Ladrilleros / Brickmakers

Ladrilleros / Brickmakers Synopsis

¿Qué puede pasar cuando el deseo atrae a los varones de dos familias enfrentadas por viejos odios y que, sin embargo, comparten prejuicios, miseria y violencia?

Linaje de pobres y abandonados, los varones asumen como propios los odios paternos. Marciano Mirando y Pajarito Tamai actúan la coreografìa y repiten las palabras que los hombres dicen. El coito, la pelea, el resentimiento. Sin embargo, aun en esas tramas culturales aparentemente rìgidas, el amor y el deseo toman sus propias formas.

En Ladrilleros, Selva Almada crea con extrema delicadeza personajes complejos: inteligentes, fieros, desencantados, vitales, hasta tiernos. El mundo masculino despliega en esta novela portentosa sus secretos y pone en cuestión sus arcaicas rutinas. La autora evita la indulgencia, tampoco los condena. Escucha sus diálogos, despliega el paisaje del litoral que habitan y respira el aire caliente de la atmósfera. Reconstruye sus historias al tiempo que les da la libertad para desobedecerlas. Del parto a la muerte, parecer sugerir, no hay un solo camino.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

What could possibly happen if desire draws two men together from families torn apart because of an old grudge, yet prejudiced, miserable, and violent alike?
 
Within the lineage of the poor and neglected, the men take on their parents' rancor as their own. Marciano Mirando y Pajarito Tamai copy the choreography and repeat the words the other men use. The coitus, the fight, the resentment. However, even in such apparently rigid cultural plots, love and desire take their own shape.

In Brickmakers, Selva Almada creates complex characters with extreme sensitivity; they're smart, fierce, disillusioned, vital, and even gentle. The masculine world unfolds its secrets in this magnificent novel, and calls into question its own archaic routines. The author avoids any indulgencies, but doesn't condemn them either. She listens to their dialogues, displays the coastal landscape they inhabit, and breathes the hot air. She reconstructs their stories and gives them enough freedom to disobey them at the same time. From birth to death, the story seems to suggest there isn't just one path.
 

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