Anybody else checked out El gato en el remolino / Animal Spiral by Luis Othoniel Rosa? What did you think?
Hey y'all, I'm new to this sub but I came because I wanted to know if anybody else had read this. I loved it so much! I had already been looking for more Latin American sci-fi, so to get this from a Boricua author was really nice.
For the story itself, I found the narration and the characterization of the Animal's identities fascinating, given the deliberately spiraling nature of the prose (it doesn't lie-- the increasing and repeating layers of are humorous at times, and deeply impactful and surreal in turn.) I read it in both English and Spanish, and there were some differences, but I thought the translation was pretty good. I definitely prefer the original Spanish, however. It has longer sentences that feel more spiraling and true to the themes, though the English sentences are admittedly shorter, more "active."
I also found the stylistic differences among the sections really interesting, which made sense when I found out the story was actually written among a group of writers and translators across many years. It lends an eclectic feeling to the novel I liked. I study linguistics and the simultaneous translation fascinates me.
I'm also a nerd with a lot of intersecting interests and this managed to hit all of them in a unique way, so it might just be laser-targeted to me lol.
What did you think? What were your favorite or least favorite things about the novel?