Money To Burn

Rating:
Summary: Still Looking for a Really Good Translation
Review: Make no mistake about it. This is a so-so translation of a truly fine work by Ricardo Piglia. Only those who are able to read the original in Spanish will appreciate my otherwise questionable rating of five stars.

In the first place, this is NOT a novel. It is a book written along the lines of Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood," an account of an actual crime using the perspective of motive and characterization as a basis for constructing not so much a narrative as an imaginative analysis of events.

For those who want an even more penetrating and dramatic version of the story, the film "Plata Quemada" is available on dvd. It recreates the original book in such a way as to emphasize the linear narrative elements generally absent in the printed account. Moreover, it features brilliant directing, acting, and cinematography together with an absolutely mesmerizing soundtrack.

Now, as to the present translation: it is workmanlike and literal. I cannot fault it in that regard, as it tries to make sense for the English-speaking audience of an original vernacular laden with "lunfardo" and "porteño" conceits that are utterly missing in standard dictionaries. For those of us whose Spanish is textbook with some few Mexican words, that is a necessary component in understanding the original. But I can assert unequivocally that the style, the flavor, and the underlying connotations of the original are simply not there. Additionally, it employs British rather than American equivalents of street slang and figures of speech that most American readers will just not get at all.

I realize that this is a critique rather than a review. The reader can find out what the "story" is all about by reading the canned reviews. Bank robberies and cops-and-robbers stories are pretty much all alike anyway. This one is different in that it centers on some very unusual characters, especially given the time (1965) of the action. While popular acceptance or even consideration of such things as widespread police corruption, drug use, gays, and uniquely Argentine history was rare at the time in our own society, our collective consciousness over the years has been invested with a deeper awareness of the human capacity for all kinds of behavior previously recognized only in less clinical ways, ranging from total depravity to the most sublime and redeeming kinds of aspirations.

"Plata Quemada," which is more properly translated in relation to the author's true intent as something like "burning the money," is one hell of a good story. But that does not make it a novel.

Rating:
Summary: Still Looking for a Really Good Translation
Review: Make no mistake about it. This is a so-so translation of a truly fine work by Ricardo Piglia. Only those who are able to read the original in Spanish will appreciate my otherwise questionable rating of five stars.

In the first place, this is NOT a novel. It is a book written along the lines of Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood," an account of an actual crime using the perspective of motive and characterization as a basis for constructing not so much a narrative as an imaginative analysis of events.

For those who want an even more penetrating and dramatic version of the story, the film "Plata Quemada" is available on dvd. It recreates the original book in such a way as to emphasize the linear narrative elements generally absent in the printed account. Moreover, it features brilliant directing, acting, and cinematography together with an absolutely mesmerizing soundtrack.

Now, as to the present translation: it is workmanlike and literal. I cannot fault it in that regard, as it tries to make sense for the English-speaking audience of an original vernacular laden with "lunfardo" and "porteño" conceits that are utterly missing in standard dictionaries. For those of us whose Spanish is textbook with some few Mexican words, that is a necessary component in understanding the original. But I can assert unequivocally that the style, the flavor, and the underlying connotations of the original are simply not there. Additionally, it employs British rather than American equivalents of street slang and figures of speech that most American readers will just not get at all.

I realize that this is a critique rather than a review. The reader can find out what the "story" is all about by reading the canned reviews. Bank robberies and cops-and-robbers stories are pretty much all alike anyway. This one is different in that it centers on some very unusual characters, especially given the time (1965) of the action. While popular acceptance or even consideration of such things as widespread police corruption, drug use, gays, and uniquely Argentine history was rare at the time in our own society, our collective consciousness over the years has been invested with a deeper awareness of the human capacity for all kinds of behavior previously recognized only in less clinical ways, ranging from total depravity to the most sublime and redeeming kinds of aspirations.

"Plata Quemada," which is more properly translated in relation to the author's true intent as something like "burning the money," is one hell of a good story. But that does not make it a novel.