Lins, Osman

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Difficult, yet Remarkable
Sensual, meticulous, erotic, with a complex plot
Can you imagine a fusion of Borges and Garcia Marquez?

Avalovara
Osman Lins
Manufacturer: distributed by Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Portuguese | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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The Obscene Bird of Night (Verba Mundi)

ASIN: 0394498518

Book Description

A work remarkable for both its form and execution, Avalovara belongs to the tradition of contemporary writing that Gregory Rabassa calls "the inventive novel." These novels include such works as Julio Cortázar's Hopscotch and Italo Calvino's Mr. Palomar, and are "narratives where the author produces the raw materials and hands them over for the reader to give them shape or structure and sometimes meaning."

The protagonist's courtship of three women constitutes the main plot of Avalovara. He pursues the sophisticated and inaccessible Roos across Europe; falls in love with Cecília, a carnal, compassionate hermaphrodite; and achieves a tender, erotic alliance with a woman known only by an ideogram. Reinforcing the inventive nature of Lins's masterpiece, the action develops within a rigorous, puzzlelike design--visually represented by a spiral and a five-word palindrome.

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Difficult, yet Remarkable.......2003-11-12

The feeling that remains in any normal human being who stumbles through that passage is one of complete and utter disorientation. In fact, throughout the book, the reader is likely to feel lost more often than not. But, in a twisted sort of way, that is the whole point behind Lins' book. After all, what is life but a journey through which we know no end, no point, no destination? Instead of telling the story of Abel's three affairs in 330 pages of neatly packaged prose, complete with beginning, end, climax and character, Lins takes the reader on a journey that is much more real.
Avalovara will prove to be a colossal struggle for anybody that attempts to "understand" it as he or she is reading it. In short, those looking for plot will, much like Bono, never find what they're looking for. Instead, the beauty of the novel lies in the language. Lins' writing is rambling, Faulkneresque, stream of consciousness at some points, and brilliantly beautiful lyricism at others. At most points, it is a luscious combination of the two. "The smell of dust is dissipated by her presence or by the lukewarm afternoon air coming in through the window," Lins writes on page seven. "Our tongues repeat the game of advance and retreat. Our incisors touch at times and then our muscles retract." On page 223, he writes, "I suck in Abel's mouth, I speak in his mouth, inside his mouth, I say that I love him, with his tongue entangled in mine he says that he loves me, the word "love" rolls between our teeth." The repetition is incredibly simple, but incredibly poetic.
Love, human emotion, human attraction, sexuality: all are among the most common words and phrases in the English language, but all are utterly impossible to define in a sentence or two. They are among the most complex subjects ever studied by the minds of man. They are mysteries, enigmas, riddles. They are, much like the magic square and its accompanying spiral, puzzles for which we may never have the entire answer. Lins writes his book in such a way. Instead of getting lost in people, places, things and events, the readers is lost in a dizzying array of feelings, emotions and desires, the same way anybody involved in a love affair is lost. There are novels that require you to think, novels that require you to follow, novels that require you to decide. Lins' novel requires you to feel, and the answer behind the puzzle that adorns the first page of the novel lies in the way these characters feel - about each other, about the world, about their desire for one another.
Lins' book is not for everyone. There is no quest, no mission, no end. There is no Holden, no Demian, no George. There is, however, a brilliant trip through the minds, hearts and souls of the characters - minds, hearts and souls that take the readers into and through the very essence of human emotion. There is some of the most beautifully poetic prose to ever come out of Latin America. And, by the end of the novel, there is a resounding success by a tremendously gifted novelist.

Sensual, meticulous, erotic, with a complex plot.......2002-09-07

The late Brazillian author Gregory Rabassa' Avalovara is an enduringly impressive work of Latin American Literature (aptly translated into English by Gregory Rabassa), about one man and his three great loves. One seems unattainable despite his pursuit; one is a kindly hermaphrodite who enjoys the fruit of passion; and one goes only by an ideogram for her name. Sensual, meticulous, erotic, with a complex plot and tangled human machinations, Avalovara is a uniquely written, inventive, and original literary experience.

Can you imagine a fusion of Borges and Garcia Marquez?.......1999-05-22

This gorgeous novel is that chimera, that impossible novel that is both an intellectual endeavor and a magical fiction that seamlessly blends Borges and Garcia Marquez. The book is structured as a spiral, and it recounts the story of a man and the three women he loved. The book is filled with intellectual games, as in the fiction of Borges and Cortazar, yet the writing is as sensual and erotic as in the fiction of Amado and Garcia Marquez. I loved it!

Avalovara translated bu Gregory Rabassa.

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Avalovara translated bu Gregory Rabassa.
Osman. Lins
Manufacturer: Alfred A. Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000I81IRI

Of idealism and glory.: An article from: The Review of Contemporary Fiction

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Of idealism and glory.: An article from: The Review of Contemporary Fiction
Osman Lins
Manufacturer: Review of Contemporary Fiction
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is an article from The Review of Contemporary Fiction, published by Review of Contemporary Fiction on September 22, 1995. The length of the article is 2507 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser. From the supplier: The reason why writers write is the very same reason why they live: for the written word. However, lest it be misunderstood, writing is a job and should be compensated the same way that other professions are compensated, for writers give that to which they have consecrated themselves. The idealism attached to writers which declares that they, among other things, should live in need and die unrewarded, should be eradicated from the minds of the practitioners especially the young. This attitude has several causes, one of which is ignorance of the writer's import and, paradoxically, knowledge of the writer's import. Citation Details
Title: Of idealism and glory.
Author: Osman Lins
Publication: The Review of Contemporary Fiction (Refereed)
Date: September 22, 1995
Publisher: Review of Contemporary Fiction
Volume: v15 Issue: n3 Page: p173(5) Distributed by Thomson Gale

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Nine, Novena (Sun and Moon Classics)
Osman Lins
Manufacturer: Sun and Moon Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1557132291

Book Description

tr Adria Frizzi

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Nove, novena: Narrativas
Osman Lins
Manufacturer: Companhia das Letras
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Portuguese | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books

Portuguese | Foreign Language Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 8571643741

The Head Carried in Triumph. (fiction) (excerp): An article from: The Review of Contemporary Fiction

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The Head Carried in Triumph. (fiction) (excerp): An article from: The Review of Contemporary Fiction
Osman Lins
Manufacturer: Review of Contemporary Fiction
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is an article from The Review of Contemporary Fiction, published by Review of Contemporary Fiction on September 22, 1995. The length of the article is 4580 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser. Citation Details
Title: The Head Carried in Triumph. (fiction) (excerp)
Author: Osman Lins
Publication: The Review of Contemporary Fiction (Refereed)
Date: September 22, 1995
Publisher: Review of Contemporary Fiction
Volume: v15 Issue: n3 Page: p178(8) Article Type: Excerpt Distributed by Thomson Gale

The Queen of the Prisons of Greece: A Novel (World Literature Series)

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The Queen of the Prisons of Greece: A Novel (World Literature Series)
Osman Lins
Manufacturer: Dalkey Archive Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Portuguese | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1564780562

Book Description

a novel, Brazil, tr Adria Frizzi

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Nine Novena Narratives
Osman Lins
Manufacturer: Sun & Moon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000INV2I8

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A ilha no espaco
Osman Lins
Manufacturer: Editora Moderna
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Portuguese | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Portuguese | Foreign Language Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Portuguese | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books
ASIN: 8516020037

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Avalovara: Romance
Osman Lins
Manufacturer: Edicoes Melhoramentos
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000J0G6XQ

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