Cobra and Maitreya: Two Novels

Rating:
Summary: Elegant prose by Sarduy
Review: "Cobra and Maitreya" contains two novels in one volume. These novels are the work of Severo Sarduy, the Cuban-born writer who left his homeland for France in 1960. This volume is an English edition, translated by Suzanne Jill Levine, with an introduction by James McCourt. Each novel is an elegantly ornate piece of prose; however, in each novel, the ebullient wordplay seems to overwhelm the basics of plot and characterization.

The title character of "Cobra" is a performer in the "Lyrical Theater of Dolls"; Cobra undergoes a torturous physical transformation in the course of the story. The novel also takes us into the world of a gang whose members have names like Scorpion, Tiger, and Totem. The equally bizarre "Maitreya" is a story about Buddhism and sex, among other things.

Sarduy's prose is, at times, witty, outrageous, grotesque, luxurious, hallucinatory, and/or sexually explicit. He occasionally throws in sarcastic messages to the reader in parodic footnotes.... The plots (or lack thereof) did not engage me, and I found the characters difficult to connect with. Nevertheless, adventurous readers may find these novels worthwhile; they are certainly remarkable works of 20th century fiction.

Rating:
Summary: Elegant prose by Sarduy
Review: "Cobra and Maitreya" contains two novels in one volume. These novels are the work of Severo Sarduy, the Cuban-born writer who left his homeland for France in 1960. This volume is an English edition, translated by Suzanne Jill Levine, with an introduction by James McCourt. Each novel is an elegantly ornate piece of prose; however, in each novel, the ebullient wordplay seems to overwhelm the basics of plot and characterization.

The title character of "Cobra" is a performer in the "Lyrical Theater of Dolls"; Cobra undergoes a torturous physical transformation in the course of the story. The novel also takes us into the world of a gang whose members have names like Scorpion, Tiger, and Totem. The equally bizarre "Maitreya" is a story about Buddhism and sex, among other things.

Sarduy's prose is, at times, witty, outrageous, grotesque, luxurious, hallucinatory, and/or sexually explicit. He occasionally throws in sarcastic messages to the reader in parodic footnotes.... The plots (or lack thereof) did not engage me, and I found the characters difficult to connect with. Nevertheless, adventurous readers may find these novels worthwhile; they are certainly remarkable works of 20th century fiction.