Doña Barbara

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Lingvo: English

Eldonita je 30-a de aprilo 2012 de University of Chicago Press.

2 steloj (1 recenzo)

Rómulo Gallegos is best known for being Venezuela’s first democratically elected president. But in his native land he is equally famous as a writer responsible for one of Venezuela’s literary treasures, the novel Doña Barbara. Published in 1929 and all but forgotten by Anglophone readers, Doña Barbara is one of the first examples of magical realism, laying the groundwork for later authors such as Gabriel García Márquez and Mario Vargas Llosa.

13 eldonoj

recenzis Doña Barbara de Rómulo Gallegos

Couldn't get into this one

2 steloj

I received a copy of Dona Barbara as a free ebook download from the University of Chicago Press. A classic in Venezuela where the book is set and written by a former president there, the novel of cowboy life on the Plains looked like it should be an interesting read. Unfortunately I often found myself struggling to keep ploughing through the book. I like Latin American fiction generally, but I couldn't get into this one. Descriptions of the landscape are nicely done and occasional scenes caught my attention which is why I did keep reading to the end. However, I thought the majority of the characters were two-dimensional and unrealistic. Perhaps a lot has been lost in the translation from the original Spanish because readers in that language seem to rave about Dona Barbara. Personally I was disappointed.

Temoj

  • Classic fiction
  • Venezuela