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Use this topic to discuss whether you enjoyed your February picks from Argentina, and whether you'd recommend it to your fellow readers! Did you find it easy/difficult to complete this task?

Please tag all spoilers in this post!

Oh, goodness. I went with Idle Days in Patagonia, and heartily do not recommend it to anyone born in the current or previous century.

I went in, curious to read about the nature and especially birds of Patagonia. I was lulled in by the delightfully old fashioned use of language. And then was faced with our intrepid ornithologist shooting every bird he came across, and of course his honest racism, sexism, ableism, classism... Like, no. This is actually just a stream-of-conciousness of a Good Old Boy From The Right Boarding School.

I finished the book All Yours for Argentina this month. It was super quick. It took me just one whole night to finish as it was rather engaging, yet I am not entirely sure what I feel about the book. At first I was very interested in the protagonist, though it soon occurred to me that she was delusional. I did not like any of the characters, but liking everyone doesn't make an interesting book. If that was the intention of the writer, I think it was well done.

I read All My Goodbyes by Mariana Dimópulos.

A young Argentinian woman feels her identity is in pieces. Diffident, self-critical, wary of commitment, she is condemned, or condemns herself, to repeated acts of departure, from places, parents, and lovers. Then, arriving in the southernmost region of Patagonia, she convinces herself she has found happiness, until she’s caught up in the horrific murders that haunt her story.

Beautiful, if sometimes frustrating, writing style. It took me a little while to get into this story but once I was I definitely wanted to finish. It's an interesting look inside someone's psyche without actually penetrating that far.

I read Little Eyes by Samanta Schweblin. I liked the concept and I really enjoyed the ensemble of characters and moving from place to place, but sometimes it was really difficult to follow where we were and who we were following. However, it was a cool idea and she really tapped into some of the insecurities and ways people can exploit technology (very Black Mirrorish). I have been sideyeing my Google nest since reading...

I read Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin. It was a really short and fast read, i read it in one sitting in about 90 minutes. I don't usually like books that have very little plot/aren't super linear but i really enjoyed this. i did really feel like i was in the midst of a fever dream! I would really recommend digesting it all in one sitting, or with only short breaks in between, if at all possible. it doesn't lend itself to being a nightstand read. Also, there are no chapters, it's just 183 pages straight through!

I read Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges and it was superb! A collection of fictional stories and fictional essays. Wonderfully imaginative stories and beautiful writing. Mostly. Three stories were a bit pretentious. I also read The Invention of Morel, which was enjoyable but less satisfying.

I read Eartheater by Dolores Reyes. It's a strange and quite a short novel, but I liked it and devoured it very quickly.

I read How I Became A Nun by César Aira in Turkish and I am so glad that I chose this book over others.
The novel takes place in Rosario, Argentina, about a six-year-old named César Aira which is also the author’s name. The character’s gender changes but it is mainly a girl. Because of an incident in the beginning of the book, she has a different sense of reality.
I put many sticky notes on pages because of certain moments in history but also because there were many sentences that I wanted to go back to.

I got halfway through Optic Nerve and ended up DNFing it. I thought I would be interested in hearing about artists, but it actually just confused me.

I will try again with Fever Dream.

Hello! I read Die, My Love and...ehh? I won't lie and say I absolutely enjoyed it. I wasn't a fan of the prose style: it was overwrought most of the time and animalistic in descriptions. It was hard to read too since she didn't use paragraph breaks (which is fine! Overwrought and animalistic are fine too!) Maybe I would have liked it a lot more if I started it earlier in the month (I started the 24th lol). The topic lends itself to much inspiration and I'm sure a lot of books have been written on PPD. I think I'd prefer a more grounded take on the subject than what Ariana provided here.

I read Fever Dream and enjoyed it! I found it very all over the place and confusing but in a way that really worked with the style. Appreciated I would never have read this book without the challenge !

I started reading Hopscotch, but had a hard time really getting into it, so I switched over to Thursday Night Widows. I enjoyed it and it went super quickly.

Ended up finally getting through both Bodies of Summer and Kalpa Imperial: The Greatest Empire That Never Was.

The former was a complete racist, sexist, transphobic, fatphobic, lesbophobic mess and I guess I'm just glad it was short.
The latter was...I didn't hate it, but it didn't hold my attention that well. I kind of wonder if a different translation maybe would have helped in that regard.

Cecil wrote: "Ended up finally getting through both Bodies of Summer and Kalpa Imperial: The Greatest Empire That Never Was.

The former was a complete racist, sexist, transphobic,..."

did you read the Ursula Le Guin translation or another?

It was the Le Guin translation. Which...I like Le Guin's work a lot, but I do find her writing style to be a bit boring at times and, idk if this makes sense, but this definitely read like something she translated.

I read El fin del amor: querer y coger in Spanish and it was interesting but veeeeery dry, took me almost a month and some change to read it. I did enjoy reading about dating life in Argentina, though.

So i ended up also reading Eartheater which was great and super quick to read (it's 199 pages but also there are many blank pages so its more like 175). My library also came through with Things We Lost in the Fire so now i'm reading that.

I picked We Love Glenda So Much and Other Tales by Cortázar and was very happy with it. Normally I don’t really enjoy short stories but these were written in such a cinematic way that I did!