Immagine dell'autore.

Marcelo Cohen

Autore di Donde Yo No Estaba

32+ opere 106 membri 3 recensioni

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Comprende il nome: Marcelo Cohen

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Opere di Marcelo Cohen

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Opere correlate

Un'eredità di avorio e ambra (2010) — Traduttore, alcune edizioni — 3,694 copie
Il 42° parallelo (1930) — Traduttore, alcune edizioni — 1,641 copie
The Complete Stories (2015) — Traduttore, alcune edizioni — 837 copie
Il segreto di Joe Gould (1965) — Traduttore, alcune edizioni — 405 copie
América : antología de relatos (1998) 1 copia
BSFA Awards 2023 (2024) — Collaboratore — 1 copia

Etichette

Informazioni generali

Nome canonico
Cohen, Marcelo
Data di nascita
1951
Sesso
male
Nazionalità
Argentina
Nazione (per mappa)
Argentina
Luogo di nascita
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Attività lavorative
Translator
Writer

Utenti

Recensioni

Melodrome di Marcelo Cohen
Another novella for #NovNov Novellas in November! Melodrome by Argentinian author Marcelo Cohen is really interesting reading, and at only 142 pages long, it’s easy to romp through it in a day. It’s from Giramondo’s Southern Latitudes series, indulging an interest in countries to the east and west of us, in our own hemisphere.
Vaguely Orwellian without being derivative, and offering a critique of neoliberal capitalism without being heavy-handed, Melodrome is set in an indefinable future. It’s the story of Lerena Dost, a successful woman in executive management, who undertakes a bizarre quest to thank an enigmatic benefactor. Lerena has lost her lover, her job and her home in short order but through quirky circumstances has won a major lottery. Uneasy about unearned income, she wants to thank Dona Munava, whose hint provided the winning numbers, but it turns out to be more difficult than she thought. So she enlists the help of her former lover, Suana Botilecue, a psychoanalyst who lost his job for having an unprofessional relationship with her and is now reduced to living among the homeless as their publicly-funded counsellor. (It is one of these homeless who narrates the story).
Lerena’s life has unravelled due to an unfortunate series of events. Her replacement lover dumped her because he thought she was manipulative, and she was so shocked that she wasn’t able to react with her usual assertiveness when her rental manager gave her notice to quit.
She was well acquainted with the miserly sadism of real estate administrators, the deals they did with the judges and the size of the bribes they demanded, but the guy was accusing her of fraudulently negotiating a rent reduction and manipulating the apartment’s elderly owner: the combination of charges left her gaping, with her tongue stuck to her palate. And she can’t be sure, but it may have been this silence that emboldened her boss to call her in to the personnel room two hours later and announce that, having observed for quite some time now how Lerena’s attitude, with its combination of arrogance, pride, intimidation, assertiveness, moral blackmail and manipulative skill, was inhibiting rather than motivating the team of analysts under her supervision, quashing rather than nurturing their spirit of initiative, and not only making them inefficient as employees but also damaging them as people, he had decided to replace her; that’s the word he used, replace, not dismiss or fire, when in fact he had already prepared her resignation, and produced it then for her to sign, along with a piece of paper on which the sum of her severance pay was crisply inscribed: seven thousand panoramics. (p.15-16)

‘Panoramics’ and ‘bitcards’ (securely encrypted money cards) are two of the many words coined to create a disorientating sense of a world familiar yet not quite our own, and the translator Chris Andrews has done a splendid job of rendering these in English. Lerena drives a mincar, stops at ‘anytime eatchas’ for a meal, sleeps overnight at a ‘lodgitel’ and visits a ‘sanit’ when nature calls. There are Clearseers for surveillance and Guards who enforce checkpoints that no one, not even the Guard, can explain.
So, Suano joins Lerena on this bizarre road trip, where everyone they meet already knows about their quest.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2018/11/10/melodrome-by-marcelo-cohen-translated-by-chr...… (altro)
 
Segnalato
anzlitlovers | Nov 10, 2018 |
Impureza di Marcelo Cohen
Historia de amor y de aprendizaje, una narración sobre la intimidad, el dolor y el recuerdo.
 
Segnalato
analiakozma | Apr 4, 2014 |
El País de la Dama Eléctrica di Marcelo Cohen
Una novela a dos perspectivas: la de un post-adolescente roquero con ínfulas de estrella, y la de un hombre de edad más avanzada y con gustos literarios. Ambos son los héroes de sus propias historias; el joven reta al mundo, el mayor imparte protección y sabiduría. Como en Rashomon, las perspectivas tienen los mismos elementos, pero no son compatibles; la verdad puede hallarse entremedio o, probablemente, en un tercer punto, de escape. Muy interesante.
½
 
Segnalato
jorgearanda | Jul 30, 2011 |
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Statistiche

Opere
32
Opere correlate
6
Utenti
106
Popolarità
#181,887
Voto
4.0
Recensioni
3
ISBN
45
Lingue
1

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