José Donoso

Games turn to nightmares during the summer holidays at the magnificent Chilean country estate of the Ventura family when the children - 33 cousins ranging in age from 6 to 16 - are left to themselves while their parents pursue their own pastimes. (Nancy Pearl)

Grotesque yet realistic at the same time, this first novel from the most famous Chilean narrator from the end of the last century, exposes the themes that will mark his future works: deterioration of society, identity questions, transgression and madness... Now, forty years after its original publication this novel has already become a classic in Latin American literature. Description in Spanish: Andrés, solitario y cincuentón, es el desconcertado testigo de los últimos días de una abuela nonagenaria que se debate entre la niebla y los relámpagos de la demencia. Esperpéntica a la vez que realista, la primera novela del más célebre narrador chileno de este fin de siglo prefigura los temas que marcarán su obra: decadencia, identidad, trasgresión y locura...

Un mundo que es el infierno, donde se ponen al descubierto las falsas apariencias, la sordidez, la violencia y la miseria que lo agobia. Todo sucede alrededor del burdel de la Japonesita. Y de la Manuela, ese ambiguo y genial personaje, crisol de las pasiones y revelador de una falsa moral; cuestionador de la masculinidad y sus valores.

DONOSO, EL LUGAR SIN LIMITES. EL OBSCENO PAJARO DE LA NOCHE. PROLOGO, CRONOLOGIA Y BIBLIOGRAFIA H. ACHUGAR. CARACAS, 1990, xxxv 400 p. Encuadernacion original. Nuevo.

La voz que narra este relato, fluye infatigable de los labios de Mudito, como en un viaje desde el ser hacia la nada, elaborando un mundo destinado, por la maldición intrínseca de la existencia al deterioro, la pérdida o la confusión de cualquier identidad posible. Las viejas que pueblan la Casa de la encarnación de la Chimba y los monstruos de la Rinconada, ilustran cada matiz de la desesperación y cada uno de los ínfimos placeres cotidianos. Ésta es sin duda, la obra cumbre de José Donoso.

Este material que precedió a “El obsceno pájaro de la noche” (obra que apareció por primera vez en España y no tardó en ser considerada como uno de los trabajos más sobresalientes del autor) permite desde su contenido recrear el ambiente de una costumbre que muchas familias aún mantienen en diversas partes del mundo: la de reunirse todos los domingos a almorzar.

Barcelona. 20 cm. 198 p. Encuadernación en tapa blanda de editorial ilustrada. Colección 'Biblioteca breve'. Donoso, José 1924-1996. Por José Donoso .. Este libro es de segunda mano y tiene o puede tener marcas y señales de su anterior propietario. 8432203645

A Chilean writer named Julio and his wife Gloria are beset by worries, constantly bickering about money, their writing, and their son (who may or may not be plying the oldest trade in Marrakesh). When Julio's boyhood best friend, now a famous artist, lends the couple his luxurious Madrid apartment for the summer, it is an escape for both — in particular for Julio, who fantasizes about the garden next door and the erotic life of the lovely young aristocrat who inhabits it. But Julio's life and career unravel in Madrid: he is rebuffed by a famous literary agent, who detests him and his novel; his son's friend from Marrakesh moves in and causes havoc; and Gloria begins to drink. In the face of pitiless adversity, Julio's talent inexorably begins to fade. With The Garden Next Door, Jose Donoso has rendered a carefully crafted and bitterly comic meditation on gardens, deceit, and the nature of a writer's muse.

This haunting jungle of a novel has been hailed as “a masterpiece” by Luis Buñuel and “one of the great novels not only of Spanish America, but of our time” by Carlos Fuentes. The story of the last member of the aristocratic Azcoitia family, a monstrous mutation protected from the knowledge of his deformity by being surrounded with other freaks as companions, The Obscene Bird of Night is a triumph of imaginative, visionary writing. Its luxuriance, fecundity, horror, and energy will not soon fade from the reader’s mind. The story is like a great puzzle . . . invested with a vibrant, almost tangible reality. —The New York Times Although many of the other “boom” writers may have received more attention—especially Fuentes and Vargas Llosa—Donoso and his masterpiece may be the most lasting, visionary, strangest of the books from this time period. Seriously, it’s a novel about the last member of an aristocratic family, a monstrous mutant, who is surrounded by other freaks so as to not feel out of place. —Publishers Weekly Nicola Barker has said: "I'm no expert on the topic of South American literature (in fact I'm a dunce), but I have reason to believe (after diligently scouring the internet) that Chile's Jose Donoso, while a very highly regarded author on home turf, is little known on this side of the Atlantic. His masterpiece is the fabulously entitled The Obscene Bird of Night. It would be a crass understatement to say that this book is a challenging read; it's totally and unapologetically psychotic. It's also insanely gothic, brilliantly engaging, exquisitely written, filthy, sick, terrifying, supremely perplexing, and somehow connives to make the brave reader feel like a tiny, sleeping gnat being sucked down a fabulously kaleidoscopic dream plughole."

من أراد أن يقرأ نصاً روائياً يمثل ما عرف بالواقعية السحرية خير تمثيل فعليه بهذه الرواية . ومن أراد أن يغامر ويبحر في عوالم فنطازية لا يخرج منها إلا بما تخرج به الشبكة من شعاع الشمس أو قبضة اليد من الريح فعليه بهذه الرواية . ومن أراد أن يتفرج على عالم من مخلوقات مرعبة مشوهة كاريكاتيرية منحرفة السلوك غريبة التفكير تعيش في عوالم سفلية مغلقة غامضة فعليه بهذه الرواية .