El mercader de alfombras

by Phillip Lopate, Santiago Roncagliolo (Contributor)

Cyrus Irani no acaba de encontrar su lugar en el mundo. Hijo de inmigrantes iraníes, culto, introvertido, se conforma con ver pasar los días desde su oscura tienda de alfombras del Upper West Side de Manhattan; pero el barrio, en pleno auge, está cambiando y el alquiler de la tienda está a punto de triplicarse. Por otro lado, y a pesar de la insistencia de su madre para que siente la cabeza, todavía no ha encontrado una mujer con la que compartir su vida.
Los problemas se van multiplicando sin que su pasividad crónica, que hasta ahora le ha servido para vivir sin excesivas complicaciones, le permita hacerles frente. Empujado por la insistencia de su madre, sus amigos y su sobrino punk, Cyrus intentará zafarse de sus arraigadas y sedentarias costumbres.
Ingeniosa y rica en matices, El mercader de alfombras es también una novela sobre Nueva York y sobre su ocaso, sobre el final de unas formas de vida en la metrópolis de las que el tendero Cyrus es uno de sus últimos testimonios.

Genres: Fiction, The United States Of America

272 pages, Paperback

First published March 10, 1987

About the author

Phillip Lopate is the author of three personal essay collections, two novels, two poetry collections, a memoir of his teaching experiences, and a collection of his movie criticism. He has edited the following anthologies, and his essays, fiction, poetry, film and architectural criticism have appeared in The Best American Short Stories, The Best American Essays, The Paris Review, Harper's, Vogue, Esquire, New York Times, Harvard Educational Review, Conde Nast Traveler, and many other periodicals and anthologies. He has been awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, a New York Public Library Center for Scholars and Writers Fellowship, two National Endowment for the Arts grants, and two New York Foundation for the Arts grants. After working with children for twelve years as a writer in the schools, he taught creative writing and literature at Fordham, Cooper Union, University of Houston, and New York University. He currently holds the John Cranford Adams Chair at Hofstra University, and also teaches in the MFA graduate programs at Columbia, the New School and Bennington.

Reviews

[Antonio AG · Rating 2 out of 5]

La idiosincrasia de este pobre mercader de alfombras en desgracia me pareció interesante desde el principio: un tipo incapaz de tener ninguna iniciativa ni de reaccionar ante el abismo del mundo cambiante que se le aproxima, excesivamente cobarde incluso para huir. Se le llega a coger cariño, pero a lo largo de la novela su actitud acaba por ser desesperante. Esto se hace especialmente significativo al final, que me resultó anticlimático y descorazonador. Siento que tanto el autor como yo detestábamos al protagonista, pero de formas completamente opuestas.

[Tony Sullivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A gentle, melancholy tale, intellectual but full of feeling. The book has wonderful descriptions of places, people and their dealings.

Cyrus (Kurush) Irani owns a rug store in New York. He is a Parsi, on the fringe of the city's small Zoroastrian religious community with its connections to Iran and India. The gentlemanly Cyrus has a deep knowledge of the arts and an exquisite aesthetic sense. He brings some of this to bear in his business, but for the most part it just enriches the inner world he plays in. He has been seduced by the life of the mind, turning from the challenges of academia, relationships or indeed anything beyond his modestly successful shop. Change forces itself on him, firstly when new owners triple the rent on his store, later when his advancing years give romance a now-or-never feel.

[Rosa María · Rating 3 out of 5]

Esta novela nos muestra un tiempo en la vida de Cyrus Irani, mercader de alfombras en el Upper West Side de Manhattan durante los años 80 del pasado siglo. Inmigrante iraní cuya familia profesa la religión zoroástrica, no acaba de encontrar su sitio en el mundo. Y cuando su pequeño refugio que es su tienda de alfombras se ve amenazado por la subida exagerada e injustificada en el alquiler, vemos como intenta afrontar los reveses de la vida a su manera.
Una historia triste y que nos enseña que en la vida hay que arriesgar para https://es.babelio.com/ajoutlivres.ph... conseguir lo que uno desea, y que aunque escondamos la cabeza el mundo girando y nos obliga a actuar.

[Austin · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very quiet, slow book. The protagonist is very sad and lonely and it's a little exhausting to see him act so passive in his life throughout the novel. The bits about Zoroastrianism and rugmaking were super interesting, and it at times reads as an interesting immigrant story. A nice short novel, I think it was the perfect length.

[José Guerrero · Rating 5 out of 5]

Es un texto que sigue, como es costumbre en la narrativa Lopatiana, un momento de quietud y de nada. El protagonista busca no ser novelesco ni dramático solo busca ser nada ni nadie, mas la trama lo empuja a la acción forzada.

[M. Gallego · Rating 2 out of 5]

The best part of the book for me: the foreword by Santiago Roncagliolo.

[Marta Porta · Rating 2 out of 5]

Llibre que m’ha deixat bastant indiferent però que m’ha distret unes hores.

[Marisolera · Rating 1 out of 5]

La vida aburrida de un tipo aburrido. Perfectamente prescindible.

[Julie Barrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Rug Merchant
Story of a man who has nobody and he relies on his rugs to find solace.
He lives above the shop among other tenants and one year the rent is raised and it's too much for him to pay.
As a last result he knows he can sell the rugs, but then what. Sirius has many conversations with his male friend, Averginia about having sex with women and he knows he needs to find a good woman.
He feels he's done Kathleeen wrong as she may be overheard a conversation.
Some shopkeepers are leaving due to the high rent and one rallies and hopes to demonstrate and force the owner to back down to regular rent.
He reaches out to his mother...then his brother for a loan...if he marries they might give him money...
Very explicit sexual details as he tries to come to understandings...
I received this book from National Library Service for my BARD (Braille Audio Reading Device).

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book back in college, and some of the images have implanted themselves on my brain. I don't remember the story, but there was something so familiar and personal, effortless, about knowing Cyrus Irani, learning about his cultural heritage and connecting with his sensuality.

[Ken Ficara]

The Rug Merchant (Contemporary American Fiction) by Phillip Lopate (1988)