Novelist Jose Manuel Prieto
in Conversation with Translator Esther Allen
Hear Cuban author Jose Manuel Prieto and translator Esther Allen speak about Rex, translation, Proust, and many other topics.
Prieto and Allen appeared as part of the Center for the Art of Translation's Lit&Lunch series. Click here for the Center's audio archive.
A summary of Rex's plot, and Prieto and Allen reading from the book (in Spanish and English):
(7:35)
Prieto discussing how translation changed the way he wrote Rex (in Spanish and English):
(5:34)
Prieto discussing the only three books he brought with him to Siberia (in Spanish and English):
(3:11)
Prieto and Allen discussing the role of Proust in Rex and in Cuban literature (in Spanish and English):
(1:29)
Allen discussing the role of translation in Rex (in Spanish and English):
(3:50)
About Rex
Jose Manuel Prieto's novel Rex draws on both Borges and Proust, creating a book that, as Natasha Wimmer writes in The Nation seeks "to succumb, to be tedious and recherché and secondhand, to wallow in [its] belatedness." It is narrated by J., for whom there is one great Writer and one awful Commentator: the writer is Proust and the commentator is likely Borges. Attempting to emulate his hero, J. makes endless commentaries on his life while attacking the Commentator mercilessly.
But Rex is not just a literary game. It is a book of Russian Mafiosi, fake diamonds, and a driving plot. It is also the third book in the Cuban writer's "Russian Trilogy," which English-languge readers will soon be able to read in its entirety. The second novel in the trilogy, Nocturnal Butterflies of the Russian Empire, is available in translation from Tom Christensen (who edited the Center's anthology of Latin American literature, New World/New Words, available for order), and the first, Enciclopedia de una vida en Rusia (Encyclopedia of a Life in Russia) will soon be available in Allen's translation.
Wherever I Lie Is Your Bed
Rex is excerpted in the Center's forthcoming anthology of literature in translation, Wherever I Lie Is Your Bed. You can place an advance order for the book, which contains translations of Günter Grass, Yoko Tawada, Adonis, and special translators' introductions, on the Center's order page.
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