Sònia HernándezBesprekingen

The title of the book means "face blindness". The narrative is populated by 15 year old Berta who feels she must bear witness to ugliness. Her mother, who is not given a name and whose narrative voice changes from first to third person through the book. And a man who claims to be Mexican artist Vincente Rojo.

It was difficult for me to relate to any of these characters. They all want to be something that they aren't and don't seem to have a clue how to resolve that discrepancy.

For me, this was a novel of ideas with the usual weaknesses of the genre: cardboard characters, forced situations, interminable conversations. So many of the reviews below are positive, though, that I recommend you take my opinion with a mountain of salt. Perhaps there was something of interest here that I couldn't see.

One of the last sentences sums it up perfectly.

"Although she didn't understand a word of it, she thought it was beautiful."

I identified in some way with each character, though I don't know that I can specify why in most cases. Phrases rang true, over and over, though I've never had the thought before. Motivations were intensely human and yet foreign in their follow through.

This was not an easy book to read, and I found that I put it down more often than I picked it up, but I still loved it. Perhaps, as a 40 something year old, going through her own mid-life crisis, while parenting young teens who are finding their own ways, I related to it more than other readers might.

I look forward to reading this one again.½

While the writing was beautiful, this book fell a bit short for me, as I don't feel like there was a conclusion. Prosopagnosia is a condition known as 'face blindness', and in this book, the daughter plays a game where she stares at herself in the mirror for so long that she no longer recognizes herself. Her mother is also looking for a new perspective with her husband leaving and having gained weight. The plot felt a little loose, but perhaps this was due to the translation.

Let me preface my review by saying I think this book was beautifully written. It contained a lot of really interesting quotes and ideas that I enjoyed. However, until I got to the last third of the book or so, I couldn’t figure out if there was really a plot. Even by the end, the story leaves something to be desired.

As someone the same age as both the author and the narrator, I appreciate Hernández's reflections on parenthood and midlife. I like the exploration of reality and how our context shapes our perspective of the world and ourselves, how we choose to believe things that conform to our perception of the world. There also seems to be commentary on how Spain has reinvented itself post-Franco, how instead of integrating a difficult past, it's just sort of declared itself reborn as a post-fascist democracy, although I don't think I catch all of those nuances.

I received this ARC through LibraryThing Early Reviewers (although I'm kind of slow, so "early" is relative).½

There are three stories in this novella, and though they are interlinked I found it all a bit awkward. There is no conclusion.

Berta is 15 and constantly at odds with her mother. Her mother is 40-something, divorced, and frustrated with her daughter, her divorce, her weight, and he job. A man who claims to be the Mexican artist Vicente Rojas has offered to teach a class at Berta's school. Berta's mother pitches an article about the artist to her former boss for the regional newspaper. Then she struggles to write it. Berta thinks she will only ever have ugly things, her mother thinks herself a failure. Hmmm could these two things be connected? This is not discussed.

I found the writing here hard to read. I have no idea if that is how it is meant to be, or if it comes from the translation. The mother is narrating in the first person, and no one talks/thinks in such an awkward way.

There are mentions of many artists/authors in here. I don't know how many are real people--but Max Aub definitely is. However, only two of his works are available in English. I can't help but wonder if knowing something about his work would help with understanding the point/meaning of this book.

Had a chance to read this Arc a month ago and it’s officially been released. It was kind of a slow burn for me, but I do think the author has potential to be better. The story was interesting, nonetheless.

This book was boring and pointless. Also I don't think the author knows what prosopagnosia is. The narrative makes it sound like an illness that can be easily caught, and that people can just "get" it. I think the story was about the ways we perceive people, and how we can see something in shadow as easily as we can see something in light, but to be honest, the only thing I took away from the book is that Berta only gets ugly things, and that Berta's mother is fat. At least it's short.

This is why I don't read books in translation.

"Prosopagnosia" is a novella that spends most of its time philosophizing about art and reality with three characters who aren't happy with their lives or themselves.

There's the unhappy, unempathetic teenager named Berta, whose experiences so far in life have made her believe that "beautiful things weren't made for" her. She attempts to alter the way she sees the world with a worrying habit, holding her breath while looking in the mirror until she can no longer recognize her own face (she then passes out).

There's her unnamed mother, who is obsessed with an "ideal" image of herself, which is beautiful and thin (she has an especially strong hatred of fatness) and admired. She's aimless after her husband leaves and is desperately trying to find meaning in her life; also, she's actually the main character.

Finally there's "the man who believed he was Vincente Rojo" (this is actually the original title in Spanish, so I don't really consider it a spoiler). He was also unhappy with his reality, but he decided to do something rather more unusual about it.

It's a novella about looking at the world differently, challenging notions of beauty (kind of). deconstructing reality as it is, deluding oneself with the right brand philosophy into believing anything in order to escape reality...that kind of thing.

In essence: "...art is about turning truth into lies in such a way that it can remain true." & "The artist no longer wishes to copy from the reality he sees, but instead wishes to create a new reality, one that would be much truer." etc. There are many quotes like this.

Obviously not for everyone. It's not particularly for me, even, but I found it interesting and the writing was good and it was a short book.

Sumamente intimista, pausada, se va desvelando la historia de una pareja desde la distancia del otro hasta darle la vuelta por completo, sin perder ningún hilo en ningún momento. La escritura es intensa pero accesible, como el diario que pretende ser.
Ezra Pound, Max Beckmann, Massimo Bacigalupo