The Polish Boxer | 
pickA moment in my San Francisco hotel room after dropping my daughter off at college.
I finished this on the plane here and loved it. Literature and life and a dizzying kaleidoscope of cultural clashes and mishmashes. And many beautifully quirky lines. Halfon is a Jewish-born Guatemalan grandson of a Polish Holocaust survivor and writes about himself fictionally or metafictionally, occasionally holding the seams up for us to see.
so-soMy second book for Guatemala was also a collection of stories, this time with a (fictionalized?) version of the author as the main character. It begins with Halfon as a jaded literature professor who sees promise in one of his students, Juan, who suddenly drops out. Juan is also removed from the registry and Halfon sets off to find him. He tells us about his grandfather and the "phone number" tattooed on his arm. ⬇️
Substitute any ethnicity in this quote, and you have the sad state of existence in so much of our world today.
Haha! This made me laugh. The author must indeed be familiar with Israelis.
This author‘s writing has some of the same qualities that made Jonathan Carroll, an Austrian writer, a favorite of mine. Can you see it as well?
I love the way this author writes. In this scene, the teacher is sitting with a friend at a café in Antigua, Guatemala. I wish I could just jump into this scene. As you may guess, I‘m reliving quite joyfully in my mind being in this city. *sigh*
As I read this book, the indigenous people of Guatemala come to mind. At this part of the novel, a college professor finds a former student of his in the small town of Tecpán. The writing thus far has been so beautiful.
I find it fun to say the names of Guatemalan cities aloud. Try it! Start with Chichicastenango. 😊❤️
I‘m excited about reading this book. I got a copy of it along with another book I received from the #EarlyReviewer program at #LibraryThing. I‘m not sure why they included this book which had been published in 2012, but I was thrilled as this book had been recommended to me in the past. Someone must have read my mind! 😃
Getting to eat my annual paczki in honor of Fat Tuesday!!!
pickRecommending this book 'cause it was beautifully written, burrows into your mind, and won't let you stop thinking about it. The narrator is also the author. What is real or fiction isn't clear. For that reason I have to voice my deep upset over one scene toward the end of the book. It made a small sick feeling in the pit of my stomach for the last 16 pages. What was its point beside to make me dislike the author who I sympathized with 'til then?
pickThis is a short but powerful read. It's fictional, but feels like the author had his life experience flow into a lot of the stories. The book consists of 10 loosely connected short stories of various lengths. Many of them have a melancholic vibe, many of them share tidbits about life in Guatemala, many reference his Jewish heritage, his grandfather and his grandfathers story of a polish boxer. I really enjoyed this and would recommend it.
Took "The Polish Boxer" on my walk today. This is the first book by the author that has been translated into English. I wish my Spanish would be good enough to read his books in the original.
This book was recommended in a @bookriot article of books you need to read right now. I'm two chapters in and it is gorgeously written. #biblioweekend
I just discovered Hoopla, another resource for digital content that I can access with my library card... 😍😍😍😍 They have audio books, ebooks, comics, music.... My library allows for 7 rentals a months and no waiting lists!! I might be late to this party, but I am doing my happy dance right now! 🤗🤗🤗
