The Private Lives of Trees tells the story of a single night: a young professor of literature named Julián is reading to his step-daughter Daniela ...
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Jan 19, 2011
oriana
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Hey guess what? I am becoming a writer for the amazing art & culture blog and micropress CCLaP! And I vamped up this very review for my first contribution!
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When I found a proof of this little slip of a book, I assumed it was some kind of sampler, or a teaser maybe. But no: it truly is a complete novel(la?), weighing in at 95 pages. And let me just say right away that this is just another way in which the phenomenal Open Letter Press is challenging American readers -- wh More...
***
When I found a proof of this little slip of a book, I assumed it was some kind of sampler, or a teaser maybe. But no: it truly is a complete novel(la?), weighing in at 95 pages. And let me just say right away that this is just another way in which the phenomenal Open Letter Press is challenging American readers -- wh More...
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Jan 15, 2011
karen
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what is even better than this book??
oriana's review of this book.
her review is what soothed my terror when i realized i did not have enough book left to carry me through both my lunch break AND my subway ride home, and instead of freaking out (much), i calmly carried a copy of this book to the green room and read it on my lunch break, leaving the riveting conclusion of the iron duke for the subway ride home. phew. crisis averted...
since i already own it and it More...
oriana's review of this book.
her review is what soothed my terror when i realized i did not have enough book left to carry me through both my lunch break AND my subway ride home, and instead of freaking out (much), i calmly carried a copy of this book to the green room and read it on my lunch break, leaving the riveting conclusion of the iron duke for the subway ride home. phew. crisis averted...
since i already own it and it More...
70 comments
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(28 people liked it)
Mar 23, 2011
Mariel
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This review is written under the influence of melancholy, low self-esteem and confused love for a book that I also felt somehow disturbed reading. I'm writing under the influence of past relationships that to write about would turn this into a review written under the influence of Dear Diary (noooooo! Not that!). [That's probably some shameful sort of overused goodreads thing, like interview style, that I don't know about because I've barely dipped a toe into this goodreads world. Oh well, I wou
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Sep 09, 2010
Matt
rated it:
I really liked this self-conscious and very short novel from the writer the back cover at least reassures me is the best of the new Chilean writers. The basic idea is that the whole novel is centered around one night when a step-father puts his daughter to bed and reflects on why his wife is late... in the process he digs into the different possibilities for her lateness, the relationship history they share, his writing, and what might happen next. It's singularly focused but at the same moment
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Jan 18, 2010
Oscar
rated it: 
Julián, el protagonista, espera durante toda la noche el regreso de Verónica, su mujer. Y, como no se cansa de repetir, el libro acabará con su regreso o hasta que Julián esté seguro de que no volverá. Será una larga noche, en la que Julián tendrá que cuidar de su hijastra Daniela, a la que le cuenta cuentos sobre la vida privada de los árboles. Una noche, también, llena de recuerdos sobre su relación anterior con Karla, que casi se convierte en su enemiga. Una noche en la que Julián, profesor d
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Nov 23, 2011
Fathermocker
rated it:
Excelente obra, mucho más madura que Bonsaï, llena de pasajes memorables. Si no fuera por un paralelismo forzado que busca darle Zambra con su opus primum, le hubiera dado cinco estrellas. Se percibe la influencia de Borges en querer repetir temáticas y elementos, pero siento que lo lleva muy lejos. Aún así, es una novela sólida, que melancólicamente retrata la desesperante espera de Julián, un marido que se siente intruso hasta en su propia vida, y espera interminablemente la llegada de su espo
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Jan 23, 2012
Joseph
rated it:
Some speak highly of this novella, which, while possessing some sweet moments in the relation between a father and his young stepdaughter as he tells her tales to sooth her before sleep, I found to be too slender and without much real substance overall. I read the Spanish-language original, so this is in no way a comment on the quality of the translation, upon which I cannot comment.
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Apr 12, 2011
jess
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I picked this up after I finished Bonsaï. Apparently I enjoy brief novellas from South America? This story takes place in one night (and also in a lifetime), when Julián is puttinghis step-daughter to bed. Her mother is late coming home. Julián is telling a bedtime story, The Private Life of Trees, and worrying about where her mother is. His mind moves into the past while we're waiting for Verónica, and we get a glimpse of his own history and the history of their marriage, and also an idea of th
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Apr 15, 2011
Ferris
rated it:
How can an author pack so much into a novella? That is the question I am left with after reading "The Private Lives of Trees". The author takes us through one long night suffered by Julian, a writer and stepfather, who is waiting for his wife to come home. I won't tell if she does or not, and frankly, it is almost irrelevant. The reader is allowed access to the stream of thoughts, feelings, imaginings, hopes, history, and fears of one man for one night. His ponderings are the stuf
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Apr 10, 2011
Kris
rated it:
I had a headache so I didn't want to open the Borges collection, so I read this tiny book instead. There's some line between when you feel like you're reading a too long short story and a nicely short novel, and this book is on the good side of that line. It's painless and has a vague weight too it, like staying up all night for no reason at all, but I felt like it was grasping for something bigger that got lost amid trying to make it both dream-like and "mundane". Maybe another readin
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Nov 11, 2011
World Literature Today
rated it:
At just a few pages shy of a hundred, this little book, translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell, can be read in one sitting yet reexamined in a thousand. Chilean writer Alejandro Zambra (b. 1975) takes you on the journey of a single evening, fraught with anxiety as main character Julián passes the stretching time waiting for his wife, Verónica, to return home by reading his ritual, improvised stories (“The Private Lives of Trees”) to his stepdaughter, Daniela. Exposing the unfiltered conte
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Mar 29, 2011
Sheerley
rated it:
This short novel was about a stepfather who is trying to get his step daughter back to sleep while he waits for his wife to come back home. The whole story takes place in this space. In it, the stepfather thinks about his relationship with his wife, his step daughter and a former girlfriend. I think I expected there to be more here than there was in this book, though I do think it was well written. I doubt I'll remember much of it after a few weeks go by, though, which is why I gave it just
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Jul 27, 2011
John
rated it:
This short novella is the story of a college professor waiting one night for his wife to get home after her art class. As the hours pass, he vacillates between memory and imagination and his worry and anxieties amplify. Tight and compact prose, but with the feeling of a much more discursive novel, Zambra's book is mesmerizing. I can't wait until more of this Chilean authors books are translated into English.
Dec 21, 2010
Noel
rated it:
Really a very good little book. Read it in its entirity during one soak in the tub. There are a couple points in the book where he makes odd, uncertain, sturctural decisions about how to present the story. These points made me cringe a bit. Hope he realizes now what a talented writer he is because the rest of the book is very very good. Set in Santiago, Chile where I'll find myself in...let's see... 13 days.
Apr 17, 2011
Bernard
rated it:
I read it last week. Although I did not dislike it, I can't say much for it. Part of the thing is that short stories and novellas rarely work for me; I don't know why but it's not my thing. It was quickly read and quickly forgotten. I decided to read this book because of Ariana's good review and because I like every thing that has to do with trees. Originally I wanted to read Bonsai(from the same author) but only found this one;now I'm not sure I will try Bonsai.
May 27, 2010
Lewis
rated it: 
This wasn't a bad book, but it's not for me. This kind of meditative and subtle scene-making works better for me in film. And yeah, from Zambra's reputation as the Next Big Thing from Latin America, I did (unreasonably) kind of expect something more spectacular. Like that movie Predator. That was set in Colombia, too. "Get to the chopper."
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Jan 12, 2011
Kara
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I started this book before the snow started, woke up, and finished it in a full blizzard. This is a nice little book, translated from Spanish -- almost more a short story -- and I'd love to know about how it came to be. The translation was nicely done, and it was a lovely read, even in English.
Mar 30, 2011
Miki
rated it:
Some of the language is very elegant and beautiful, but the slight volume doesn't seem to go anywhere (which seems to be part of the point). You grow to want to know more about the central two characters (Julian and the little girl), but realize early on that you are unlikely to do so.
Oct 15, 2011
Stacy
rated it:
This book is smarter than me, I can't make much comment on it. The prose was beautiful, however. I did enjoy (if this was the intention at all) of the abruptly shifting memories appearing dream-like and languid, as they do when one is waiting for someone or something to happen.
May 28, 2010
Christopher
rated it:
Nice, short novel that draws on the anxiety of a particular moment--a man waiting up very late for his wife to come home--and becomes a sort of existential retrospective/prospective meditation on his relationships to others.
Aug 18, 2010
Anna
rated it:
See my video book review here: http://isak.typepad.com/isak/2010/08/video-book-review-the-private-lives-of-trees.html
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Jan 29, 2012
Paul
rated it:
It's difficult to say what I made in this book. The writing was beautiful and, at times, breathtaking. It was also a provoking book, raising interesting questions about the nature of writing itself. Yet, the story as a whole had a disjointed feel to it which may have been deliberate but which I disliked.
Also having read this book because its author will be coming to our town in a couple of weeks for a mini Latin-American cultural festival, I wondered what it was that signalled it ou More...
Also having read this book because its author will be coming to our town in a couple of weeks for a mini Latin-American cultural festival, I wondered what it was that signalled it ou More...
Mar 19, 2011
Daniel
rated it:
First heard about this author in the Latin American authors issue of Granta. He's got a knack for storytelling with a cerebral tilt. Short, but sweet.
Feb 02, 2011
Melissa
rated it:
This was not what I thought I was getting when I picked this one up - it was better. I thought it would be like any other novel, but it was more like poetry. The kind of poetry I actually enjoy. The book left me feeling sad, but hopeful that they would end up ok. I'm so glad I read it.
Sep 09, 2011
Will
rated it:
I love books that I can finish in one sitting, but even so, this novel/novella is a very moving portrayal of a father-daughter relationship and the things, good and bad, that make up a life. Very beautiful.
Reminds me of the short story "Honey Pie" by Haruki Murakami, given that both stories are narrated by a struggling writer, living in impromptu families and both are framed by the act of telling a bedtime story about personified non-humans (bears in "Honey Pie,"
Reminds me of the short story "Honey Pie" by Haruki Murakami, given that both stories are narrated by a struggling writer, living in impromptu families and both are framed by the act of telling a bedtime story about personified non-humans (bears in "Honey Pie,"
