandering tales of real life don’t often concern themselves with such epic notions. But “The Dream of Heroes” does, in its subtle way. Cesares uses the book to tell us that fulfilling your destiny has its perks. As Guana lives out his premonitions and prepares for his death he feels a sense of calm purposefulness. That’s nice. Cesares even tells us that “what happened is what had to happen” (p133). But following your destiny blindly is o...more
This novel's many bravura passages - particularly the drunken half-remembered carnival scenes at the beginning and end - made this worthwhile for me. But where Bioy Casares proved himself a master of concision in 'The Invention of Morel,' this 200-page novel often feels baggy and meandering and twice as long as necessary. The introduction claims there's more 'texture' here, but the many banal domestic scenes and psychological asides dilute what's ultimately a clever metaphysical narrative and dr...more
This book was rather difficult for me to read, but I couldn't decide whether that was my fault or the author's. It seemed to ramble a lot, and for a long time, I had trouble figuring out where it was going. The ending did a very good job of tying it all together, and finally making it make sense; but there were times I didn't think I'd make it that far.
The author was a contemporary and friend of Jorge Borges, and there are slight elements of magical realism here, although the author almost apolo...more
The author was a contemporary and friend of Jorge Borges, and there are slight elements of magical realism here, although the author almost apolo...more
This is a great idea-- for a little tale, maybe even an extended short story-- but somehow I ended up feeling it was too bad Bioy Casares didn't have his great friend Borges' love of brevity in this case. The narrative padding he adds between Gauna and his inevitable destiny isn't interesting enough for its own sake. The whole story's too easy to reduce to a single line: a woman's true love is not enough to overcome a man's overwhelming desire for violence. Which is either too simply and patly t...more
This isn't his best book, but I give it four stars because Clara's section in the end was a great way to tie up all loose ends.
Es bueno saber que existen tan buenos autores en nuestra literatura Nacional!
Me encanto esta obra de Casares! Toca un tema que realmente me encanta que es el del destino! Nadie escapa a el...lo que pasa pasa y siempre es siguiendo algún designio o mandato! Es asi....muchas veces renengamos de las cosas pero todo pasa porque asi esta escrito! y eso no se cambia. Esta obra claramente demuestra eso...podemos esquivarlo y prolongarlo...peor NUNCA le podemos ganar al destino!
"-Tal vez yo imagine dos...more
Me encanto esta obra de Casares! Toca un tema que realmente me encanta que es el del destino! Nadie escapa a el...lo que pasa pasa y siempre es siguiendo algún designio o mandato! Es asi....muchas veces renengamos de las cosas pero todo pasa porque asi esta escrito! y eso no se cambia. Esta obra claramente demuestra eso...podemos esquivarlo y prolongarlo...peor NUNCA le podemos ganar al destino!
"-Tal vez yo imagine dos...more
Deberìa ser de lectura obligatoria a los 21 años.
Uno de mis libros favoritos de Bioy. Es a la vez, un recuerdo nostálgico de como eran los carnavales en el Buenos Aires de los malevos, y a la vez, una de las mejores piezas de fantasía que he leído.
Una fábula sobre el destino...
Great book! A gem in the Latin America fantastic literature. A must for Borges and Cortazar fans.
It's hard to beat The Invention of Morel, although The Dream of Heroes certainly doesn't disappoint. The novel held my interest from start to finish, but Bioy Casares excels in building the atmospheric finale. In hindsight, I have to wonder if this influenced Mario Vargas Llosa's The Green House.
This book was excellent! The author/translator captured perfectly the ambiance of doom, fate, premeditated chaos, the mystical and circular experience of carnival. Much better than "Rhapsody" (The Eyes Wide Shut book) though they share a similar subject.
When reading a book feels like a combo of having a dream and having a friend tell you a story. That's my inarticulate description. My preference is feeling bowled over and having my mind blown - which this did for my bad ass!
Jun 17, 2013
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Winner of the Gran Premio de Honor da Sociedad Argentina de Escritores (1975), the Cervantes Award (1990) and the Légion d’Honneur da França (1981), Adolfo Bioy Casares (Buenos Aires, 1914-1999) is one of the main writes of the XX century. Also a journalist and translator, he was a friend and collaborator with his fellow countryman Jorge Luis Borges, with whom he wrote six books and created the ch...more
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