Leaving the Atocha Station in Around the World in 80 Books

Mar 19, 2013 Kent Winward rated it really liked it

Well written and intriguing -- sort of the non-9-11 novel, 9-11 novel, transposing Spain's attack of 3/11 for the US attack and its impact on the character's psyche. The narrator's distance from the Spanish culture grants a distance from the terrorist attacks that places them in a perspective that is sorely needed in terrorist discourse. I'm paraphrasing, but at one point the narrator opines on why terrorism excites such a fevered response while a car accidents and illnesses that effect many mor ...more

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Aug 28, 2012 Sam rated it really liked it

Shelves: 1-contemp-literary, read-2012, reviewed

In Leaving the Atocha Station, we follow poet Adam Gordon around Spain where he's on a fellowship and so, in theory, is conducting research for a new poem he’s going to write. In reality, he’s mostly thinking, reading, smoking spliffs, popping pills, occasionally going out with his Spanish friends, and lying to them to seem cooler and smarter. Through the wanderings and meditations of this wry, unreliable, emotionally-numb character, the novel touches on issues like identity and authenticity, en ...more

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