César Aira uses the same detached perspective that I've seen in Bolaño. This is the method that uses the tone of a nonfiction book but then, almost surreally, covers details that a biographer or a historian couldn't possibly know. So you'll have a dry account of how this painter's letters indicated that he picnicked on a field south of town one Saturday only to dive into the painter's brain and examine how the universe is a series of unfolding aesthetic revelations or something like that. The total disregard for a consistent voice is more then just jarring, it's positively liberating. What's so great about it is that it is totally apropos to the subject matter. Bolaño, for example, uses it for his psychopaths and shell-shocked individuals. Aira, a little more subtly, uses it to convey the perspective of a true artist. Rugendas cares very little for interpersonal relationships, or typical travel details, or even really his own health and safety. All that matters is his quest for the "physiognomy of nature." Therefore the narrative itself is almost dismissive of physical events, but lovingly details the philosophical musings of a master trying to perfect his craft.
I also find the understatement of the title particularly amusing. The titular "episode" is an almost mythological cataclysm that unhinges and transfigures the artist into an even more perfect vehicle for artistic interpretation. This event, far from being a disaster, enables the artist to finally reach his peak. Rugendas as a drug addled, deformed maniac is finally liberated from humanity and becomes a creature totally fearless in the pursuit of art. ( )

Very powerful and eternally provocative. A book that has left me feeling as if I am looking at the world and nature and art with new and yet very ancient eyes. I think I have found another writer to love! Life is good. ( )

Riveting tale of an artist on a quest to find an indescribable something...Agonizingly brutal, a nightmare of excruciating pain ensues. This is an artist in search of the miraculous who finds himself a survivor that manages to hold onto his artistic talent despite the vicissitudes of fate. Minutely told in a rather matter of fact way, this is a story filled with everyday wonder. Overall astounding. "He felt a vague, inexplicable nostalgia for what had not happened, and the lessons it might have taught him." ( )

It has been a long time since I've read a story this good. Aira writes an adventure story, stays in 3 person past perspective, and yet, despite never entering the inner psychology of his characters, nor dwelling on philosophical concepts, manages to write a profound analysis of art and its relationship to life in a historical setting so brilliant it evokes a strange purity of form, nearly allegorical, while staying grounded into reality.

I'm going to be reading this one again but I highly HIGHLY recommend this. It's a novella with more to say than novels four times its length. ( )

It has been a long time since I've read a story this good. Aira writes an adventure story, stays in 3 person past perspective, and yet, despite never entering the inner psychology of his characters, nor dwelling on philosophical concepts, manages to write a profound analysis of art and its relationship to life in a historical setting so brilliant it evokes a strange purity of form, nearly allegorical, while staying grounded into reality.

I'm going to be reading this one again but I highly HIGHLY recommend this. It's a novella with more to say than novels four times its length. ( )