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United States of Banana
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Groundbreaking Puerto Rican novelist and poet Giannina Braschi continues her exploration of the Hispanic-American experience in this vibrant new allegorical novel, her first written originally in English. It takes place at the Statue of Liberty in post-9/11 New York City, where Hamlet, Zarathustra, and Giannina are on a quest to free the Puerto Rican prisoner Segismundo. S
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Kindle Edition, 305 pages
Published
by AmazonCrossing
(first published May 13th 2011)
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Giannina Braschi's originality is not only refreshing, but intellectually thrilling. "Original" is the first word that comes to mind upon reading United States of Banana. Then comes "profound" and soon upon it "revolutionary". Stylistically and structurally, this book is a hybrid of essays, short stories, and drama with flares of political philosophy. It's a brilliant, humorous critique of contemporary American culture during the Bush-Obama era, a turning point for the empire. The work envisions
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Absolutely brilliant. Hilarious, intelligent, linguistically beautiful, and politically relevant. If you've any interest in Latin American/US politics, poetry, philosophy, then this is a book for you.
Really impressed by this book, which begins as a series of monologues by the author, Hamlet, and Zarathustra, but becomes a conversation between them and various other historical and contemporary people about the fate of Puerto Rico, in relation to the US.
Maybe the most impressive part about this ...more
Really impressed by this book, which begins as a series of monologues by the author, Hamlet, and Zarathustra, but becomes a conversation between them and various other historical and contemporary people about the fate of Puerto Rico, in relation to the US.
Maybe the most impressive part about this ...more
Incomprehensible. I gave up about 1/4 in.
United States of Banana is a big book about big ideas. Like other postmodern cross-genre literary works, this offers a dizzying array of avant-garde techniques but does so, in the words of the Latinx critic John Riofrio, in the service of “ trenchant critiques of social issues”. Braschi’s Hysterical Realism takes on far-ranging current events such as global debt structures, exploited labor forces, unprecedented immigration flows around the globe, mass incarceration of the poor and disenfranchise
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I wanted to like this. I like the sentiments. I like the playfulness. I didn't like the book, however. I had to plow through it on a couple of trans-Pacific flights.
There is some amazing imagery (statue of liberty's vagina and Hamlet, etc.), some very poignant lines and funny bits. I just could barely make it through this. ...more
There is some amazing imagery (statue of liberty's vagina and Hamlet, etc.), some very poignant lines and funny bits. I just could barely make it through this. ...more
A piece of postmodernist, political-literary mouth diarrhea featuring Zarathustra (in the #nietzschean gestalt), Shakespeare's Hamlet and his mother, Segismundo and his father, Socrates, the Statue of Liberty herself and many more… "United States of Banana" is full of humor and sharp satirical subtleties. And Giannina Braschi without doubt has a message to deliver. But, unfortunately, Braschi lacks the literary virtues of moderation and the ability to focus. And this quickly makes reading the bo
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Aug 26, 2011
Eiji Tsujimoto
is currently reading it
interesting blend of styles
It is an entertaining novel but the parody gig grows a little old early on. Still, it is interesting and it got some good lines to quote.
Quite interesting...
“Zarathustra: Do you have words? Do your words belong to you?
Giannina: No, my answer is no. I have no property in the dictionary. Words are anonymous like the disenfranchised masses that haven't been weighed - or named - or framed. My words belong to those who don't belong.”
― Giannina Braschi, United States of Banana
An innovative and challenging view of post-9/11 America. Braschi plays with poetic, dramatic and prose forms to observe the impact of 9/11 from her perspective as an alienated and ...more
Giannina: No, my answer is no. I have no property in the dictionary. Words are anonymous like the disenfranchised masses that haven't been weighed - or named - or framed. My words belong to those who don't belong.”
― Giannina Braschi, United States of Banana
An innovative and challenging view of post-9/11 America. Braschi plays with poetic, dramatic and prose forms to observe the impact of 9/11 from her perspective as an alienated and ...more
Se me hace difícil poner estrellas a esta obra. Encontré el libro en amazon y leí la muestra que ofrece y me encantó.
Las primeras páginas son, para mí, las más interesantes del libro. Narra sobre el 11S y la experiencia de una inmigrante de Puerto Rico y su vida en EEUU. El tono es irónico, con una mirada que me gustó mucho y sobre todo, con un toque de excentricidad.
Luego, de repente, se torna otra cosa, una especie de ensayo que a mí no me aportó nada nuevo. Se me tornó muy elevado que hable ...more
Las primeras páginas son, para mí, las más interesantes del libro. Narra sobre el 11S y la experiencia de una inmigrante de Puerto Rico y su vida en EEUU. El tono es irónico, con una mirada que me gustó mucho y sobre todo, con un toque de excentricidad.
Luego, de repente, se torna otra cosa, una especie de ensayo que a mí no me aportó nada nuevo. Se me tornó muy elevado que hable ...more
If you're into avant-garde, postmodern literature, this is for you. It wasn't for me. While I appreciate its stylistic experimentation and some very beautifully written excerpts, it quickly became monotonous and overindulgent. This was written for those who have an in-depth knowledge and enjoyment of both classical literature and philosophy, and love to have hours-long philosophical debates. I very much agree with another reviewer here that describes this as "political-literary mouth diarrhea" a
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Fue un vómito (en forma positiva) de historias y personajes literarios y filosóficos. La forma: sorprendente; pero necesitaría varias lecturas para desentrañar el fondo.
Print version.
Jul 05, 2020
ElenaSquareEyes
rated it
did not like it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
the-read-the-world-project,
north-america
I listened to United States of Banana on audio and it was a very similar experience to listening to Fieldwork in Ukrainian Sex and I’m not sure if reading the physical book would have helped at all because United States of Banana is just weird.
Though I’m not sure the name of the person whose perspective the book started out from I was able to follow the first part of United States of Banana reasonably well. It was about what life was like in America (or the United States of Banana as it’s called ...more
Though I’m not sure the name of the person whose perspective the book started out from I was able to follow the first part of United States of Banana reasonably well. It was about what life was like in America (or the United States of Banana as it’s called ...more
This is a masterpiece of social criticism about the decline of the American empire and its cruel injustices of blatant racism, sexism, and a host of other "isms." For a fascinating review and a deep dive of Braschi's political philosophy, read "Falling for debt: Giannina Braschi, the Latinx avant-garde, and financial terrorism in the United States of Banana" by John Riofrio who explains how the economic devastation wrought by the 2008 market crash comes to light in "Braschi’s dense, profound nov
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Oct 09, 2020
Isabella Ruth
rated it
liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
representative-lit
This book was a really interesting read. It’s 1000000% experimental fiction, so, if that’s not your thing, proceed with caution. I liked the second half of the book better, but the beginning did have its merits. It set the scene. I also enjoyed the little reminders throughout the novel that continually brought back previous ideas.
A really thought-provoking piece. Would recommend to any reader willing to put in the thought and the time.
A really thought-provoking piece. Would recommend to any reader willing to put in the thought and the time.
Great Read! It was even cooler to meet her in person & hear her read portions of it.
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Giannina Braschi is a Puerto Rican writer. She is credited with writing the first Spanglish novel YO-YO BOING! (1998), the postmodern poetry trilogy Empire of Dreams (Yale, 1994), and the explosive new work of philosophical fiction United States of Banana, (Amazon Crossing, 2011), which chronicles the Latin American immigrant's experiences in the United States.
"For decades, Dominican and Puerto R ...more
"For decades, Dominican and Puerto R ...more
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“Zarathustra: Do you have words? Do your words belong to you?
Giannina: No, my answer is no. I have no property in the dictionary. Words are anonymous like the disenfranchised masses that haven't been weighed - or named - or framed. My words belong to those who don't belong.”
—
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Giannina: No, my answer is no. I have no property in the dictionary. Words are anonymous like the disenfranchised masses that haven't been weighed - or named - or framed. My words belong to those who don't belong.”
“We were fighting for them in wars against people that we had more in common with than with the United States of Banana.”
—
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