false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1212859130m/2635557.jpg 2635557 1 <B>A Rainmaker Translation Grant Winner from the Black Mountain Institute: <I>Senselessness</I>, acclaimed Salvadoran author Horacio Castallanos Moya's astounding debut in English, explores horror with hilarity and electrifying panache.</B><BR><BR>A boozing, sex-obsessed writer finds himself employed by the Catholic Church (an institution he loathes) to proofread a 1,100 page report on the army's massacre and torture of thousands of indigenous villagers a decade earlier, including the testimonies of the survivors. The writer's job is to tidy it up: he rants, "that was what my work was all about, cleaning up and giving a manicure to the Catholic hands that were piously getting ready to squeeze the balls of the military tiger." Mesmerized by the strange Vallejo-like poetry of the Indians' phrases ("the houses they were sad because no people were inside them"), the increasingly agitated and frightened writer is endangered twice over: by the spell the strangely beautiful heart-rending voices exert over his tenuous sanity, and by real danger&#151;after all, the murderers are the very generals who still run this unnamed Latin American country. 2660267 15 5 2008 Senselessness (New Directions Paperbook) total:137|5:38|4:64|3:30|2:3|1:2| 137 544 309 41 5 1 false false Sat Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Jan 07 09:01:17 -0800 2009 Wed Jan 07 09:09:37 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false true Sun Feb 15 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Feb 21 06:51:00 -0800 2009 Sat Feb 21 06:59:11 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Jul 14 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Jul 25 09:44:52 -0700 2009 Sat Jul 25 21:33:06 -0700 2009
"how are we to enjoy this prose, though? It’s content is either horrific torture or overwritten ramblings. If we find the former beautiful, even to be trou...more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon May 25 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon May 25 18:31:05 -0700 2009 Mon May 25 18:41:50 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Dec 24 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Dec 24 22:16:36 -0800 2008 Sun Dec 28 20:02:43 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Feb 17 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 02 18:40:08 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 17 11:55:20 -0800 2009
The voice and style Moya...more...]]> 0 0 false false Wed Oct 08 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Jan 05 13:50:49 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 05 14:02:31 -0800 2009 STOP SMILING review of Senselessness:

The late Chilean author Roberto Bolaño once wrote that Horacio Castellanos Moya’s work is “insufferable to nationalists,” that it “threatens the hormonal stability of imbeciles.” Though Bolaño died before he could read Castellanos...more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Dec 31 04:11:15 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 17 12:34:34 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 1 false false Thu Aug 14 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Jul 26 06:31:23 -0700 2008 Thu Aug 14 09:53:05 -0700 2008 4 0 false false Mon Mar 30 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Mar 28 12:15:12 -0700 2009 Tue Mar 31 09:37:51 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Jul 24 17:58:19 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 24 18:03:05 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 1 true false Mon Aug 04 07:10:52 -0700 2008 Mon Aug 04 07:27:34 -0700 2008
”I am not complete in the mind”, begins the journalist who has been paid to edit a five hundred page report on atrocities committed during a series of massacres seventeen years before. It is the firs...more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Feb 12 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Sep 11 13:22:13 -0700 2008 Fri Feb 13 12:14:23 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Mar 15 00:54:01 -0700 2008 Sat Mar 15 04:44:25 -0700 2008 senselessness, however engrossing in its brevity, leaves one longing for more. rife with both horror and humor, the tale elicits an empathy all the more surprising given its...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Oct 10 08:42:29 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 10 08:47:19 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Apr 05 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun May 10 08:01:41 -0700 2009 Sun May 10 08:07:18 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Mar 20 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Mar 18 19:15:13 -0700 2009 Sat Mar 21 09:16:47 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 12 17:08:24 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 12 17:11:45 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false true Sun Jan 18 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Nov 17 20:35:02 -0800 2008 Sun Jan 18 12:26:24 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Aug 17 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 17 18:19:00 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 17 23:59:54 -0700 2009 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=2635557