Raiquen - Raiquen

— July 9, 1912 / Franz Kafka diaries

Book Review: La Gallina degollada y otros cuentos, Horacio Quiroga

My favorite quote of the book:

"... y, como pasa fatalmente con todos los matrimonios jóvenes que se han amado intensamente una vez siquiera, la reconciliación llegó, tanto más efusiva cuanto más infames fueran los agravios."

My Full Review:

Pending review, I need to yap about this author.

My Other 2024 Readings.

Book Review: Poemas Esenciales, Juan Ramón Jiménez

My favorite poem of the book:

Destino ruin; si tu fueses // Cursed fate; if you were un hombre y se te pudiera // a man and one could buscar, igual que al león // hunt you, like the lion más terrible, por la tierra. // most fearsome, through the Earth

My Ful Review:

The only previous work I've read from Juan Ramón Jimenez is "Platero y Yo", about a kid and his donkey. It's been a while since I read it, but I can clearly trace the same wonder and curiosity of childhoodness in the poems included in this selection.

The author's verses are sweet and short, candid and full to the brim with the same eagerness to discover new things, marveling at the beauty of nature mostly.

That same childhood wonder though is also responsible for the erratic train of thought of the author, jumping from theme to theme with apparently no rhyme or reason, resulting in a aeries of poems with a very thin connection between them.

All in all, I liked his poetry, which seemed to mature in themes alongside the author.

My other 2024 readings.

Book Review: Death on the Nile, Agatha Christie

My favorite quote of the book:

"—[...] le ruego encarecidamente, le suplico que [...] ¡No abra su corazón al mal! [...] Porque, si lo hace, el mal vendrá... Sí, con toda seguridad, vendrá. Entrará en su corazón, establecerá en él su morada y, a los pocos instantes, no habrá fuerza humana que lo desaloje..." ~Hercule Poirot

My Full Review:

Pending review, I will surely revisit once I'm done with all of the books from AC that I bought.

My Other 2024 Readings.

Book Review: Poemas Esenciales by Federico Garcia Lorca

My Favorite poem of the book:

Amor de mis entrañas, viva muerte, en vano espero tu palabra escrita y pienso, con la flor que se marchita que si vivo sin mí quiero perderte. [...] Llena, pues, de palabras mi locura o déjame vivir en mi serena noche del ahora para siempre oscura. // Love of my guts, living death, in vain I await your written word and I think, with the whitering flower that if I live without me I want to lose you. [...] Fill, then, of words my madness or let me live in my serene night of now for ever dark.

My Full Review:

Oh Lorca, dear Lorca: were you set up to dissapoint me by your peers? Were my expectations too high? Is my understanding and knowledge of poetry that shallow? Was this particular selection a disservice to your works?

I think I'm simply not well versed in the style and artistic school of the "Generación del 27", but I couldn't really connect nor enjoy most of the poems included in this book.

Even the most basic symbolisms seemed too vague to me to truly grasp, and I feel so dissapointed in myself, because I really looked forward to finally reading his poetry, but the almost surrealist nature of his verses alienated me.

I hope I can come back to this book and to this poet with kinder eyes, it's the least he deserves from me.

My Other 2024 Readings