A Little Lumpen Novelita

A Little Lumpen Novelita (Una novelita lumpen in Spanish) is a 2002 coming-of-age novel by the Chilean author Roberto Bolaño. In September 2014, New Directions published an English-language translated by Natasha Wimmer. The book is divided into sixteen short chapters, told in first person by the protagonist Bianca, who recalls her childhood, adolescence and early adulthood.

A Little Lumpen Novelita
First edition (Spanish)
AuthorRoberto Bolaño
Original titleUna Novelita Lumpen
TranslatorNatasha Wimmer
LanguageSpanish
PublisherMondadori (Spanish)
New Directions (English)
Publication date
2002
Publication placeChile
Published in English
2014
Media typePrint
Pages128
ISBN0811223353

Il Futuro, a 2013 film directed by Alicia Scherson and starring Manuela Martelli and Rutger Hauer, was based on this novel.[citation needed]

Plot

edit

Reception

edit

In a starred review, Publishers Weekly's Gabe Habash referred to A Little Lumpen Novelita as "a glittering gem, as maddening and haunting as you'd expect from Bolaño", noting that "even though [it] is not Bolaño's best book, it's still one of the best books of the year." Habash highlights how the book, which is "slightly longer than a chapbook [...,] feels as substantial as a book three times as long, because Bolaño keeps his scope small and frantically explores all the little crawl spaces of the story". Alongside a linear plot, the novel "bends and twists, refusing to be pinned down", which Habash describes as "the book's real draw".[1]

Kirkus Reviews called A Little Lumpen Novelita "a concise but welcome addition to a major writer's canon", highlighting how "its watertight prose (via Wimmer's translation) and themes of criminality and the treatment of women make it of a piece with the writer's grander works".[2]

Booklist also reviewed the novel.[3]

References

edit
  1. ^ Habash, Gabe (2014-06-02). "A Little Lumpen Novelita by". Publishers Weekly. Archived from the original on 2022-10-25. Retrieved 2024-02-03.
  2. ^ "A Little Lumpen Novelita". Kirkus Reviews. 2014-07-22. Archived from the original on 2024-01-15. Retrieved 2024-02-03.
  3. ^ "A Little Lumpen Novelita". Booklist. 2014-09-01. Archived from the original on 2024-02-03. Retrieved 2024-02-03.