Brickmakers
A Novel
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
A piercing and passionate novel, set in rural Argentina, about violence and masculinity
Oscar Tamai and Elvio Miranda, the patriarchs of two families of brickmakers, have for years nursed a mutual hatred, but their teenage sons, Pájaro and Ángelito, somehow fell in love. Brickmakers begins as Pájaro and Marciano, Ángelito’s older brother, lie dying in the mud at the base of a Ferris wheel. Inhabiting a dreamlike state between life and death, they recall the events that forced them to pay the price of their fathers’ petty feud.
The Tamai and Miranda families are caught, like the Capulets and the Montagues, in an almost mythic conflict, one that emerges from stubborn pride and intractable machismo. Like her heralded debut, The Wind That Lays Waste, Selva Almada’s fierce and tender second novel is an unforgettable portrayal of characters who initially seem to stand in opposition, but are ultimately revealed to be bound by their similarities.
Almada enlarges the tradition of some of the most distinctive prose stylists of our time. In Brickmakers, she furthers her extraordinary exploration of masculinity and the realities of working-class rural life. This is another exquisitely written and powerfully told story by a major international voice.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Argentine writer Almada (Dead Girls) unfurls the tense story of a petty feud between two stubborn brickmakers and its rippling effect. Oscar Tamai is charismatic and cruel, while his competitor Elvio Miranda is equally outgoing but kinder. Over mate and cigarettes, their neighbors in La Cruceña spin tales of the men's rivalry, which becomes grounds for investigation when Miranda is violently killed. However, Almada spends less time on the men's story than on a subsequent violent episode involving Tamai's and Miranda's oldest sons, Pajarito and Marciano, respectively, in a scene that bookends the narrative. Almada demonstrates the utter senselessness of their fathers' hatred for each other: "That minor grudge, as time went by, hardened to stone in each boy's heart." The striking translation, particularly of of the final pages, adds sensual detail, leading to an unexpected twist involving Marciano's younger brother, Angelito, and Pajarito, which adds some romance to the tragedy. With its surprises and lyricism, this is a successful riff on a classic Shakespearean tale.
