Conrad Johnson's Blog, page 32

Counterpoint and Letter to Margi (from the Twitter Western romance, Carlos' Bride

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Counterpoint and Letter to Margi

Her Red Camaro

Conrad Johnson and Till The Moon Falls

High technology lives side by side with cheap ladies and cheap hotels in this neo noir, international mystery thriller. Set in Seattle and Thailand. John Oxman, a crusty ex merchant seaman, comes to the aid of a beautiful woman who has been drugged, violated and on the run after having bio engineered, nanotechnology implanted into her body against her will. Little does he know that his attempts to help her leads him into a web of international and corporate intrigue where illusion substitutes for reality and friends become enemies. FREE DOWNLOAD LIMITED TIME OFFER CLICK HERE.
"...gripping..."-Paranormal Romance Guild "A great setting, a gripping novel..." -- Jake Needham

Eric Czuleger and Immortal L.A.

Eric Czuleger is the author of Immortal L.A. and the forthcoming novels, Eternal L.A. and Farnoosh. He is the resident playwright of Coeurage Theatre Company and a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (Albania 2011-2013). His plays have been seen in Los Angeles, New York, Washington D.C., Louisville and live streamed around the world. He currently lives in Los Angeles. He tweets at @Eczuleger, and you can find his website at EricCzuleger.com. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO HIS LIVE INTERVIEW ON BLOG TALK RADIO ON DECEMBER 19TH AT 6PM EST. Also, GO TO PSEUDOPOD.ORG to hear an excellent audio excerpt from it entitled, "Punks Not Dead."

Juan Gabriel Vásquez and The Secret History of Costaguana (a review)

The Secret History of Costaguana by Juan Gabriel Vásquez

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Grow your tree of falsehood from a small grain of truth. Do not follow those who lie in contempt of reality. Let your lie be even more logical than the truth itself, so the weary travelers may find repose. --Czeslaw Milosz, Polish Nobel Prize Laureate

Vásquez's micro-existential and momentary fictional audience within this novel, Joseph Conrad, needs redemption for his evil doppelgänger's distortion of Colombia/Costaguana's history as told in his popular work, Nostromo. At least that's what Jose Altámirano, the fictional narrator of The Secret History of Costaguana, comically and feverishly pleads for ultimately to an unreliable reader(s).

Most reviewers have tried to place this 2011 South American story within appropriate regional parameters but, given the absurd supra-realism (not magical), that Vásquez cubistically uses to makes us see and believe the 'truth' about Costaguana, and to some poetically licensed, demystification of Joseph Conrad, The Secret History of Costaguana, is more attune to the early 20th century Spanish writer, Miguel Unamuno's concept of intrahistoria-- that history could best be understood by looking at the small histories of anonymous people, rather than by focusing on major events such as wars and political pacts. However, Vásquez aggressively expands the meme by including major historical figures a la Winston Groom's Forrest Gump. The comparison is not so far fetched as it sounds.

Rewriting history in novel form is hardly (excuse the pun) novel, but what distinguishes Vásquez here is his post-deconstructionist sensibilities within the framework of Spanish language philosophical thought. He writes on at the beginning of Chapter VIII:

Pain has no history, or rather, pain is outside history, because it situates its victim in a parallel reality where nothing else exists, I've said; and it's true that for me--I can insist without grandiloquence--nothing else existed in those days...

Once again, this clearly articulated premise could well have been penned by Unamuno or any of his contemporaries seeking existential truths in a peri-WW1 social milieu. Vásquez has the advantage, or disadvantage, of over a hundred years of evolved skepticism that have led many philosophers and writers into an almost laughable position of complete intellectual frustration that only comic relief can cure. One person severely betrayed, as Altámirano claims he was in the novel, translates as the entire human race forsaken. Even the narrator's name, which roughly means in garbled Spanish 'highest viewpoint', suggests an agonizing observation of ironic events from a disingenuous narrator.


The protagonist, linking his fate to that of the great Joseph Conrad's--a Polish enigma yet keen observer of psychological skin--reflects the angst of Altámirano's desperate plea for the 'truth' to be told, never realizing that Conrad's fictional words to him are final: "This, my dear sir, is a novel."

While Vásquez's wit and word play, brilliantly translated from the Spanish by Anne McLean, entertain the actual reader tremendously, there is a tediousness and sluggish pace to certain sections in this work that require less cataloguing and more dialoguing. Nevertheless, The Secret History of Costaguana has certainly earned victorious merit in the long spanning tradition of Spanish existential literature, in spite of its absurdist trappings, much as Unamuno re-created another fantastic story of supposed betrayal in his most famous novel, Abel Sánchez.The themes are similar: the struggle to preserve personal integrity in the face of the pressures of social conformity. Joseph Conrad might not be amused, but the discerning reader understands that Vásquez unapologetically does not allow the protagonist to use the first person point of view to pay no homage to anyone except his dear daughter, Eloísa. One might even be able to say that love, like cholera, lingers heavily forever like the unbearable tropical heat that melts away positivism.



View all my reviews

Letter To Margi

Pain has no history, or rather, pain is outside history, because it situates its victim in a parallel reality where nothing else exists--Juan Gabriel Vásquez

Conrad Johnson and Stargazer Universe: Love and War in the Dark Galaxy

Trapped aboard a starship designed by an ancient race known only as the Protos, the earth crew of the vessel Kismet awakens from stasis after a three year, intergalactic journey meant to escape attacking robotic drones. But they face new, unexplained dangers from both within and without as personalities clash and tensions mount as they attempt to adapt to their new environment. Get it--where else? HERE AT AMAZON

Gamal Hennessy and A Touch of Honey

New York espionage thriller writer and professional blogger, Gamal Hennessy, guides us through seductive deceits and plot twists in his latest book.

Sir Julian Rose and In Defence of Life

Did the CIA crush the Polish Solidarity movement? Who is in the cabal that controls global finances? Julian Day Rose, British author and activist, briefs us about the Polish Farmer's Revolution against American and European Union banksters hard sell of Genetically Modified Organisms into their country .