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At Night We Walk in Circles: A Novel by…
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At Night We Walk in Circles: A Novel (edition 2013)

by Daniel Alarcon

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3312277,926 (3.72)26
Fiction. Literature. "One of the most exciting and ambitious writers to emerge in recent years.". "As in Lost City Radio, this novel is concerned with the aftereffects of revolution and the surprising ways revolutionary rhetoric endures...Mind who you pretend to be, Alarcón suggests; the story you tell can be a surprisingly potent one. That's true with this book too...Alarcón successfully merges themes of art, love and politics.". HTML:

The breakout book from a prizewinning young writer: a breathtaking, suspenseful story of one man's obsessive search to find the truth of another man's downfall

Nelson's life is not turning out the way he hoped. His girlfriend is sleeping with another man; his brother has left their South American country and moved to the United States, leaving Nelson to care for their widowed mother; and his acting career can't seem to get off the ground. That is, until he lands a starring role in a touring revival of The Idiot President, a legendary play by Nelson's hero, Henry Nunez, leader of the storied guerrilla theater troupe Diciembre. And that's when the real trouble begins.

The tour takes Nelson out of the shelter of the city and across a landscape he's never seen, which still bears the scars of the civil war. With each performance Nelson grows closer to his fellow actors, becoming hopelessly entangled in their complicated lives until, during one memorable performance, a long-buried betrayal surfaces to force the troupe into chaos.

Nelson's fate is slowly revealed through the investigation of the narrator, a young man obsessed with Nelson's story—and perhaps closer to it than he lets on. In sharp, vivid, and beautiful prose, Alarcón delivers a compulsively readable narrative and provocative meditation on fate, identity, and the large consequences that can result from even our smallest choices.

.
… (more)
Member:hfineisen
Title:At Night We Walk in Circles: A Novel
Authors:Daniel Alarcon
Info:Riverhead Hardcover (2013), Hardcover, 384 pages
Collections:Your library
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At Night We Walk in Circles by Daniel Alarcón

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» See also 26 mentions

Showing 1-5 of 22 (next | show all)
This is a wonderful book--except for the very end! The concluding section did not fit at all and was so disappointing. If not for that, I would have given this book 4 stars. The characters are interesting and engaging, the story is told in a way that draws you in and the themes are fascinating, especially the role.of art and performance in our lives and at all levels, social, pooitical and personal. ( )
  lschiff | Sep 24, 2023 |
Alarcon reminds me of Roberto Bolano - the third-person narration in this book adds to this impression. The everyday somehow becomes transformed into a sort of mythology. Characters get caught up in a story that defeats them, punishes them. A classic example of the theme I call "life as a prison." ( )
  dbsovereign | Jan 26, 2016 |
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
Already looking forward to his next novel - the book fulfills the 'prodigious talent' blurbs on the back. At its simplest, for anybody who's ever been involved in putting on a play, the first two-thirds will be one of the best books about 'community theatre' you'll ever read. At its most complex, it spans politics, post-revolutionary culture, coming-of-age, travelogue, violence, and more.

Why 3-and-a-half stars? Just didn't feel as if the energy carried all the way through to the end - given how much I enjoyed the first part, a really difficult task, but it sometimes felt like some easy-way-out choices were being made after the 'return to the city' from the travelling play. That said, I assume someone this good will only get better - I'll jump on the next book when it comes out. ( )
  buffalopoet | Nov 16, 2015 |
Slow, kept waiting for it, never happened, wasted my time, stupid ending ( )
1 vote vickiduncan | Jan 2, 2015 |
Could not take the boredom any longer.Too much pointless pontificating and no plot development. Disjointed narration from whoever is framing the story. Just didn't care. Returned to audible.com. Only the second book I've ever returned.

Crybaby fanboys who can't take someone else's opinion are really funny and pathetic. So sad. And funny. ( )
2 vote Bookmarque | Aug 4, 2014 |
Showing 1-5 of 22 (next | show all)
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Epigraph
The spectacle's externality with respect to the acting subject is demonstrated by the fact that the individual's own gestures are no longer his own, but rather those of someone else who represents them to him. The spectator feels at home nowhere, for the spectacle is everywhere. --GUY DEBORD, The Society of the Spectacle
Dedication
For Carolina, León, and Eliseo
First words
During the war--which Nelson's father called the anxious years--a few radical students at the Conservatory founded a theater company.
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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Wikipedia in English (2)

Fiction. Literature. "One of the most exciting and ambitious writers to emerge in recent years.". "As in Lost City Radio, this novel is concerned with the aftereffects of revolution and the surprising ways revolutionary rhetoric endures...Mind who you pretend to be, Alarcón suggests; the story you tell can be a surprisingly potent one. That's true with this book too...Alarcón successfully merges themes of art, love and politics.". HTML:

The breakout book from a prizewinning young writer: a breathtaking, suspenseful story of one man's obsessive search to find the truth of another man's downfall

Nelson's life is not turning out the way he hoped. His girlfriend is sleeping with another man; his brother has left their South American country and moved to the United States, leaving Nelson to care for their widowed mother; and his acting career can't seem to get off the ground. That is, until he lands a starring role in a touring revival of The Idiot President, a legendary play by Nelson's hero, Henry Nunez, leader of the storied guerrilla theater troupe Diciembre. And that's when the real trouble begins.

The tour takes Nelson out of the shelter of the city and across a landscape he's never seen, which still bears the scars of the civil war. With each performance Nelson grows closer to his fellow actors, becoming hopelessly entangled in their complicated lives until, during one memorable performance, a long-buried betrayal surfaces to force the troupe into chaos.

Nelson's fate is slowly revealed through the investigation of the narrator, a young man obsessed with Nelson's story—and perhaps closer to it than he lets on. In sharp, vivid, and beautiful prose, Alarcón delivers a compulsively readable narrative and provocative meditation on fate, identity, and the large consequences that can result from even our smallest choices.

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