Mario Levrero

Jorge Mario Varlotta Levrero (23 January 1940 - 30 August 2004), better known as Mario Levrero, was a Uruguayan author. He authored nearly 20 novels as well as writing articles, columns, comic books and crosswords.[1] His work is said to be influenced by Franz Kafka, Lewis Carroll and surrealism.[2][3][4] Throughout his life he shunned publicity and was difficult with interviewers. Regardless, he became a cult figure in Uruguay and Argentina.[5][4]

Mario Levrero
Born
Jorge Mario Varlotta Levrero

(1940-01-23)23 January 1940
Montevideo, Uruguay
Died30 August 2004(2004-08-30) (aged 64)
NationalityUruguayan
OccupationAuthor

His writing was often branded as science fiction or genre fiction, a categorisation he strongly rejected.[2][4] Critics have commented on the both sinister and humorous nature of his work.[4][1]

Biography

Levrero was born in Montevideo in 1940 to an Italian-Uruguayan family.[1][4] He stopped attending school at age 14 due to a heart murmur and instead spent his time in bed, reading and listening to tango music.[5]

A memorial event for Mario Levrero in 2014

Having never finished school, he claimed that attending a tango club was his university. In his twenties, he ran a secondhand bookshop with a friend and was briefly a member of the Communist Party of Uruguay's youth wing.[5] His first short stories were published in science fiction magazines in Buenos Aires.[2]

In 1966, Levrero wrote his first novel La ciudad (The City).[5] He claimed the book was his attempt to "translate Kafka into Uruguayan". Published in 1970, the novel became part of what he described as an "involuntary trilogy" along with Paris (1980) and El lugar (1982).[1] By the 1980s, Levrero was gaining more mainstream recognition after receiving an award for his novella Desplazamientos.[4]

Levrero received a Guggenheim Grant in 2000 to finish work on a project he had begun in 1984 that he called La novela luminosa.[6] Intended to be an account of a transcendental experience, the posthumously published work ended up as a composite of a diary detailing failed attempts at writing the novel and unedited chapters of the incomplete novel.[6] It is widely regarded as his masterpiece.[5]

Levrero died in Montevideo in 2004.[1]

Levrero's work has inspired Latin American writers such as Rodolfo Fogwill, César Aira and Alejandro Zambra.[7]

Work

Novels
  • Caza de conejos, 2012
  • Dejen todo en mis manos, 1998
  • Diario de un canalla/Burdeos, 1972
  • El alma de Gardel, 1996
  • El discurso vacío, 1996
  • El lugar, 1982
  • Fauna/Desplazamientos, 1987
  • La Banda del Ciempiés, 1989
  • La Banda del Ciempiés, 2015
  • La ciudad, 1970
  • La novela luminosa, 2005
  • Nick Carter se divierte mientras el lector es asesinado y yo agonizo y otras novelas, 2012
  • París, 1980
  • Trilogía involuntaria (includes La ciudad, París, and El lugar), 2008

Short stories
  • Aguas salobres, 1983
  • Cuentos completos, 2019
  • El portero y el otro, 1992
  • Espacios libres, 1987
  • La máquina de pensar en Gladys, 1970
  • Los carros de fuego, 2003
  • Los muertos, 1986
  • Todo el tiempo, 1982
  • Ya que estamos, 2001

Comic books
  • Historietas reunidas de Jorge Varlotta, 2016
  • Los profesionales, with artwork by Lizán, 1988
  • Santo Varón/I, with artwork by Lizán, 1986

Other writings
  • Caza de conejos, 1986
  • Irrupciones I, 2001
  • Irrupciones II, 2001
  • Manual de parapsicología, 1978

References
  1. Thirlwell, Adam (7 March 2020). "It's still not right". London Review of Books. Vol. 42, no. 6. ISSN 0260-9592. Retrieved 10 August 2021.
  2. Lockhart, Daniel (2004). Latin American Science Fiction Writers : An A-to-Z Guide. Connecticut: Greenwood Press. pp. 113–114. ISBN 9780313305535.
  3. Cummins, Anthony (30 June 2019). "Empty Words review – riddling but enticing". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 August 2021.
  4. Flores, Angel (1992). Spanish American authors : the twentieth century. Internet Archive. New York : Wilson. p. 476. ISBN 978-0-8242-0806-6.
  5. McDermott, Annie (15 May 2019). "On Translating Mario Levrero, The Kafka of Uruguay". Literary Hub. Retrieved 10 August 2021.
  6. Thirlwell, Adam (3 August 2021). "This Novel Is a Record of Its Own Failure. Somehow It Succeeds". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 10 August 2021.
  7. "Mario Levrero in Conversation with Mario Levrero". Believer Magazine. Retrieved 10 August 2021.
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