Juan Carlos Onetti’s Followers (389)

Juan Carlos Onetti

Born

in Montevideo, Uruguay

July 01, 1909

Died

May 30, 1994

Genre

Fiction

Influences

Roberto Arlt, Céline, Faulkner, James Joyce, John Dos Passos, Knut Ham ...more

edit data

Juan Carlos Onetti (July 1, 1909, Montevideo – May 30, 1994, Madrid) was an Uruguayan novelist and author of short stories.

A high school drop-out, Onetti's first novel, El pozo, published in 1939, met with his close friends' immediate acclaim, as well as from some writers and journalists of his time. 500 copies of the book were printed, most of them left to rot at the only bookstore that sold it, Barreiro (the book was not reprinted until the 60's, with an introduction and preliminary study by Ángel Rama). Aged 30, Onetti was already working as editing secretary of the famous weekly Uruguayan newspaper Marcha. He had lived for some years in Buenos Aires, where he published short stories and wrote cinema critiques for the local media, and me Juan Carlos Onetti (July 1, 1909, Montevideo – May 30, 1994, Madrid) was an Uruguayan novelist and author of short stories.

A high school drop-out, Onetti's first novel, El pozo, published in 1939, met with his close friends' immediate acclaim, as well as from some writers and journalists of his time. 500 copies of the book were printed, most of them left to rot at the only bookstore that sold it, Barreiro (the book was not reprinted until the 60's, with an introduction and preliminary study by Ángel Rama). Aged 30, Onetti was already working as editing secretary of the famous weekly Uruguayan newspaper Marcha. He had lived for some years in Buenos Aires, where he published short stories and wrote cinema critiques for the local media, and met and befriended the notorious novelist and journalist, Roberto Arlt ("El juguete rabioso", "Los siete locos", "Los lanzallamas").

He went on to become one of Latin America's most distinguished writers, earning Uruguay's National Prize in literature in 1962. In 1974, he and some of his colleagues were imprisoned by the military dictatorship. Their crime: as members of the jury, they had chosen Nelson Marra's short story El guardaespaldas (i.e. "The bodyguard") as the winner of Marcha's annual literary contest. Due to a series of misunderstandings (and the need to fill some space in the following day's edition), El guardaespaldas was published in Marcha, although it had been widely agreed among them that they shouldn't and wouldn't do so, knowing this would be the perfect excuse for the military to intervene Marcha, considering the subject of the story (the interior monologue of a top-rank military officer who recounts his murders and atrocious behavior, much as it was happening with the functioning regime).

Onetti left his native country (and his much-loved city of Montevideo) after being imprisoned for 6 months in Colonia Etchepare, a mental institution. A long list of world-famous writers -including Gabriel García Márquez, Mario Vargas Llosa and Mario Benedetti - signed open letters addressed to the military government of Uruguay, which was unaware of the talented (and completely harmless) writer it had imprisoned and humiliated.

As soon as he was released, Onetti fled to Spain with his wife, violin player Dorotea Mühr. There he continued his career as a writer, being awarded the most prestigious literary prize in the Spanish-speaking world, the Premio Cervantes. He remained in Madrid until his death in 1994. He is interred in the Cementerio de la Almudena in Madrid.

...more

Combine Editions
Juan Carlos Onetti’s books

Average rating: 3.75 · 12,686 ratings · 1,455 reviews · 149 distinct works • Similar authors

	El astillero 3.77 avg rating — 2,384 ratings — published 1961 — 89 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Los adioses 3.72 avg rating — 1,914 ratings — published 1953 — 47 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	El pozo 3.68 avg rating — 1,513 ratings — published 1939 — 21 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	La vida breve 3.78 avg rating — 1,233 ratings — published 1950 — 20 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Juntacadáveres 3.68 avg rating — 911 ratings — published 1964 — 66 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Cuentos completos 4.22 avg rating — 540 ratings — published 1979 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Cuando ya no importe 3.57 avg rating — 445 ratings — published 1993 — 23 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Dejemos hablar al viento 3.67 avg rating — 325 ratings — published 1979 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Tan triste como ella y otros cuentos 4.07 avg rating — 167 ratings — published 1963 — 20 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	El pozo: Novelas breves 1 3.75 avg rating — 148 ratings — published 1979 — 13 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Juan Carlos Onetti…

Series by Juan Carlos Onetti

Novelas breves (2 books)
by

Juan Carlos Onetti

3.80 avg rating — 212 ratings

Quotes by Juan Carlos Onetti (?)

“I applaud the courage of he who accepts each and every one of the laws of a game he did not invent and was not asked if he wanted to play”
― Juan Carlos Onetti, A Brief Life

36 likes

“El amor es maravilloso y absurdo e, incomprensiblemente, visita a cualquier clase de almas. Pero la gente absurda y maravillosa no abunda; y las que lo son, es por poco tiempo, en la primera juventud. Después comienzan a aceptar y se pierden.”
― Juan Carlos Onetti, El pozo

tags: love

21 likes

“La literatura es mentir bien la verdad”
― Juan Carlos Onetti

21 likes

See all Juan Carlos Onetti's quotes »

Polls

scegliamo la lettura di Marzo

Una cosa che volevo dirti da un po' di Alice Munro

7 votes, 18.9%

Le nostre anime di notte di Kent Haruf

7 votes, 18.9%

Il potere del cane di Don Winslow

5 votes, 13.5%

Da dove sto chiamando di Raymond Carver

5 votes, 13.5%

Il deserto dei Tartari di Dino Buzzati

4 votes, 10.8%

Il mestiere dello scrittore di Haruki Murakami

2 votes, 5.4%

Solaris di Stanisław Lem

2 votes, 5.4%

Il gaucho insopportabile di Roberto Bolaño

2 votes, 5.4%

Il seno di Philip Roth

1 vote, 2.7%

Triste come lei di Juan Carlos Onetti

1 vote, 2.7%

Assalonne, Assalonne! di William Faulkner

1 vote, 2.7%

Vicino al cuore selvaggio di Clarice Lispector

0 votes, 0.0%

Il corpo non dimentica di Violetta Bellocchio

0 votes, 0.0%

37 total votes

5 comments

More...

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
Challenge: 50 Books: Lauli's 50 books in 2010	87	318	Dec 30, 2010 05:18PM
The Next Best Boo...: Lisa T - Trekker	41	176	Sep 17, 2011 03:00PM
Boxall's 1001 Bo...: Which LIST book did you just finish?	7919	10691	Oct 06, 2013 10:36AM
Reading with Style: Fall 2013 RwS Completed Tasks - Fall 2013	941	159	Nov 30, 2013 09:04PM
Around the World ...: Desertorum - Frequent Flyer 2015	100	194	Dec 17, 2015 02:57AM
Around the World ...: Diane - Trekker 2013	176	283	Dec 23, 2015 07:54AM

More…