Reading 1001 discussion

Review thread: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Internet Archive, I assume U.S. only but you can try the link.
https://archive.org/details/adventure...

It isn't U.S only (and neither is their sub-site open library)! Pip and I were able to access it on open library from NZ and Canada respectively :)

I have two physical books with three stories in the first and four in the second. It's great to see the Iinternet Archive version so I can read them in the same order, so thanks for posting that!

Okay, I have now read the first title or story in this book; The Snow of the Admiral. Who do you think the reader of Maqroll’s diary, which was written while moving up River, is? Do you think it is a specific person who we will meet later? Or just the narrator or the author’s stand in? Just curious what others think about this first book.

Gail wrote: "Okay, I have now read the first title or story in this book; The Snow of the Admiral. Who do you think the reader of Maqroll’s diary, which was written while moving up River, is? Do you think it is..."

I don't know, Gail. I have also finished that one. At one point I think the narrator says he had already published some of Maqroll's writing, so I wondered if I was reading in the wrong order, but no, this was the first story. Perhaps we will find out more as the stories roll out...

Rosemary, I read the next story: Ilona Comes with the Rain (which is a great title). It seems to reflect Mutis being influenced by Dickens. I actually cared about the characters in this one and instead of weird dreams we have a ‘real’ ghost story. It was easier for me to read than the first one and I was moved by the ending.

Is anyone hosting this one?
A first question: Why do you think Maqroll is called Gaviero (the sailor at the top sail or look out?)

Gail wrote: "Rosemary, I read the next story: Ilona Comes with the Rain (which is a great title). It seems to reflect Mutis being influenced by Dickens. I actually cared about the characters in this one and ins..."

I don't think anyone is hosting this one. I have not been successful at finding questions.

I've now read the first three stories (the first volume of my two volumes). I agree with Gail about caring for the characters a lot more in the second and third stories.

The ghost was interesting. Characters reappear, more often in thought and speech than in body. In the third story, Maqroll thinks about Ilona and hears something about Flor Estevez.

There are many violent deaths in these stories, and they take place in some desolate and dangerous places. A common theme is transport by water, and Maqroll getting himself into a fix by "going with the flow" or hanging around for too long.

I've started plowing through this one in the last couple days, and am three stories down as well.

I agree that the characters in the second and third stories (like Ilona) were more interesting than those in the first two. But, I did enjoy the way solitude itself is kind of a main character in "Snow of the Admiral". I'm not sure if we will meet the narrator later, but I did enjoy the ambiance of trying to track down Maqroll as he creeps further into the remote landscape.

Beyond the role of the actual Navy in these stories, maybe Maqroll is supposed to be conceived as an overlooker of so much drama/horror/the areas of the world still considered and wild and undiscovered?

I loved the descriptions of the tropics and other places he travels to, and the underbelly of these places with their wildness/outside of propriety nature: like the age of sail lit in the modern era, that especially picks up in the second story, and the diverse ramshackle nature of the people Maqroll comes across. This is something I always enjoy about age of sail media/history: the messiness and drama of how the truly global world starts to come together, seeking out the ever disappearing pockets of untouched world. This still feels like that in a way.

Gail wrote: "Okay, I have now read the first title or story in this book; The Snow of the Admiral. Who do you think the reader of Maqroll’s diary, which was written while moving up River, is? Do you think it is..."

I think it is the author putting himself into the story. (I might be wrong) but in reading the intro, by Francisco Goldman, he states that Alvaro Mutis talked about Maqroll all the time as if he was real and that he accompanies the author since he was introduced in his first poetry.

Thanks Gail for getting us started. Can I put you down as hosting?

The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll is a compilation of novellas by Colombian author Álvaro Mutis.
1. The Snow of the Admiral
Maqroll the Gaviero - our intrepid trekker. The bulk of The Snows of the Admiral consists of a very personal diary written by the Gaviero (the Lookout) chronicling his journey up the Xurandó River through jungle in a diesel-powered barge. Xurandó, such an apt name for Álvaro Mutis's fictional river since the sound and spelling blend in so well with a number of indigenous Amazonian tribespeople: the Xipaya, the Xiriana, the Txikao, the Kaxarari.
2. Ilona Comes with the Rain
3. Un Bel Morir
4. The Tramp Steamer's Last Port of Call
5. Amirbar
6. Abdul Bashur, Dreamer of Ships
7. Triptych on Sea and Land

Favorite Quotes
"To realize that nobody listens to anybody, nobody knows anything about anybody.
"To learn above all, to distrust memory."

I thought these quotes from 'Amirbar' summed up the character of Maqroll, el Gaviero, and explained why he does not seem disturbed to be drawn into physical danger or association with criminals:

"... to explore a world I did not know, the sort of challenge that allows me to go on living and not look for false escapes."

"... the only real reason to go on living: the dazzling testimony of our senses in communion with the order of the world."

I'm now reading 'Abdul Bashur, Dreamer of Ships' but finding this less engaging than the other stories. Abdul was an intriguing presence (or absence) in the stories where he was peripheral, but I think Mutis made a mistake bringing him into the foreground.

Another quote talks of Maqroll's "principle of always allowing things to happen regardless of consequences."

I've finished now. I didn't enjoy the last novellas so much, which I think is partly because they have less tension and partly because they would be better read with bigger gaps between (like one novella a month or even less) so that the style doesn't seem so repetitive. I read a review that said all the main characters shared the same attitudes and agreed on everything, which I suppose is true.

I also read a review that was critical of the attitudes to women in the novellas, but I didn't agree with that. Where the female characters are a strong part of the story or of Maqroll's life, I think they are drawn as distinctly as the men, and the attitudes to them are respectful - they are not simply used. In my view, it's the characters' attitude to sex that is casual, rather than the men's attitude to women.

As I had two separate volumes, I gave 4 stars to the first (3 novellas) and 3 stars to the second (4 novellas, though the last one is made up of 3 stories).

I thought the females characters were quite strong and generally well respected over all.

What was your reactions to the female characters? Did you have a favorite or maybe one you strongly disliked?

What did you think of the male characters? Were they impulsive or were they conniving?

Was Maqroll right to suspect that the military and police could not be trusted and in fact presented as dangerous? Do you think this is true in general or only for people like Maqroll?

I also enjoyed a number of the female characters who were often as versed in the various ways in which one can survive in this world as Maqroll and his friend Abdul were. I believe that Ilona would be my favorite and her fate was truly disturbing, yet she lives in memories throughout the book although her story was one of the first to be told to us.
I thought that the male characters largely represented being tossed around by fate as they made their way toward the one solid truth, death. All the main characters elect or feel that they are destined to wander and they also feel that failure and/or success are largely equal experiences.
In that Maqroll and many of his friends make the majority of their living either ignoring, bending or out right breaking the law, it would only be normal to see the military and the police as dangerous. In many of the stories the military or the police represent a sense of containment which would be the opposite of how Maqroll wanted to go through the world.
I did have some trouble making my way through this one. I enjoyed it once I would get going but once I put it down I didn't have much desire to go back to it. It took me the full three months to finish.

Well, I am glad to have finally read this book that has been on my virtual shelf since 2012. I was intimidated by the size of the book and the font size but overall I found it easier to read that I had anticipated. At times I was reminded of such books as Don Quixote. I also noted the mention of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The other is definitely a part of the story and in his way is showing how he developed this character. It is a collection of novellas but it does work to make them one novel. It is hinted that Maqroll has died but I don't think the author actually gave us details so like Sherlock Holmes he could be resurrected. Fate and death are strong themes of the book. I felt the male and female characters were treated equally. It will not be a book that I want to reread.

Kristel wrote: "I thought the females characters were quite strong and generally well respected over all.

What was your reactions to the female characters? Did you have a favorite or maybe one you strongly disli..."

Good questions! I agree with both you and Gail that the female characters were quite well written and interesting, Ilona being a standout.

I did find the men (largely) and yes, especially Maqroll and Abdul, to be a fun combination of impulsive and adaptive (you have to be if you survive on the fringes and being impulsive) that lent itself well to the believable creation of adventure in the narrative.

I think the final point has a lot credence to it: the military and police are inherently dangerous- that is part of their function, and the truth of that is exacerbated based on different factors (swindlers and adventurers living on the fringes would see an amplified version of this). If you don't see these institutions as dangerous, in my belief, that is because you likely happen to be (currently) one of the groups that isn't threatened by their purpose (to uphold the will of their country, city, etc. whether just or not). I think there is a valid reason why (in my country of Canada) First nations people who live on indigenous land that developers want to snatch (and have histories of being abducted by the army and police) consider the police and military far more dangerous than many white suburban families. But, they always have the potential to be dangerous to anyone based on what the orders are. I think these stories kind of fall into the the trope of 'the underbelly are the good guys' that pervades a lot of literature and media because it speaks to our desire to be 'free' and a not-unfounded historical distrust of agents of 'order'.

I have just finished this book in time, as it is New Year’s Eve in New Zealand. It took me a long time to read because there were so many references to places that were unknown to me so I was constantly consulting Google maps to marvel at the photos of places I was unfamiliar with such as Uranda, or Valdivia or Bizerte or Üskūdar. It was like Worldle on steroids. And then the references to characters like Guidoriccio da Fogliano or Erzebet Bathory of whom I had never heard. I found the novellas more compelling and stimulating the more that I read. I thought the first story, The Snow of the Admiral the most opaque, which makes sense when I realised that it began as a prose poem. What a fascinating character Maris was! His life as a peripatetic oil company executive is mirrored in that of the narrator, who attended conferences in Helsinki, for example. I could write so much more but I am being pulled away to family New Year celebrations - which include the Guardian crossword!

Pip wrote: "I have just finished this book in time, as it is New Year’s Eve in New Zealand. It took me a long time to read because there were so many references to places that were unknown to me so I was const..."

Happy New Year Pip. Have a great time with family and the crossword.