Among Strange Victims
Daniel Saldaña París, Trans. by Christina MacSweeney
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
Among Strange Victims
Daniel Saldaña París, Trans. by Christina MacSweeney
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
...brief, brilliantly written, and kissed by a sense of the absurd.
...luidly brought into English through the polished and effortless-feeling translation of the talented Christina MacSweeney.
With little plot or dialogue, this farcical novel about inertia sustains momentum by the wit of its quirky Rube Goldberg prose.
While there’s definitely something of a plot happening in Among Strange Victims, much of the novel’s charm comes from its ability to elude convention. For all of its intentional progression in fits and starts, eventually Rodrigo’s narrative finds a decidedly peculiar direction, ending on a note that’s at once transcendent, melancholy, juvenile and mysterious. Although its stylized narrative can be an acquired taste, Among Strange Victims is deceptively affecting..
Clearly this is an ambitious fictional project. But Saldaña París is most convincing when he writes about the interiority of the mind, when he allows for first person narration, than when he writes at a distance, seeing these characters’ worlds in third person. The 'I' of Rodrigo proves amusing in his ennui, a decent man stuck in his own mind. The third person narrated sections require more of a balance in exposition, action, interiority, and analysis..
To describe the plot of Among Strange Victims is to do a disservice to Saldaña París, as few can bring the mundane life (and not-so-mundane musings) of protagonist Rodrigo Saldívar to such humorous and engaging levels.