Babelandia

by Demetrio Aguilera Malta, Peter Earle

English, Spanish (translation)

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

Ecuadorian writer, director, painter, and diplomat. He was a member of the Guayaquil Group of the 1930s, who used social realism in their writings. He used magical realism in his masterpiece Siete lunas y siete serpientes (1970), which was translated into English as Seven Serpents and Seven Moons by Gregory Rabassa in 1979.

Reviews

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

there's a lot of dictator novels from latin america but i think this might be the only one where the dictator is a living skeleton named Holofernes Verbophile. it's a wild and free wheeling satirical novel where all the characters have silly names and/or cartoonish physical traits(e.g. a priest called Polygamo with a 10 metre penis, Bacchus the Groveller, ape man general called Jonas Pithecanthropus, Narcissus Vaselino, a fat french chef called Disgusteaux) and there is some unattributed em dash dialogue and some nice turns of phrase. overall just a very fun read.

[Howard · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is typical magical-realism stuff about the skeleton Dictator Holofernes and his entourage General Pithecanthropus a banana loving gorilla, Piggy Rigoletto, Admiral Neptuno, defence minister Wiley Warhorse etc. There is a revolutionary group the Amautas kidnap the gorilla and demand many things including a piece the dictator and 200 elite funerals. Capt Gleam wants to marry Maria a virgin widow (of her marriage day to elderly Cinch) The evil priest Polygamo gets poor Ludivina pregnant with his rampant member. Eneas the bell ringer & organist. The dictator sends out his serpent hoard to find his General. The country is in turmoil but whose plan will win out, can sense prevail?

An excellent novel and recommended for any seeking those magical-realism tales.