“Boiled steaks, crispy bills” by Jorge Asís. The last and expected work of fiction of George Assisi could be described as a novel “in code”, which reviews the history of Peronism, with the focus on two of its main leaders: Carlos Menem (Omar Masud) and Nestor Kirchner (Ivan Smirak)). It is a narrative “in code”, because each character, with a false name, refers to a specific man or woman from politics, more or less recognizable, depending on the knowledge of the reader who approaches the story.
A watermark of secrets, statements, betrayals and intimacies unfolds over almost 300 pages, to show behind the scenes of 70 years of Argentine politicsfrom the privileged gaze of a narrator who was inside the painting or sitting in the front row.
“To govern a country of sons of bitches like Argentina, you have to be more son of a bitch than all the sons of bitches that populate the blessed country that concentrates more garcas per square meter”, is one of the repeated lessons, that the characters they say and say, in the race to build a power that, in Peronism, can be diluted like water between the fingers, as soon as the internal enemies smell of defeat.
The tone is disenchanted and fierce, more or less like the style of the Assisi columns on television or that of Oberdan Rocamora, his journalistic alter ego. If behind a cynic an idealist can be guessed, this ironic commentator seems to have lost forever all kind of hope in the protagonists of power and the opportunistic satellites that surround them.
At the crossroads between journalistic discourse, political experience and literary inspiration, the fictions of Jorge Asís, one of our most original writers, are inscribed, with essential books for our narrative such as “Flowers stolen in the gardens of Quilmes” either “Argentine Newspaper” and which critics have not always recognized fairly. Young generations today rescue his trajectory and recent reissues allow us to have a total perspective of his writing. In this context, the reading of “Churrasquitos hervidos, crunchy bills” represents the consecration of a style, in which the voice is indistinguishable from the gaze that ironizes, and the irony cannot detach itself from the theme that summons it.
Finding the language to mercilessly betray Argentine politics is perhaps the most remarkable feature of his literature.
South American, 286 pp. $3,399
“The domain of the master” by Claudio S. Ingerflom. The author is one of the great Argentine specialists in Russian history and politics. He directs the bachelor’s degree in History and master’s degrees at UNSAM. He studied his discipline in Paris and in Moscow.
This book subtitled “The Russian State, the war with Ukraine and the new world order”, is an excellent introduction to the past of the former USSR and the prevailing ideology in the country ruled by Putin. It also explains what place Ukraine occupies in the Russian economy, power and imagination. An excellent introduction to the conflict that occupies the world today, from the point of view of an Argentine historian.
Fund of Economic Culture. $2,200.
I want to see you again by Roberto Fontanarrosa. These unpublished stories of the great writer and cartoonist from Rosario, who died in 2007, are organized around football, and especially certain decisive World Cup matches. The volume is part of the Fontanarrosa Library collection, in which Planeta is reissuing its classics. A must for fanatic readers. Planet, 282 pp. $2500.
Flying stars by Alina Diaconú. “Is the emancipation of women the cause of this misogynistic fury that hits, burns and kills?” says one of the “Apothegms” from Alina Diaconú’s latest book. Thoughts and images in verses of one or two lines, which give meaning to a situation, a character or a landscape. Love, travel and cities in a few precise words.
Galactica, 110 pp. $2500.
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“NEIGHBOURS”
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“ANNIHILATION”
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Non-fiction
“RESET YOUR INTESTINES”
Facundo Pereyra
“THE DAYS OF THE REVOLUTION (1806-1820)”
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“THINKING JAPANESE”
Le Yen Mai
“MAN’S SEARCH FOR MEANING”
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“THE FOUR AGREEMENTS”
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Source: Yenny and El Ateneo bookstores.
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