Tournament of Books discussion

The Story of My Teeth, by Valeria Luiselli



About the Book (from Goodreads)
Highway is a late-in-life world traveler, yarn spinner, collector, and legendary auctioneer. His most precious possessions are the teeth of the "notorious infamous" like Plato, Petrarch, and Virginia Woolf. Written in collaboration with the workers at a Jumex juice factory, Teeth is an elegant, witty, exhilarating romp through the industrial suburbs of Mexico City and Luiselli's own literary influences.

About the Author
Valeria Luiselli (born August 16, 1983) is a Mexican author. Along with The Story of My Teeth, Luiselli is the author of the book of essays Sidewalks, and the internationally acclaimed novel Faces in the Crowd, which won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for first fiction. Her books have been translated to multiple languages, and her work has appeared in publications such as The New York Times, Granta, McSweeney’s and The New Yorker. In 2014 she was the recipient of the National Book Foundation "5 under 35" award. After earning a bachelor's degree in Philosophy from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Luiselli moved to New York City to study Comparative Literature in Columbia University. She teaches literature and creative writing, collaborates as a writer with a number of art galleries and has worked as a librettist for the New York City Ballet. Since leaving Mexico, Luiselli has lived in the United States, Costa Rica, South Korea, South Africa, India, Spain, and France. She currently ives in New York City.

Interview: BOMB Magazine: http://bombmagazine.org/article/10109...

On Twitter: @ValeriaLuiselli



Biographic Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valeria...


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If you would like to chat about this book, or this author, here's a place to do so!

Happy reading!!

I am so looking forward to reading this one!

i finished this one last night -- curious to hear how people respond to it. i'm not sure about it. parts were very entertaining, even funny. and i do enjoy an unreliable narrator. i read this on my nook, and i feel the paper edition would have been better for this one, maybe.

I read it on paper; not sure it made any difference. I do love the cover though. I was non-plussed. I like the inventiveness and experimentation, but I never felt a connection. The artificiality of the world kept me at arms-distance the whole time which is the opposite of what I usually look for in a novel. Honestly, except for some of the absurdities, I can barely remember the story, and I only read it two months ago.

ah - yes. i definitely felt the experimentation too, jason. and the afterword was interesting, but it served to reinforce my feelings of being messed with... just because. (if that makes sense? i know all fiction is a bit of a manipulation, but sometimes it seems to come across as a bit more blatant.) when i can't disconnect the author from what they are doing with their book, it makes it tricky for me to become fully absorbed and immersed.

the cover is terrific, and i did enjoy the images inside too. i want to check out the paper copy just to see how it compares. :)

Jason wrote: "I was non-plussed."

I love that word Jason, "non-plussed." Evidently it's going the way of "inflammable" though where people are starting to think it means "not bothered by" vs. "bothered by". In a few years you're going to need to write "I was plussed."

"Artificial" and "arms-distance" and "absurd" describe exactly the novel Luiselli meant to write so I can't criticize her for doing what she set out to do. This novel is definitely more of a "head read" than a "heart read." It continuously, purposefully subverted my expectations of what a novel is.

As I read I could feel Luiselli pulling the rug out over and over again on her own fictional world, often just as I was about to suspend disbelief and fall into that world, just as I was about to be lulled into thinking this language play on the page had something to do with "character" or "plot". She doesn't allow readers to be fooled. Her deliberate choices as a writer act to prevent that from happening.

It's almost a retro kind of writing. Literary fiction is so serious these days. It reminded me of Eugène Ionesco who is mostly a playwright, but I'm reading a book of his short stories now because of Luiselli, and because of missing that absurd playful kind of writing generally. The novel also totally reminded me of Zeno's Conscience by Italo Svevo, another weird book that is absurd enough to have become a "neglected classic" instead of a "classic."

I used nonplussed to mean that I was impressed but not moved. I'm not sure I have any other book I can compare it to.

Jason wrote: "I used nonplussed to mean that I was impressed but not moved. I'm not sure I have any other book I can compare it to."

Well, Zeno's Conscience compares and therefore might be one for you to avoid, I would guess.

I think this kind of writing requires more attention while reading, and can be exhausting or frustrating or even fall into "boring" as a category especially because there is no way to know if it's really worth your time, in fact it seems to be daring you to put it down sometimes. You can't rely on anything from previous reading experience to guide you. Maybe its like tonal music vs. dissonant or avant garde music. Tonal music is endlessly variable but the listener can rely on certain chords resolving in expected ways, or slightly unexpected ways, whereas dissonant music is by definition going to mess with expectations.

Here's a line from a review that helps me understand this book a bit more

"Luiselli’s book is both a novel about art and an art-project about novels — a prose-experiment exploring what makes a story valuable, what makes art worth paying for, and what happens to a story once it has become a commodity."

https://lareviewofbooks.org/review/bo...

thanks for that, jason!! i really got more of the 'art project' feeling from it, which served to really keep me at arm's length as i experienced the book. i am still trying to figure out how to explain my reaction to the book.

Jason wrote: ""Luiselli’s book is both a novel about art and an art-project about novels — a prose-experiment exploring what makes a story valuable, what makes art worth paying for, and what happens to a story once it has become a commodity.""

Thanks for the link to this marvelous essay, Jason.

I loved to be reminded, as this essay reminded me, of what The Story of My Teeth is about most fundamentally: the idea that all things considered "art" need to derive their value from their culture--art is value-less without the viewers of fine art, the listeners to music, and most germane to us here, the readers of literature.

And that thought in turn gets to the heart of our alt.tob exercise here, for me--what makes a book valuable. What makes it "good" or "not good" or "better than." Do we value entertainment? Do we value a perfect-yet-unambitious book more than a flawed ambitious one? Do we prefer to be disturbed, or educated? Do we prefer reads that make us laugh, or that upset us? We have to choose.

Also in the essay: I loved thinking about how the Spanish word "historia" encompasses both "history" and "story," -- how in Spanish the ideas of "fact" and "fiction" are included in the same word. So, from the title on the translator needed to make choices.

Actually it seems most other languages have the same word for both "story" and "history." which makes me wonder if English speakers actually are more likely to think "history" is true.

Alrighty -- A am finally reading the LA Review of Books essay (https://lareviewofbooks.org/review/bo...) on this book and Bolaño. i love, LOVE!!!, Bolaño. I found 2666 and The Savage Detectives to be incredible reading experiences. So the mention of his name in relation to Luiselli's work is attractive to me, and not unexpected.

The one line that stood out for me in the article was this one:

"The resulting “collective novel-essay” is therefore insistently collaborative, an implicit rebuke to the idea of isolated artistic genius. "

I appreciate so much the process that went into creating this novel - definitely unique and interesting. Yet I still felt quite outside it all... and verging on unwelcome. So for an effort that was so hugely collaborative in its creation, I truly did find it an alienating read. (Not sure if this make sense.)

Again I will apologize for being so vague -- I have had a tricky time trying to figure out how to express myself well where this book is concerned. And I do wish I had liked it so much more than I did. I went in with great hopes for it.

I like The Complete Review quite a bit especially for the attention it gives to international and translated works--here is their detailed review of The Story of My Teeth:

http://www.complete-review.com/review...

I started this last night and find it a great deal of fun and quite curious. I have not read any reviews yet. But it does seem like written art somehow.

Ok, true confession here. I am struggling with this one. I was doing alright with it until the projected clowns entered the picture and I just don't get it. Maybe I am dim. Maybe I need to re-read that part. Or maybe I don't care for this experimental fiction writing. I am really struggling with this book. I had to put it down and then I blitz read The Mountain Story. I am trying to relate this book to modern art. Some modern art I can relate to and really appreciate and other pieces I scratch me head and wonder what I am missing.

Jane from B.C. wrote: "Ok, true confession here. I am struggling with this one. I was doing alright with it until the projected clowns entered the picture and I just don't get it. Maybe I am dim. Maybe I need to re-read ..."

Jane, I think a lot of people include "new" or "unique vision" in their definition of literary fiction, which is one reason this novel has been garnering a lot of attention and praise, because it's certainly all that. But "new and unique" doesn't necessarily mean "good" and it most certainly doesn't mean "good to me as an individual reader."

I just finished this. Initial thought -- I loved it! Playfulness is something I'm coming to see I value in novels, at least sometimes. I felt totally at sea in moments while reading this, but by the end it all came together. Wonderful. Playful and thoughtful, rich, deep at the same time.

Jennifer wrote: " I still felt quite outside it all... and verging on unwelcome."

vs.

"Jane from B.C. wrote: "Ok, true confession here. I am struggling with this one. I was doing alright with it until the projected clowns entered the picture and I just don't get it."

vs.

Rebecca wrote: "I felt totally at sea in moments while reading this, but by the end it all came together. Wonderful."

It seems that how easily we understand everything we're reading or not is a factor in how each of us judges a novel.

I wonder if your feeling of "unwelcome," Jennifer, has to do with so much of the prose here being just plain nonsense, and not deeply vested in making sure the reader gets everytihing.

This book and Oreo have semantic wordplay and absurdity in common and Welcome to Braggsville, Delicious Foods, Man Tiger: A Novel and Gutshot: Stories all also pose significant semantic challenges and all are written far from the style of Orwell's "good writing is like a window pane" ideal of writing. It will be interesting to see if people have consistent reactions to these books.

I have a high tolerance for not-understanding esp. since I like to read books in other languages where frequently I'd rather make stuff up then look it up in a dictionary. Also i like to do crossword puzzles in pen and I'll just make up words at the end to complete. Zxxgh!

Started it! Love it so far.

Jane from B.C. wrote: "Ok, true confession here. I am struggling with this one. I was doing alright with it until the projected clowns entered the picture and I just don't get it. Maybe I am dim. Maybe I need to re-read ..."

Ha Jane, i think the part of the clowns was one of the parts I did get into, if only because it's such an image. It's a *scene*, in a story that definitely needs some.

From my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I see what you did there.

You went meta with the allegorical auctioning, by in fact making The Story of My Teeth an attempt at allegorical authoring. So the long, long explanation of how the book came to be, and the photos, and the timelines, and all the marbled packaging. Selling the story behind the product rather than the product itself.

It's not so much the artificiality and playfulness that kept me from embracing Story of My Teeth. It's that it didn't really feel like the book embraced the artificiality and playfulness either. It takes itself so very seriously, up to and including having to explain what it's doing all the time. Like, "see what I did there? This is the real bicycle rack I'm talking about."

It comes off as a sort of as insecure and disingenuous, especially compared to books in this group, such as Oreo. Oreo is unabashedly itself. It's relentless with the wordplay and the references; it risks losing the audience completely, but that's what gives it intellectual, artistic sincerity.

Teeth feels, in contrast, like it's constantly hedging its bets.

I STILL have not been able to get back to this thing. I passed it to my husband because he overheard me discussing it with my mother. He saw it was set in Pachuca and said "I went to a conference there once." So I said "Here have a go with it" He got about 50 pages into it and declared it "Kinda boring". So I am getting no support on the home front to pick it back up. :o/

Jane from B.C. wrote: "I STILL have not been able to get back to this thing. I passed it to my husband because he overheard me discussing it with my mother. He saw it was set in Pachuca and said "I went to a conference t..."

One characteristic of this book--no plot. or maybe, even worse, there is something that sort of resembles a plot, and it starts to gain what might be mistaken for momentum, and then it wisps away.

It's not the only novel in the 16 with relative plotlessness but this one also is distinguished by having a very unrelate-able, sometimes toothless protagonist.

If I were trying to say why I loved reading it, it would be exactly for this experience of everything getting subverted and upended all the time. Starts out like a coming of age story, lovely little vignettes of weird early family life, a bit of a path of marriage and career and family, and then suddenly, the clown chapter.

I am still reading this but I think having read the afterword first, something I don't usually do, has given me more appreciation for the way it is put together. And I keep hearing the voice of Gabriel Garcia Marquez as he told of his early life in his memoir, Living to Tell the Tale. I also hear the voices of my Mexican friends, the way they tell stories in conversation.

I just finished the book. Then I did the dishes. Then I read an interview with the author. She says, "It is a novel written for ears, rather than eyes." Yes! I would agree. It is a novel of many stories, told verbally by Highway. Someone here said it was a plotless novel. Well, yes and no. The plot was Highway's life but in the context of his times and in the context of art and literature and progress and commerce. I like the idea, as explained in the Afterword, of this being a bridge between an art gallery and a juice factory, originally written in serial form for the factory workers, each serial being influenced by their reactions to the previous one. Of course, I became enamored of Highway. What a guy! Because I am not any kind of expert on art, those parts went right over my head, as if I were eavesdropping on some esoteric society, but I am addicted to stories and that is what anchored me to the novel.

I had to think a little about this book when I finished it but when reading it I just could not put it down.
I love when I am little uncertain about a storyline and then the book just delights me.

First off – I am glad I read the Afterword first before delving into this zany thoughtful entertaining book as it provided the necessary background to appreciate and enjoy the author’s wonderful storytelling abilities.
I loved the format of the book and the graphic provided.
I must say that Gustavo “Highway” Sanchez Sanchez is quite a “character” – not sure I have met anyone like him before. And certainly looked forward to his telling of the story of the various paraphernalia he was auctioning off for the highest price. The auctioning of various teeth/dentures is certainly unique and helped to make me think about how we value objects/collectibles.
I thought the book also time a good job in putting in a specific time and place and I felt right at home in the industrial suburbs of Mexico City.
There was a nice balance of humor, sensitivity, and virtuosity to make the story universally appealing.
When mentioning this book to a friend and they asked what type of story is this – I answered not sure if it fits a specific genre but it just delightfully unique.
This is the first reading this author and I hope to read more by her in the future.

Judy wrote: "I am still reading this but I think having read the afterword first, something I don't usually do, has given me more appreciation for the way it is put together. And I keep hearing the voice of Gab..."

I agree that reading the Afterword first also helped to appreciate the book.

I also found myself browsing through the pages before I actually read the book - something I do not normally do.

Yes Beverly. The book itself is a piece of art. A close second to reading it was exploring how the physical book itself was put together. I think someone earlier described listening to the book on audio while reading along in the paper book. That sounded pretty ideal!

I just checked out the audiobook from the library - am I missing something without the graphics?

It will probably be fine, but the actual book is a beautiful thing.

For people who like this novel I can also recommend The Game for Real from the long list. The reviews compare the author Richard Weiner with Kafka but I think Weiner is way more playful. Also Luiselli has another couple of books published in English by Coffee House press that I'm planning to look into eventually: Faces in the Crowd and Sidewalks.

I had to wonder if it is TOB effect that has this book selling so well. See below for portion of an article posted in Publisher's Weekly:

At Brazos Bookstore in Houston, Tex., general manager Jeremy Ellis said that although the store felt "completely dead" between Christmas Day and New Year's Eve, daily sales sheets actually revealed strong sales. .. the store sold out of Valeria Luiselli's The Story of My Teeth just before closing on Christmas Eve.

Just finished this book last night, and -- it seems not unlike many of you here -- I'm struggling to process my feelings about it. It was definitely odd and, honestly, downright creepy at times. But there was something fresh about it that kept me from hating it; I'm just having trouble identifying what, exactly, I liked.

One tiny thing that bothered me: the lack of explanation as to how the auctioned teeth made their way back together and into a modern art exhibit. They were all sold to different elderly people, and although obviously there are MUCH weirder things happening in this book (don't get me started on the clowns), it seems very unlikely that all of those people gave up the teeth they had just paid for. Or am I missing something?

Yes, the writing is playful and fanciful, and she is a charming storyteller, but I felt like I spent more time thinking of this book as a syllabus. It's got a lot of fun, embedded references of various authors and artists that I now want to check out. I'm particularly interested in the Spanish-language writers referenced toward the end, but out of all of them only herself (Luiselli) and Yuri Herrera have so far been translated into English. Maybe they're her writer friends.

I read this book, rated it four stars, and did not understand it. Oops.

Holly wrote: "I read this book, rated it four stars, and did not understand it. Oops."
Lol!

Elizabeth wrote: "Yes, the writing is playful and fanciful, and she is a charming storyteller, but I felt like I spent more time thinking of this book as a syllabus. It's got a lot of fun, embedded references of var..."

I believe she references Alejandro Zambra, who has several works translated into English. I enjoyed Bonsai.

I'm sure Borges has been translated - but I'm not sure about Miguel de Unamuno. Boy, a lot of them were names from my past - read 'em all in high school & college.

Mainon wrote: "it seems very unlikely that all of those people gave up the teeth they had just paid for. Or am I missing something? "

I read it as the teeth he recovered being those that his son had extracted from his mouth - the Marilyn Monroe ones.

I heart-eyes-emoji this book, and Highway, and every one of his insane, grandiloquent stories. He makes himself up, and even if his reality isn't all he's cracked it up to be, in his eyes, he's amazing.

When I finished this book I put it down, looked over at my girlfriend, and said "I don't get it."
It was engaging. I was never bored and I think the slimness of it helped there. If it was one of the longer titles I'd probably have given up seeing no end in sight.

In the end though I think this book is one that leaves me thinking everyone rating and reviewing it is smarter than me. I know it's an art project and was originally serialized in it's original language but for me the dots never connected and it ended up being beautiful writing that just didn't resonate with me.