Blood Pact: and Other Stories

by Mario Benedetti

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The Uruguayan Benedetti wrote compact, deceptively subtle fictions. His specialty was the evocative, unexpected turn that served as both clever dénouement and a rearrangement of perceptions. Borges, writing on Kafka, suggested that every writer creates his own precursors, and these keenly crafted short stories (written between 1949 & 1988) read like something Roberto Bolaño could have done with the many pieces of the middle section of The Savage Detectives had his intentions been less discursive. Intuition is fluid, and our affections can fool us.

HectorSwell | Dec 14, 2011 |

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Amazon.com Amazon.com Review (ISBN 188068439X, Paperback)

"The last time our office got a new budget was way back in nineteen twenty-something, when most of us were still struggling with geography and fractions." So opens Mario Benedetti's 1949 story, "The Budget." "A new budget is any government bureau's highest aspiration." Alas, some things never change.

Benedetti's most recent collection of short stories reflects his long and distinguished belletristic career. Author of more than 50 published works that include poetry, fiction, drama, literary and cultural criticism, and political journalism, Benedetti demonstrates an impressive range. Dialogue-driven narratives and graceful soliloquies appear alongside his early work, which heaves ironic sighs against bureaucratic incompetence, and the contemporary work dealing with political tyranny. Although 15 different translators are at play here (the collection spans four decades), Benedetti's supremely cool, ironic voice is transposed seamlessly onto the contemporary consciousness.

(retrieved from Amazon Thu, 14 Feb 2013 13:38:29 -0500)

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