Reviews for Benito Perez Galdos' Marianela

The average rating for Benito Perez Galdos' Marianela based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-04-27 00:00:00 Arthur Greebler I haven't read Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain, so I can't comment on how accurate an 'update' this novel is. That's quite frustrating as it means I can't comment on structure or plot, since each might mirror the Mann novel, therefore armouring itself against criticism. Clever that. This novel is a hodgepodge of elements. It's sort of the The Shining meets Infinite Jest, if one wanted to do that modern comparison thing so beloved among reviewers. (And one does, and one did). Hans visits his cousin's retreat for alcoholics, whose sole treatment involves drinking more and more after listening to demented preachers inside a sweaty shack. Hans stumbles around, getting abuse from a little prick called Teddy, dreaming about a romp with middle-aged Cecile, and brooding on his parental issues. Like Requiem, the book becomes overtaken with voices, and the novel drops its linear structure halfway through for a parade of eccentric characters, psychobabble parody, and dark little episodes that further Curtis White's obsession with drunk fathers and broken childhoods. It's an absolute mess on every level, but so funny and erudite, you can't help but love it.

Review # 2 was written on 2018-02-03 00:00:00 Andrew Runge Social satire for the same bookshelf as Vonnegut, Nabokov and Alexie, I found White's cruise along the spiral ("circling the drain" we call it in 12-step programs) of a treatment center for alcoholics eye-opening, funny, and tragic. Eye-opening because who knew? the recesses of American culture require full and extreme exploitation of the individual's will, ambitions, and identity for its sustenance; that as dedicated consumers, we Americans must take a loyalty oath to consume as much of what we are sold as possible, be it TV and social media, alcohol, fast food...and the liberal be damned who wants to clean up the slag pits, stop the cycle of consumption and end the madness. Funny because the characters and their speeches reel into dementia, repetition, insanity, egotism, fallaciousness, and corruption (my favorite was Professor Feeling). Hans being a student of Industrial Psychology skewers (in a backhanded way) our universities and colleges of their erudite exceptionalism and rationalizations of corruption. White's story takes place in a heartland setting (or central Illinois for those keeping score at home) and the barbs strike at the root of American culture. Defunct shopping malls, a Quonset hut for a meeting hall, tanker supply of vodka, the Orwellian doublespeak for psychological madness all reveal the treatment center known as the Elixer to be nothing more than hemlock for the thinker. Tragic because it lampoons, well, us and those of us who care about what it is like living in the bowels of a rotting empire. I read Mann's Magic Mountain in my undergrad days long ago but now I want to go back and compare White's remake to the original because, frankly, I cannot recall what happens to Mann's Hans Castorp--I do recall that I greatly admired the reading experience and went on to read more of Mann. I cannot give away the ending to White's Hans Castorp except to say that it is deliciously ambiguous. Take this book on if you dare to be challenged. White is intelligent and pivots fast; he requires full attention--and it is a very rewarding reading experience. We need more Curtis Whites writing about the madness that is America.