Santiago Gamboa

"The Night Will Be Long" was not what I was expecting. The reviews (amply quoted in many places) raved. The reviewer from Publishers Weekly went so far as to compare the author to Roberto Bolano. If you take away nothing else from this review it should be that Santiago Gamboa is not Roberto Bolano. Other than their both being Latin American authors, I see no similarities.

I would describe this novel as run-of-the-mill detective/crime fiction. Some interesting dimensions to the story (e.g. show more corrupt evangelical leaders) but basically nothing to remember. The writing (in translation I admit) is pedestrian; the plot fairly predictable from the outset. Really can't understand the rave reviews. I think I was expecting literature and got pulp fiction. Of course, there is a outside chance it could be me and not all those reviewers at the core of the problem. Maybe! show less

There appears to be cheating in the publishing house. Much like baccarat at Rick’s, I don’t feel pained to point out the obvious. Europa Editions have now published several translated novels providing a middlebrow pass to literary sophistication. Barbery, Bronsky, and Cosse amongst others offer a view, a taste without the burden of effort. I’d say Murakami and Paul Auster are just as guilty but alas. You can then imagine my reluctance approaching this unknown novel.

Gamboa certainly show more lives up to the EE tradition by citing philosophers and theorists and then quickly leaping to detailed carnality—endless ingesting and copulating only for the sake thereof. Oh, and the narrative drifts from Bogota to Delhi and then to Bangkok Tokyo and Teheran.

So why then my favorable response? There are brilliant passages dwelling on our estrangement, our inability to relate to bullshit and the unexpected solace of a poem by Mayakovsky or Rimbaud. Did I find aspects of Night Prayers cheap and contrived? Of course, but it kept a sufficient pulse to ward off my trenchant doubts. show less

A couple of things about this book.
1. One look at the cover. This alone convinced me to pick it up to see what it was about.
2. The translation from Spanish to English was absolutely amazing.
3. The quality of the writing puts nearly every book I have read in the last couple of years to shame.
4. Philosophy, politics, religion, and human nature. The depth and breath that the author goes into to tell this story is unlike anything I have read before.
As one of the main characters says regarding show more his story
"This isn't going to be a crime story, it's going to be a love story"
The story is pretty simple. A brother and sister who feel they don't belong in their average middle class family in Bogota, seek a way to escape.
The sister Juana, manages to get out. Manuel's escape doesn't go so well, not that his sisters was smooth.
The book is told from four viewpoints: Manuel, Juana, a member of the Colombian embassy in India, and a fourth source.
The story takes place primarily in Bogota and Bangkok, but also in India, and Iran.
This is a powerful story told exquisitely. It is timely, and historical in addition what I have already stated.
One warning some of the sex described in the book is rather graphic.
Read this book! I don't think you will be disappointed. show less

I must admit, this book was a challenge. I must have read the book flap at least a dozen times to remind myself what this book was about.
The writing is superb, the story or I really should say stories in this book are all over the map. Yes the book, as the book flap says is about an author attending a conference and one of the speakers at the conference-after speaking commits suicide. But the story is about so much more. Is is about human behavior in all its honorable as well as depraved show more forms.
This is the second book by this author that I have read, and I really like his work. I only wish I read and spoke Spanish to really enjoy is writing instead of reading a translation. show less