{"id":306366,"date":"2017-05-16T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-05-16T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wdev.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent-dev\/2017\/05\/16\/the-invented-part-by-rodrigo-fresan\/"},"modified":"2018-06-13T12:52:28","modified_gmt":"2018-06-13T16:52:28","slug":"the-invented-part-by-rodrigo-fresan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/2017\/05\/16\/the-invented-part-by-rodrigo-fresan\/","title":{"rendered":"“The Invented Part” by Rodrigo Fres\u00e1n"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Invented Part\u00a0<\/em>by Rodrigo Fres\u00e1n<\/strong>
\ntranslated from the Spanish by Will Vanderhyden<\/strong>
\n552 pgs. | pb |\u00a09781940953564 | $18.95<\/strong>
\nOpen Letter Books<\/strong><\/a>
\nReviewed by Chad W. Post<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Given all the Two Month Review posts<\/a> and everything else, hopefully you\u2019ll have heard of Rodrigo Fres\u00e1n\u2019s<\/em> The Invented Part<\/a> by now. But in case you haven\u2019t, below you\u2019ll find the press release that we sent out with copies of the book to all reviewers and booksellers. (If you\u2019re a bookseller or reviewer and need a copy, you know where to find me.)<\/em><\/p>\n

There is a bit of an update as well. In addition to publishing<\/em> The Invented Part ,<\/em> The Bottom of the Sky , and<\/em> Mantra , we\u2019ve just signed on<\/em> The Dreamed Part the second book in the trilogy, which we\u2019ll (hopefully) bring out in 2019.<\/em><\/p>\n

Remember, if you use 2MONTH at checkout, you can get<\/em> The Invented Part<\/a> for 20% off through our website.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cA lively if sometimes-disjointed paean to creativity. Invented, and deeply inventive as well, an exemplary postmodern novel that is both literature and entertainment.\u201d\u2014Kirkus Reviews<\/i> (STARRED<\/span> REVIEW<\/span>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

One of the most respected Spanish-language authors of our times, Rodrigo Fres\u00e1n (Kensington Gardens<\/em>) has been praised by the likes of John Banville, Jonathan Lethem, Enrique Vila-Matas, and Roberto Bola\u00f1o, and his work has earned comparisons to David Foster Wallace, Thomas Pynchon, William Gaddis, and many others.<\/p>\n

That might all sound like hyperbole, but won\u2019t as soon as you start reading The Invented Part, the first book in a projected trilogy (The Dreamed Part<\/em> was recently released in Spanish) this novel mixes high concept science-in-fiction ideas with hilariously manic lists, and deep dives into the history of F. Scott Fitzgerald\u2019s Tender Is the Night<\/em>, Kubrick\u2019s 2001<\/em>, The Kinks, and more.<\/p>\n

The plot of The Invented Part<\/em> is simple enough: an aging writer whose books about how writers and writing are no longer the preferred flavor of the literary world wants to change\u2014and extend\u2014his life by breaking into CERN<\/span> and the Large Hadron Collider so that he can merge with the so-called \u201cgod particle\u201d and become a consciousness outside of time, one that can rewrite reality according to his whims.<\/p>\n

Although the overarching plot is pretty wild, the book is filled with heart and humanity, with each chapter taking a different stylistic approach to the writer\u2019s life and times, opening with a moving story of his near-death experience at a beach while his parents\u2019 relationship falls apart, and including a section on the writer\u2019s sister\u2019s marriage into a wealthy family that is as insufferable as it is bizarre, resulting in her own madness. There\u2019s also an anxiety-ridden section with the writer in the ER, panicked that he\u2019s having a heart attack, which triggers a tidal wave of story ideas that he hopes to be able to one day write. (If only he can merge with the god particle!)<\/p>\n

There are also incredible sections\u2014half historical, half invented\u2014about Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald and Gerald and Sara Murphy, about William Burroughs, about 2001: A Space Odyssey<\/em>, all of which add to the underlying exploration of the relationship between great art and the artists that give rise to it.<\/p>\n

For all of its inventiveness and depth, The Invented Part<\/em> is also an incredibly readable book. Fres\u00e1n is an irrepressible and consummate stylist whose writing is imbued with great intelligence and insight, pop culture references and literary hijinks, unforgettable characters and mind-bending ideas. It\u2019s a testament to the power and expanse of fiction, and reaffirms Fres\u00e1n as one of the greatest novelists of our time. Overall, it\u2019s a joy to immerse yourself in, and, like the best of authors, will leave you craving more.<\/p>\n

Which is good, since Open Letter has already signed on two more Fres\u00e1n titles, The Bottom of the Sky<\/em> (May 2018) and Mantra<\/em> (TBD<\/span>), with plans to complete the \u201cParts\u201d trilogy as well. The manuscript of The Bottom of the Sky<\/em> is available for interested reviewers, and Fres\u00e1n is available for interviews both in English (by phone) and Spanish (written).<\/p>\n

Also worth noting that translator Will Vanderhyden\u2014whose other translations include Carlos Labb\u00e9\u2019s Loquela<\/em> and Navidad & Matanza<\/i>\u2014received an NEA<\/span> Translation Fellowship and a Lannan Fellowship for his work on this book. He too is available for interviews or to answer any questions about Fres\u00e1n\u2019s other books.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Invented Part\u00a0by Rodrigo Fres\u00e1n translated from the Spanish by Will Vanderhyden 552 pgs. | pb |\u00a09781940953564 | $18.95 Open Letter Books Reviewed by Chad W. Post   Given all the Two Month Review posts and everything else, hopefully you\u2019ll have heard of Rodrigo Fres\u00e1n\u2019s The Invented Part by now. But in case you haven\u2019t, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":292,"featured_media":401382,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67456],"tags":[28166,1646,8776,65826,49426],"class_list":["post-306366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-review","tag-open-letter-books","tag-review","tag-rodrigo-fresan","tag-the-invented-part","tag-will-vanderhyden"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306366","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\/292"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306366"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":401392,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306366\/revisions\/401392"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}