The Invention of Morel

The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


THE INVENTION OF MOREL

by Adolfo Bioy Casares

Completed: February 1, 2023

Format: New York Review Books Paperback

ISBN: 978-1-59017-057-1

Rating (X/10): 6.5

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Authentic science fiction is rooted in the philosophical nuances of the human experience - ethics, morality, sociology, politics, religion, life and death. "The Invention of Morel" certainly doesn't skimp on philosophy, and I understand that this is the reason the book garners a cult following, but I also believe this adherence to philosophy damages the overall plot and character arcs.

I believe it is well overdue that a genre is created for books like "The Invention of Morel." This new genre should be labeled "Philosophical Fiction," and it would work in a similar manner to Historical Fiction. A great deal of science fiction books would be better served if they were categorized as philosophical fiction. From my experiences with this brand of science fiction that has a hyper focus on philosophy, I often find myself bored and detached from the story. I put the fault to some degree on myself, as philosophy can only be described as mildly important in my life, but the fact remains that books of this genre often suffer from literary development problems.

Let us examine the principle parts of the book:

Milieu - an abandoned island which includes a museum, a chapel, and a swimming pool.

Idea - the narrator falls in love with a specter, but his paranoia about being arrested suppresses his love for her.

Character - a fugitive hides on an abandoned island and documents his investigation of a group of mysterious strangers.

Event - there really isn't a defining event, but perhaps it could be said that Morel's speech was the main event of the book, as this is where the key to the mystery is revealed.

All of these elements are extremely weak, and given that the book is less than 100 pages, there is scarcely time to develop a holistic novel. I took a break from reading "Anna Karenina" to pick up "The Invention of Morel" at the suggestion of an acquaintance. I found myself desperately craving the richness and depth of Tolstoy while I was reading "The Invention of Morel." The writing lacked descriptive details, the characters (especially the narrator) were underdeveloped and forgettable, and the island was bland and ill-defined. The problem for the narrator was not escaping arrest, but figuring out how to have a relationship with Faustine, a character who by definition cannot be developed because she is essentially an apparition.

Morel's speech was the weakest aspect of the book. Rather than finding a clever way to reveal the key to the mystery of a group of people living on an abandoned island, Casares chose to simply dedicate five pages to info-dumping the entire mystery. This is the most blatant disregard for show-don't-tell that I have ever read in any book in my entire life. It felt like Casares ran out of steam and simply used a speech to explain the mystery and end the book at 100 pages.

The last 20 pages of the book feel like Casares was flipping through a philosophy textbook and entering random thoughts and ideas about a cornucopia of ethical and moral debates into the novel. There are entire paragraphs which seemingly have nothing to do with the book at all, and in my opinion, this is the fault of the editor whose job it is to be forceful with writers when incoherent content should be deleted. This book could have easily been edited down to 50 pages without losing anything important.

I realize that many people love this book and consider Casares to be a God amongst mortal writers, but this book certainly did not convince me of that opinion. Perhaps my canonized doctrine of Western literature is preventing me from appreciating "The Invention of Morel" fully, but I think my issue with the book is the same issue that I have with many science fiction books - the writing simply isn't good.

If you enjoy philosophy, you will have your hands full with this book and will certainly delight in the narrator's delusions, divulgences, psychotic meanderings, and impossibly existential soliloquys.

If you enjoy a classical approach to literature and writing, you will likely find yourself bored and underwhelmed by the hype of this book.

On an intensely personal note, I have noticed over my lifetime that people who don't read many novels tend to put one book or one author on a pedestal and tout its glory and supreme domination over all other novels. It is my opinion that a lack of experience in reading novels is the basis for the cult that follows of "The Invention of Morel" and Casares. This is not to say that everyone who enjoys the book does so because they lack the benefit of comparison and thus established canon, but I strongly feel that most of the four and five star reviewers have fallen victim to this common occurrence of inexperience.



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