He writes stream of consciousness-ish with a bit of lo-fi downbeat. Its mellow, but smooth. Nothing jarring, but a reader has to not become impatient. By using names as waypoints, the citizens of Pringles are able to go forwards and backwards and side to side regarding their memories and understanding of the community. Its possible to interpret the middle section in a variety of ways – and I think the lack of one definitive answer is what Aira is going for. He likes fairy tales and fables and magic so he is going to be more than happy to let the reader wonder and ponder on their own. ( )

This slim novel by Argentina Aira, I read in one night, and really enjoyed the book, most esp the ending. The town of Pringle is over run with walking corpses, risen out of their burials.....no one is safe as they demolish everyone in their path to crack their skills and suck out the endorphins. Nothing stops them or slows their pace.........I really liked this book. Familiar but not so familiar......Scarry but not terrifying,unless you live in Pringle......and the ending is so worth the ride for me. Loved it. ( )

shit, man. i need a friend to read this so we can talk about it. aira just knocks it out of the park. loved every minute. zombies invade a small town in argentina and the incident is recounted by a 50-something man who lives with his mother. their relationship figures prominently. but all may not be as it seems. or? ( )

Cesar Aira's short novel features zombies as I've never seen them. Like the original Night of the Living Dead, all dead people rise as zombies. These zombies have long limbs and can move fast, but clumsily. Their hunger drives them to be more savage. The graveyards bursting with dead overflow and attack the living for their endorphins. The dead go throughout the town to those that have exciting, happy lives, crack open their heads, and suck the endorphins right out of their brains. This new view of zombies is unique, but the fact that people seem perfectly fine afterwards stretched the limits of my suspension of disbelief. Even an emotional change would have made sense.

The other parts of the story are about the most insanely boring people: a middle aged man and his mother. They have excruciatingly dull dinner parties with people they don't even like and generally complain about everything. I thought the story would lead these people being compared to the zombies, but it just randomly followed their dull story at the end. This book had some great ideas, but overall, it was a disappointment. ( )