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Maitreya
English, Spanish (translation)
- GenresNovels
158 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1978
About the author
Severo Sarduy
71 books58 followersSevero Sarduy was a Cuban poet, author, playwright, and critic of Cuban literature and art.
Sarduy became close friends with Roland Barthes, Philippe Sollers, and other writers connected with journal Tel Quel. His third novel, Cobra (1972), translated by Sollers won the Prix Medicis for a work of foreign literature in translation. In addition to his own writing, Sarduy edited, published and promoted the work of many other Spanish and Latin American authors first at Editions Seuil and then Editions Gallimard.
In Sarduy's 1993 obituary in The Independent, James Kirkup wrote, "Sarduy was a genius with words, one of the great contemporary stylists writing in Spanish. ... Sarduy will be remembered chiefly for his brilliant, unpredictable, iconoclastic and often grimly funny novels, works of a totally liberated imagination composed by a master of disciplined Spanish style. He encompassed the sublime and the ridiculous, mingling oral traditions with literary mannerisms adopted from his baroque masters.
Sarduy became close friends with Roland Barthes, Philippe Sollers, and other writers connected with journal Tel Quel. His third novel, Cobra (1972), translated by Sollers won the Prix Medicis for a work of foreign literature in translation. In addition to his own writing, Sarduy edited, published and promoted the work of many other Spanish and Latin American authors first at Editions Seuil and then Editions Gallimard.
In Sarduy's 1993 obituary in The Independent, James Kirkup wrote, "Sarduy was a genius with words, one of the great contemporary stylists writing in Spanish. ... Sarduy will be remembered chiefly for his brilliant, unpredictable, iconoclastic and often grimly funny novels, works of a totally liberated imagination composed by a master of disciplined Spanish style. He encompassed the sublime and the ridiculous, mingling oral traditions with literary mannerisms adopted from his baroque masters.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 17, 2025
Se dice que Faulkner se quejó, alguna vez, de que Ernest Hemingway «nunca había usado una palabra que pudiera llevar al lector al diccionario». Bien. Aquí es diferente: El léxico de Sarduy es tan amplio que el diccionario no basta. Ya ni hablemos del tremendo bagaje cultural.
July 7, 2022
Una persecución de un gordito chinito y del átomo
September 10, 2019
Sarduy escribe Maitreya en 1970 y en ella explora toda su fascinación por Asia, sin abandonar (a nivel del texto) su natal Cuba. Mezcla que resulta en uno de sus libros más barrocos; descentrado hasta el extremo, abuso del doble sin razón, encadenamiento de imágenes una tras otra. En este libro Sarduy no escribe; pinta.
¿De qué se trata el libro? Ni idea, al menos si la pregunta apunta a la trama. ¿De qué se trata el libro? De una superestructura preciosista que deja al lector atontado. El delirio de la trama ataca y agota, pero, al llegar al final, se entiende el sin sentido ¿llegamos al nirvana?
Lo irritante está en que la exuberancia del delirio obliga un ritmo largo que hace de esta novela de unas 190 páginas en un texto del doble de su tamaño.
¿De qué se trata el libro? Ni idea, al menos si la pregunta apunta a la trama. ¿De qué se trata el libro? De una superestructura preciosista que deja al lector atontado. El delirio de la trama ataca y agota, pero, al llegar al final, se entiende el sin sentido ¿llegamos al nirvana?
Lo irritante está en que la exuberancia del delirio obliga un ritmo largo que hace de esta novela de unas 190 páginas en un texto del doble de su tamaño.
October 18, 2013
Dovevo lasciarlo dormire nella mia libreria. Noioso, fastidioso, mi ha impedito di raggiungere il nirvana.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews