Silvina Ocampo - Thus Were Their Faces BOOK REVIEW

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Articles:

Authors Mentioned:

Jorge Luis Borges:

Adolfo Bioy Casares:

Julio Cortazar:

Flannery O'Conner:

[PB-fiqh]

This channel has the BEST recommendations.

[VinnyDrugs]

This channel is really becoming better than food. Every recommendation is a masterpiece.

[fabricioandrade]

I finally found a channel where i can hear about the literature that is literature, and not about the commercial one. Thanks for talking about authors that created a major impact on culture. You create a bond between all nations through their greatest stories. Greetings from Ecuador

[moyvillarreal]

Me encanta oír a este pelado hablar de literatura latinoamericana.. Kudos wey¡

[caiocm]

Ocampo's work is just like you said. I read recently for my book club and found myself floating away into her dark and mysterious world. btw, just found your channel (loved it) and I'm so happy to see Clarice Lispector review here.

[bjwnashe]

Hey Cliff, thanks for this great discussion. Always enjoy getting turned on (or off) to an author I was unaware of. I really like where you are going with this channel. I had some critical comments a while back (whatever), but I'm impressed with your ongoing encounters with challenging literature, and with your embrace of "the strangeness" we find in so many of the books that really matter. Great work. I think your channel is very unique, very intelligent, and in the deepest sense of the word, very humane. Why? Because you are willing to honestly take on dark and complex books. This is important, more so now than ever. Respect. Stay safe. Keep digging.

[EatWearTravel]

I'm reading Silvina's tales and I'm amazed. If you like her stories, you totally shoud read "Things We Lost in the Fire" by Mariana Enríquez. Mariana is like Poe+Córtazar+Silvina

[TheJellFreak]

Food for the soul, is what this is - this just feels like the right kind of comfy book talk to enjoy with a glass of pinot blanc despite everything that's going on. Thank you.

[messylittlegirl]

Curious fact: the book cover is by Remedios Varo, a brutal Mexican artist, very obscure and a surrealist.

[jongriffinblues]

Your channel saves my sanity with each new episode. Thank you!

[bipolarchris]

Keep up the great work, you're the reason why I started my channel in the first place. Today is a good day for two reasons: I got my first subscriber + you uploaded a video!

[dariooben]

Glad you're reviewing Silvina at last! I live at a walking distance from Villa Ocampo. The irony of this city is that it feels out of a fairytale and has mad literary history, but only has one bookstore (used books only, not even new ones, but it's a nice store - that's where I got "Faust" after watching your review). Anyway, I don't know if you've read "Mad Toy" by Roberto Arlt, but I totally recommend it if you like Argentinian literature.

[FoxyLuluLee]

Hi! I recommend La hermana menor, a great work of Silvina's life by Mariana Enriquez, another dark and highly recommended Argentinean writer.

[haroldniver]

I’ve not read Ocampo but that’s changing, and quite soon. These stories sound exquisite and just fucked-up enough to get my attention. Thanks for the rec. I’m pretty new to your channel and can only curse myself for not finding it sooner.

Houellebecq’s Serotonin is astounding, by the way. Absolutely loving it. His decency as a human being is really speaking to me right now.

[merzpat]

Hey there, love the channel. I subscribed to you ever since you talked about Bolaño's work, of which I am a huge fan and have tried voraciously to absorb. Thanks for the recommendations!

[a.barroca]

Hi! I discovered your channel some days ago and have been savoring one recommendation a day. I really appreciate your take on the works you read and your sense of humor. Having been a bookworm all my life most of the authors I already know but today I did not so looking forward to dig in. Also, not a bad pronunciation of foreign names and terms. Take good care and keep up the great (review) work. You won a fan and a supporter. Peace.

[felipegarciapatino]

To talk with the dead
you have to choose words
they can recognize as easily
as their hands recognized
their dog's fur in the darkness.
Words clear and calm
as the water of the torrent tamed in a cup
or the chairs rearranged by a mother
after all the guests have gone.
Words that night welcomes
as swamps welcome will-o'-the-wisps.


To talk with the dead
you have to know how to wait;
they are fearful
as the first steps of a child.
But if we have patience
one day they will answer us
with a poplar leaf trapped in a broken mirror,
with a flame that suddenly flares in the fireplace
with a dark return of birds
before the glance of a girl
who waits motionless on the threshold.

[Steve-ltop]

Having discovered many fine books from this channel and its comments I would like to recommend a few books read whilst in quarantine in no particular order:-

The Snow Leopard - Matthiessen
Chess - Zweig
Blue of Noon - Bataille
Silence - Endo
Laughter in the dark - Nabokov

[olympiaramirezo.]

Read “HURRICANE SEASON” by Fernanda Melchor, you’ll love it!!!

[JuanReads]

Thanks for bringing people's attention to Silvina Ocampo's writing. I love Borges and Bioy Casares's novel The Invention of Morel is stunning. I haven't read anything by Ocampo yet, but I'm going to correct that oversight soon!