Una muñeca rusa / El lado de la sombra

by Adolfo Bioy Casares

Barcelona. 21 cm. 206 p. Encuadernación en tapa dura de editorial ilustrada. Colección 'Narrativa actual', numero coleccion(76). Una muñeca rusa. Bioy Casares, Adolfo. 1914-1999. El lado de la sombra. Narrativa actual (RBA Editores). 76 .. Este libro es de segunda mano y tiene o puede tener marcas y señales de su anterior propietario. 8447300757

Genres: Fiction

206 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Adolfo Vicente Perfecto Bioy Casares (1914-1999) was born in Buenos Aires, the child of wealthy parents. He began to write in the early Thirties, and his stories appeared in the influential magazine Sur, through which he met his wife, the painter and writer Silvina Ocampo, as well Jorge Luis Borges, who was to become his mentor, friend, and collaborator. In 1940, after writing several novice works, Bioy published the novella The Invention of Morel, the first of his books to satisfy him, and the first in which he hit his characteristic note of uncanny and unexpectedly harrowing humor. Later publications include stories and novels, among them A Plan for Escape, A Dream of Heroes, and Asleep in the Sun. Bioy also collaborated with Borges on an Anthology of Fantastic Literature and a series of satirical sketches written under the pseudonym of H. Bustos Domecq.

Reviews

[Glenn Russell]

Una Muñeca Rusa (A Russian Doll) - fiction by master of the craft Adolfo Bioy Casares (1914-1999) from Argentina. I'll focus on the title story, a tale of the fabulous containing jaw-dropping shock value - and I'm not just a'woofin.

A RUSSIAN DOLL
We're talking an old-fashioned frame story here: at a hotel in France, the tale's narrator meets up with one of his good buddies from Argentina. This friend shares his story that will in the end explain why everyone at the hotel treats him like a king.

The friend's name is Maceira and Maceira admits he traveled to Europe for one purpose: to find a rich French girl he could marry.

On one occasion Maceira manages to sneak into a posh ball given by the big industrialist in the region, a ball put on for his daughter Chantal. Maceira dances with all the ladies until, most unexpectedly, a blonde beauty demands his undivided attention. Who is this ravishing lovely? None other than Chantal herself.

Maceira and Chantal chat and she's eager to tell him all about how she and her uncle are active in an ecological group undertaking a campaign against her father's company, targeting the main factory contaminating Lake Bourget. As Maceira tells the narrator, "It was not to be believed: she (Chantal) was resolved to wage war against her own interests."

In the ensuing weeks, Chantal and Maceira tour the resort areas in Southern France. But Chantal continues to be serious about her ecological campaign. In order to determine the extent of damage to Lake Bourget, scientists will lead a team to conduct underwater exploration. Chantal asks Maceira to join the team (one team member is Chantal's father). Never one to take serious risks, Maceira agrees but only as a way to prove his dedication and love for Chantal.

The fateful morning arrives and four men outfitted in deep sea diving gear take the plunge. Once hundreds of meters below the surface, Maceira detects two yellowish blue lights in the upper half of the mouth of a tunnel. Maceira thinks they are fog headlights, oval-shaped lights like the eyes of an enormous car. The lights begin to advance toward them. Wow, is this a truck at the bottom of a lake?

The lights grow larger. Maceira has time to see an extremely long animal slide out of the tunnel - "an enormous blue caterpillar that diligently, but without any hurry, devoured, one by one, Monsier Cazalis (Chantal's father), the zoologist, the botanist."

Having taken it all in, Meceira rapidly ascends to the surface and thus develops a case of the bends. He's transported to the local hospital where he can recover.

Merceira decides to tell the truth. After relaying the specifics about the sea monster's feast, one journalist asks him, "Have there been any cases of madness in your family? "Where you ever confined in a mental hospital?"

Adolfo Bioy Casares' extraordinary tale continues with one more unexpected twist at the end. Read all about it.

For readers of English, your book is A Russian Doll and Other Stories published by New Directions.

[Gera Adame]

que lo tengo que leer porque esta muy interesante y me llama mucho la atencion

[Turbanlady · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fácil lectura. Divertido y ganas de leer más.
Cuentos cortos que se desenvuelven de una manera inesperada y a continuación comienza otra historia para atraparnos.

[Ignacio Suarez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Algunos cuentos los escribió bajo el efecto de sustancias si a mí me preguntas. Eso sí, hace de mundos fantásticos, realidades de la vida.

[Pedro · Rating 4 out of 5]

El libro agrupa dos libros de cuentos, Una muñeca rusa y El lado de la sombra.

Las reseñas de cada uno de los cuentos de cada libro se podrán encontrar a través de los hipervínculos de cada uno, incluidos al principio.

Una buena agrupación de cuentos, heterogéneos, en los que, como es habitual en ABC, los más flojos son compensado con creces por los mejores.

Es siempre un gusto leer a Bioy Casares.

[Alexandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Los cuentos de «Una muñeca rusa» me gustaron y entretuvieron bastante. Mucha ficción y realismo mágico que hacen de cada cuento una obra breve cautivante.

No puedo decir lo mismo de «El lado de la sombra», lleno de relatos sobre desamor, desdicha y realidades con un tomo un tanto aburridas.

Así, pues, disfruté de la primera parte, no de la segunda. Y definitivamente prefiero al Bioy Casares novelista sobre el cuentista.

[Begoña M · Rating 3 out of 5]

Por dónde empezar con este libro. Es de fácil lectura al tratarse de relatos cortos. Algunos me han gustado, pero en su mayoría me han dejado tal y como estaba antes de leerlos, no me han aportado mucho más que un rato de evasión mientras iba en el transporte público, que es donde me lo he leído íntegramente.

[Claudio Valverde · Rating 5 out of 5]

Adolfo Bioy Casares otro genio de la literatura de Argentina. No en vano era un entrañable amigo de Jorge Luis Borges. Muy recomendable.

[Antu · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lamentablemente, me parece que el género de Bioy es la novela. Los cuentos me parecen tremendamente artificiales, forzados.

[Fiorella · Rating 3 out of 5]

no lo termine en realidad pero m aburri

[Gabriel Salgado · Rating 3 out of 5]

Inferior a otras de sus novelas cortas y cuentos, tiene igualmente pinceladas magistrales.

[Amparo garcia · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,5 me gusto bastante

[Eulàlia · Rating 3 out of 5]

El lado de la sombra es más relista y quizá me gusó menos. En cambio la MuñecaRusa tiene relatos muy muy buenos.