{"id":301046,"date":"2015-04-17T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-04-17T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wdev.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent-dev\/2015\/04\/17\/why-this-book-should-win-adam-buenosayres-by-btba-judge-michael-orthofer\/"},"modified":"2018-04-16T14:39:22","modified_gmt":"2018-04-16T14:39:22","slug":"why-this-book-should-win-adam-buenosayres-by-btba-judge-michael-orthofer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/2015\/04\/17\/why-this-book-should-win-adam-buenosayres-by-btba-judge-michael-orthofer\/","title":{"rendered":"Why This Book Should Win – Adam Buenosayres by BTBA Judge Michael Orthofer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael Orthofer runs the <\/i>Complete Review<\/a> \u2013 a book review site with a focus on international fiction \u2013 and its <\/i>Literary Saloon<\/a> weblog<\/i>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Adam Buenosayres<\/i><\/a> – Leopoldo Marechal, Translated from the Spanish by Norman Cheadle and Sheila Ethier
\nMcGill-Queen’s University Press<\/strong><\/p>\n

Leopoldo Marechal\u2019s Adam Buenosayres<\/i><\/a>, translated by Norman Cheadle, with the help of Sheila Ethier, is a standout among the Best Translated Book Award<\/a> finalist in quite a few ways. Most obviously, it\u2019s the biggest in the bunch \u2013 nearly seven hundred pages, and a brick of a book. It\u2019s also the oldest title in the running: despite how many deceased authors are featured among the finalists (ten of the books are by authors who have died) all the titles are nevertheless post-World War II publications (in their original languages) \u2013 a rare occurrence for the BTBA<\/span> longlist \u2013 and this 1948 publication is the oldest of the lot. But size and age are the least of the reasons why Adam Buenosayres<\/i> should win the Best Translated Book Award.<\/p>\n

What is this book?<\/b><\/p>\n

Adam Buenosayres<\/i> is a largely autobiographical novel set in 1920s Buenos Aires \u2013 a time when Argentina was one of the wealthiest countries in the world and Marechal was part of the vibrant developing artistic scene. It clearly owes a debt to Joyce \u2013 Cheadle suggests it is: \u201cthe first Joycean novel to be written in Spanish-language literature\u201d \u2013 and with the action covering just the span of a few days, concentrated entirely all across one city (Buenos Aires), and employing a variety of styles and approaches, it does resemble Ulysses<\/i>. It is a roman \u00e0 clef<\/i>, city homage, and philosophical novel \u2013 a great period- (and place-) piece that\u2019s also a superior literary work.<\/p>\n

Why should it win the Best Translated Book Award?<\/b><\/p>\n

1. Julio Cort\u00e1zar \u2013 BTBA<\/span>-longlisted for his sublime Fantomas versus the Multinational Vampires<\/i><\/a> \u2013 hailed the book as: \u201can extraordinary event in Argentine literature\u201d in reviewing it in 1949, and it is widely recognized as one of the great novels of modern Latin American literature.<\/p>\n

2. A character closely based on Jorge Luis Borges features in it. Borges was part of the same crowd in the 1920s, and Marechal\u2019s thinly-disguised versions of him and other notables (notably Xul Solar \u2013 who provides the cover-art for this very good-looking volume) offer often amusing insight into these famous artists. Bonus: Cheadle notes that: \u201cBorges never forgave Marechal for his caricature as Luis Pereda and refused even to acknowledge the novel\u2019s existence.\u201d<\/p>\n

3. It offers a remarkable city-portrait, a definitive one of 1920 Buenos Aires, as impressive as Joyce\u2019s of Dublin.<\/p>\n

4. Marechal\u2019s narrative is playful and varied \u2013 maybe not quite to a Joycean extent, but he certainly mixes it up here. As Marechal piles it on, the amount of material can get exhausting, but the sheer inventiveness \u2013 and the humor \u2013 consistently impress and entertain.<\/p>\n

5. This edition \u2013 the presentation of the novel-in-translation \u2013 is exemplary. Some of the longlisted books present just the translated texts themselves \u2013 which is often enough, or even preferable. After all, it\u2019s the text that counts, and a best translated book should be able to stand well on its own. Adam Buenosayres<\/i> comes seriously annotated: there are close to seventy pages of endnotes (along with a helpful introduction), and a nine-page bibliography. That, and the fact that it\u2019s published by a university press (McGill-Queen’s University Press), might worry readers into thinking that it\u2019s a dryly scholarly edition. Anything but, I\u2019d suggest: obviously, given the time and place it is set in and the autobiographical elements, some background (which the introduction provides) helps in understanding the text basics, but the novel can be read and thoroughly enjoyed without worrying about the details behind everything. On the other hand, that added background layer \u2013 of who the characters are based on, historic circumstances, and local\/period trivia \u2013 do make considerably more of the book, and here the endnotes are invaluable. Cheadle\u2019s work here is a model of academic (yet still approachable) rigor, the endnotes very detailed – about the smallest detail – and thorough.<\/p>\n

6. Norman Cheadle\u2019s \u2013 with the help of Sheila Ethier \u2013 translation truly is a superior work. This is one of those works where it is clear that the translator has engaged with the material not just for a few months but over a much more extended period of time. As the endnotes, and Cheadle\u2019s other writings about Marechal, demonstrate, Cheadle has immersed himself in the author and the work for many years, and he has come to know it thoroughly. His translation reflects his great understanding of and familiarity with the author and the work. Despite the challenges the novel poses \u2013 from the use of dialect and the variety of forms Marechal plays with \u2013 the translation manages also to be an artistic and not just academic success \u2013 an exuberant, comic, and clever rendering.<\/p>\n

7. Adam Buenosayres<\/i> is one of these tries-to-do-almost-everything\/magnum opus<\/i> books. On a longlist that features so many short-story collections and where even many of the (more-or-less-)novels are extremely slim (Fantomas versus the Multinational Vampires<\/i><\/a>, Letters from a Seducer<\/i>, 1914<\/i><\/a>, Works<\/i><\/a>) it stands out as a very different kind of work (with only Saer\u2019s La Grande<\/i> anywhere in the same league). For those who like their books big, expansive, far-reaching, Adam Buenosayres<\/i> is the obvious choice.<\/p>\n

8. It\u2019s just a wonderful read and reading experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael Orthofer runs the Complete Review \u2013 a book review site with a focus on international fiction \u2013 and its Literary Saloon weblog. Adam Buenosayres – Leopoldo Marechal, Translated from the Spanish by Norman Cheadle and Sheila Ethier McGill-Queen’s University Press Leopoldo Marechal\u2019s Adam Buenosayres, translated by Norman Cheadle, with the help of Sheila Ethier, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":186,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67476],"tags":[60346,58546,2226,58556,55136,7736,58566,1646,60426,36],"class_list":["post-301046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-best-translated-book-awards","tag-btba2015-fiction-longlist","tag-adam-buenosayres","tag-argentina","tag-leopoldo-marechal","tag-mcgill-queens-university-press","tag-michael-orthofer","tag-norman-cheadle","tag-review","tag-sheile-ethier","tag-spanish"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/186"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301046"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301046\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":316786,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301046\/revisions\/316786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}