Kalpa Imperial: The Greatest Empire That Never Was Contributor(s): Gorodischer, Angélica (Author), Le Guin, Ursula K. (Translator) |
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ISBN: 1931520054 ISBN-13: 9781931520058 Publisher: Small Beer Press
WE WILL NOT BE UNDERSOLD! Click here for our low price guarantee Binding Type: Paperback - See All Available Formats & Editions Published: August 2003 Annotation: "An impressive introduction."-The Review of Contemporary Fiction "Should appeal to [Le Guin's] fans."-Library Journal (starred review) "Borges and Cortzar are alive and well."-Bridge Magazine Multiple storytellers tell of a fabled nameless empire that has risen and fallen innumerable times. Beggars become emperors, democracies become dictatorships, and history becomes legends and stories. On The New York Times Summer Reading List. |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Fiction | Fantasy - General - Fiction | Literary - Fiction | Science Fiction - General |
Dewey: FIC |
LCCN: 2003105105 |
Physical Information: 0.65" H x 6.38" W x 8.46" L (0.69 lbs) 246 pages |
Features: Price on Product, Table of Contents |
Review Citations: PW Notes and Reprints 07/07/2003 pg. 58 Library Journal 09/15/2003 pg. 91 New York Times 01/04/2004 pg. 14 New York Times 06/06/2004 pg. 37 Publishers Weekly 07/07/2003 |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: This is the first of Argentinean writer Ang lica Gorodischer's nineteen award-winning books to be translated into English. In eleven chapters, Kalpa Imperial's multiple storytellers relate the story of a fabled nameless empire which has risen and fallen innumerable times. Fairy tales, oral histories and political commentaries are all woven tapestry-style into Kalpa Imperial: beggars become emperors, democracies become dictatorships, and history becomes legends and stories. Selected for the New York Times Summer Reading list. * The dreamy, ancient voice is not unlike Le Guin's, and this collection should appeal to her fans as well as to those of literary fantasy and Latin American fiction. There's a very modern undercurrent to the Kalpa empire, with tales focusing on power (in a political sense) rather than generic moral lessons. Her mythology is consistent--wide in scope, yet not overwhelming. The myriad names of places and people can be confusing, almost Tolkeinesque in their linguistic originality. But the stories constantly move and keep the book from becoming overwhelming. Gorodischer has a sizeable body of work to be discovered, with eighteen books yet to reach English readers, and this is an impressive introduction. Borges and Cort zar are alive and well. Those looking for offbeat literary fantasy will welcome Kalpa Imperial: The Greatest Empire That Never Was, by Argentinean writer Ang lica Gorodischer. Translated from the Spanish by Ursula Le Guin, this is the first appearance in English of this prize-winning South American fantasist. It's always difficult to wrap up a rave review without babbling redundant praises. This time I'll simply say Buy this Book The elaborate history of an imaginary country...is Nabokovian in its accretion of strange and rich detail, making the story seem at once scientific and dreamlike. Kalpa Imperial has been awarded the Prize M s All (1984), the Prize Sigfrido Radaelli (1985) and also the Prize Poblet (1986). It has had four editions in Spanish: Minotauro (Buenos Aires), Alcor (Barcelona), Gigamesh (Barcelona), and Planeta Emec Editions (Buenos Aires). Praise for the Spanish-language editions of Kalpa Imperial: Ang lica Gorodischer, both from without and within the novel, accomplishes the indispensable function Salman Rushdie says the storyteller must have: not to let the old tales die out; to constantly renew them. And she well knows, as does that one who met the Great Empress, that storytellers are nothing more and nothing less than free men and women. And even though their freedom might be dangerous, they have to get the total attention of their listeners and, therefore, put the proper value on the art of storytelling, an art that usually gets in the way of those who foster a forceful oblivion and prevent the winds of change.--Carmen Perilli, La Gaceta, Tucuman At a time when books are conceived and published to be read quickly, with divided attention in the din of the subway or the car, this novel is to be tasted with relish, in peace, in moderation, chewing slowly each and every one of the stories that make it up, and digesting it equally slowly so as to properly assimilate it all. A vast, cyclical filigree . . . Gorodischer reaches much farther than the common run of stories about huge empires, maybe because she wasn't interested in them to begin with, and enters the realm of fable, legend, and allegory. |
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