Octavio's Journey is a novella about an illiterate giant of a man named (you guessed it) Octavio. I've been told that it's also an allegorical history of Venezuela, but I don't know enough about the history of that country to comment on that point. So I just enjoyed it as the story of one man's development, adventures, and eventual end, although he really doesn't end. There's a healthy dose of magic realism throughout the story.
Octavio is illiterate and so ashamed of it that he cuts his hand to cover his inability to write. He's quite strong and does odd jobs to make a bit of money. Eventually he meets a woman who teaches him to read and write a bit. Then he falls in with a group of thieves who work out of an abandoned church. He doesn't work with them. He just takes care of things in the building until he's pressed into service to rob the very woman who's taught him. At this point he leaves town and begins his adventures.
Beautifully written (kudos to the translator) and engrossing, Octavio's Journey can be enjoyed on the simple level of a good and magical story or (if you know enough history) as allegory. If you're looking for something very different, this could be it.
Forgotten Hits: February 11th: After receiving an enormous amount of flack for using studio musicians on their records, The Monkees announce that they will play their own instruments on their next LP. (Have you seen "The Wrecking Crew"??? This same group of crackerjack musicians played on EVERYBODY'S records back then. Why The Monkees were singled out is completely unfair. After they'd finish a Monkees session, they'd go back up The Mamas and the Papas and then, later that same night, The Beach Boys in the studio … along with hundreds of others.)
Jean Paradise, The Savage City, Ace, 1956
Washington and Longfellow Slept Here: The untold story of a house that accommodated soldiers, statesmen, and poets By Nicholas A. Basbanes
How can you know a book's reputation for 40 years and still not have read it? Just an oversight, I guess, but I'm glad I finally got around to Brother's Keepers. If there's one word for this one, I think the word might be delightful. It's a warm, funny, and highly entertaining book. It's not a crime novel, although there are certainly crimes involved. It's just a fine comic novel that proves once again what a versatile writer Donald E. Westlake was.
There's this monastery, see, that was established in New York City in 1777, and now it's sitting right in the middle of some prime real estate that's ripe for redevelopment. And, sure enough, no one can find the monastery's long-forgotten lease agreement, so there's no way for the monks to prove ownership or to prove that they have a right to stay where they are. Which, of course, is what they want to do. Complications and high jinks ensue.
The books is narrated by Brother Benedict, who loves the monastery and who goes through quite a crisis of conscience. Westlake does a masterful job with this and with the entire story, which is guaranteed to make you smile. Highly recommended.
Locus Online News : Bryant was an accomplished SF writer, mostly of short stories. He began publishing SF work with “They Come Only in Dreams” and “Sending the Very Best”, both in January 1970. For the next two decades he was a frequent contributor to magazines and anthologies, and though his fictional output slowed in the ’90s, he was still active as a critic. He was a familiar figure at conventions, especially in Colorado fandom. He was a frequent guest at the World Horror Convention, and chaired the 2000 convention in Denver.
Albert L. Quandt, Journey into Ecstasy, Venus Books, 1951
Octavio's Journey is a novella about an illiterate giant of a man named (you guessed it) Octavio. I've been told that it's also an allegorical history of Venezuela, but I don't know enough about the history of that country to comment on that point. So I just enjoyed it as the story of one man's development, adventures, and eventual end, although he really doesn't end. There's a healthy dose of magic realism throughout the story.
