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Chilean Poet
Chilean Poet: A Novel | Alejandro Zambra
5 posts | 4 read | 5 to read
NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2022 BY VULTURE, LIT HUB, AND THE MILLIONS A very funny, warm, and beautiful novel. Sheila Heti, author of Motherhood Zambra's books have long shown him to be a writer who, at the sentence level, is in a world all his own. Juan Vidal, NPR.org A writer of startling talent (The New York Times Book Review), Alejandro Zambra returns with his most substantial work yet: a story of fathers and sons, ambition and failure, and what it means to make a family After a chance encounter at a Santiago nightclub, aspiring poet Gonzalo reunites with his first love, Carla. Though their desire for each other is still intact, much has changed: among other things, Carla now has a six-year-old son, Vicente. Soon the three form a happy sort-of familya stepfamily, though no such word exists in their language. Eventually, their ambitions pull the lovers in different directionsin Gonzalos case, all the way to New York. Though Gonzalo takes his books when he goes, still, Vicente inherits his ex-stepfathers love of poetry. When, at eighteen, Vicente meets Pru, an American journalist literally and figuratively lost in Santiago, he encourages her to write about Chilean poetsnot the famous, dead kind, your Nerudas or Mistrals or Bolaos, but rather the living, striving, everyday ones. Prus research leads her into this eccentric communityanother kind of family, dysfunctional but ultimately loving. Will it also lead Vicente and Gonzalo back to each other? In Chilean Poet, Alejandro Zambra chronicles with enormous tenderness and insight the small momentssexy, absurd, painful, sweet, profoundthat make up our personal histories. Exploring how we choose our families and how we betray them, and what it means to be a man in relationshipsa partner, father, stepfather, teacher, lover, writer, and friendit is a bold and brilliant new work by one of the most important writers of our time.
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review
Anna40
Chilean Poet: A Novel | Alejandro Zambra
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Bailedbailed

I tried but I don‘t like Gonzalo, I don‘t like Carla and I don‘t like the humour. Some parts are funny others just feel forced and silly. Zambra can write, especially steamy scenes but this book or maybe even this author is just not for me.

25 likes1 comment
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Amor4Libros
Chilean Poet: A Novel | Alejandro Zambra
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My first Zambra and I‘m having so much fun!

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shawnmooney
Chilean Poet: A Novel | Alejandro Zambra
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#BookSpin for October. Whee!

TheAromaofBooks Woohoo!!! 13mo
24 likes1 comment
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Taylor
Chilean Poet: A Novel | Alejandro Zambra
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Pickpick

I‘ve now read three of this guy‘s books….

I had a good idea for this review but was half-asleep and didn‘t want to type it….

Zambra does many things: his work is playful; it cares deeply about the characters; meta as fuck; and one of the best parts—it‘s literature-obsessed.

You can‘t have read Bolaño‘s fiction without this stuff reminding you of it.

There‘s also mixed media!

His work gives me a lot…the whole story is moving…I kind of cried.

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Buffalovemom
Chilean Poet: A Novel | Alejandro Zambra
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Pickpick

A story about relationships, especially family & the one between a stepishfather & stepish son. It was also a story about the Chilean literary/poetry scene & finding identity in the shadows of some of the literary giants that have come from Chili & South/Central America.
Zambra has a humorous voice that is full of warmth & has a way of highlighting the seemingly mundane aspects of living & showing the often overlooked impact they have.