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    <name><![CDATA[David]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Seattle, WA]]></location>        
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  <read_at>Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Thu Jun 25 12:32:49 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Fri Jun 26 14:56:14 -0700 2009</date_updated>
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    <body><![CDATA[Here is the magic of libraries again, those fathomless oceans of story that cast up rare marvels and monstrosities, and unimagined jewels lost to time in their obscuring depths, for us beachcombers to find. Coloane was a much beloved writer in his native Chile, and is only just now reaching America with this and one other collection of tales. I think there are some other things in English, and hopefully much more to follow. A jacket blurb compares him to Jack London, which is apt in a number of ways. The world of his stories is the furthest verge of South America, a stark landscape of rocks and sea, windswept pampas and cliffs. And gold. Gold that appears in traces among the dark ferrous sands, beneath the bleached bones of a whale. Gold that drives men mad. Men who struggle and strive in the vertiginous chasm between great riches and starvation, while migratory sea birds cast a cold eye on it all from above. Most of the men just get by, clinging to their ships and rocks like crabs, clinging to their superstitions and beliefs, including a childish faith in the myth of the self-made man. Here too, Coloane and London meet in their unsparing view of society – a hard and mostly indifferent world where men are not masters, but subjects, all. Coloane was a communist while London was a socialist; both have the skeptical sympathy of men who have lived hard and seen a great deal. One story about a strange, hidden valley and the strange ones who dwell there even recalls London’s fantastic side. And finally – and this may be all you need to know – there is the great sense of adventure, which was heightened by the fact that Patagonia and the Straits of Magellan are so strange and unfamiliar to me. It reminded me of reading London as a child, my wondering soul harkening to those mythic lands far to the North. I will definitely be looking out for more Coloane.]]></body>
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