Mario Bellatin

Mario Bellatin's "Beauty Salon" is advertised as a novella, but it is, I think, more like a short story for two reasons. First, it can be read very quickly and without much thought. Second, the story is basic and very little happens in terms of character development.

In the story, the narrator becomes the caretaker for several people who are infected with an unknown plague. Most readers, including me, take the plague to be an extremely fast and virulent strain of AIDS. The narrator simply takes care of these people in his converted beauty salon but he too falls victim.

Although I did not particularly like Albert Camus' "The Plague," I was completely enamored with José Saramago's "Blindness." The publisher's comparison to these two works on the back cover do not fit, in my opinion. The simple plots might be similar, but "Beauty Salon" does not leave the reader with very much, unfortunately.

In the version translated by David Shook identified simply as Shook on the front cover, he says cryptically and rather ridiculously in his translator notes, "Reader, I have taken liberties."… (more)

Mario Bellatin's novel (novella, really) provides a reading experience that simultaneously humanizes and distances his central character. The unnamed narrator who ran a successful beauty salon, turns his salon into a home for the dying when a plague hits his community. There are clear parallels to the AIDS epidemic: dying people abandoned by families or lovers, no hope of effective treatment, and "residents" who have long been conditioned to see themselves as a sort of fringe society—a strong decorative fringe that challenges expectations about masculinity.

Before the plague, the narrator would go out cruising in the evenings with other gay, male cross-dressers. They tended to spend their time in the darker streets, but their dress and their attitudes were brilliant.

Now that the narrator has created "the Mortuary," he goes out seldom, particularly after he realizes that he, too, is dying of the plague. Instead, he considers the deaths of those around him, the faster and slower courses the plague can take, the value of living longer when that also means longer suffering.

This is a book offers a meditation that one can easily read in a single sitting, at least in terms of its length. Embracing what one has read, coming to terms with it, takes significantly longer.

I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley; the opinions are my own.… (more)

This novel is insane. Mario Bellatin as translated by Heather Cleary is not at all what it seems. From the beginning it seems pretty straightforward and then there are the footnotes and even before that many little things do not add up. As the book description goes: "in the opening pages, Mrs. Murakami is watching the demolition of her now-dead husband’s most prized part of the estate: his garden. The novel that follows takes place in a strange, not-quite-real Japan of the author’s imagination. But who, in fact, holds the role of author?"

Ms. Murakami's garden is all about probing, relentlessly, by way of footnotes - Gloriously Strange Footnotes! - and a breakdown of the text and story structure this question: Who holds the role? of teller, of artist, of truth, of responsibility to literary-ness, of anything, of intention, of the readers ability to suspend disbelief and just freaking go with it.

It is this sense of 'comeon freaking go with it. That I reoccurring in new works coming out from the main-mainstream. It is refreshing and challenging and as good writing does, from the point of view of this reader, leaves more - many more - questions than answers.

Ms. Murakami's garden is novel that is surreal, challenging to the reader, conspiratorial with the translator. It is madness that along with the what is anything question also moves deftly and with precision themes of inequality, academia, and social commentary.

A mad novel that is very much of the moment but in every best possible way is not at all of this moment or any other but purely Bellatin's moment, Bellatins reality, Bellatins story.

Most Exceedingly Excellent.… (more)

Rather an odd little book, this. Not at all sure i quite grasped the intention behind the 'story'. It seems like a simple tale of a woman looking back on her life and marriage after the death of her husband, but the footnotes - and footnotes which then refer to other notes at the end of the book - suggest an editorial framing that may question the superficial meaning of the plot.

This was my first foray into the world of South American author Mario Bellatin, and it just left me a little flat.… (more)