Shantytown (novel)
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| Author | César Aira |
|---|---|
| Translator | Chris Andrews |
| Language | Spanish |
| Genre | Novel |
| Publisher | New Directions Publishing |
Publication date | 2001 |
| Publication place | Argentina |
Published in English | November 20, 2013 |
| ISBN | 9780811219112 |
| OCLC | 829988854 |
Shantytown is a novel by César Aira originally released in Spanish under the title La Villa in 2001. Chris Andrews’ English translation was published by New Directions Publishing in 2013. The book's setting takes place in the Bajo Flores neighborhood shantytown (Villa Miseria) and focuses on various characters and how they intersect. Maxi is a middle-class adolescent who doesn't work or go to school, has an imposing physique, does little other than go to the gym, and has night blindness.[1][2][3] To stave off boredom, he immerses himself in helping scavengers collect cardboard for change, gaining their confidence, and wandering through the slums, filled with wonder at what he experiences.[2][4] He is the only one who sees the invisible cardboard scavengers.[3]
Vanessa is Maxi's sister; she is mostly harmless but gets involved with a bad crowd. Inspector Ignacio Cabezas, a corrupt police officer, is drawn to Maxi, and gains influence with Vanessa in order to infiltrate the "carousel", a drug sales operation, by pretending to be the father of a girl she knew who was murdered.[1][2] The relationships between the characters complicate as they cross each other. There are corrupt police officers, drug dealers, out of breath journalists and yellow photo journalists, there are neighbors who plead for safety and a high-profile judge with a heavy hand, there is an evangelical pastor who is also a drug dealer, there are churches, sects and corrupt businesses, there are omnipresent mothers, and fake fathers.[3][5]
Themes
[edit]The book demonstrates how the media employs rhetorical frames that illustrate the proximity of the Buenos Aires middle class to the Shantytown, which fosters indignation towards the poor. A social difference between middle-class readers and the poor of the Shantytown can be observed in their discussions, which portray the inhabitants of the Shantytown as dangerous, predatory, and undeserving of assistance.[6]
Aira creates a positive representation of the Bajo Flores slum by depicting it as a fantastical magical labyrinth.[7]
Maxi's friendship with the 'cirujas' (cardboard scavengers) signifies solidarity across class lines, and not the paternalistic type that comes with a belief in middle-class superiority and hidden motivations.[8]
Reception
[edit]Kirkus Reviews referred to the novel as "A very literary crime story with South American attitude that is lean, spare and resonant."[1]
La Nación also provided a positive review, highlighting that "as always with Aira, between buzz and credulity, there is laughter and reflection, enthusiasm for action and pure analytic capacity, imagination and abstract thinking. Aira catches the reader and manages to make them laugh and reflect."[3]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c "Shantytown. Kirkus Reviews. 20 November 2013. Retrieved 01 July 2025.
- ^ a b c "La Villa." La Casa del Libro.
- ^ a b c d "Sueños de una gran ciudad". La Nacion. 31 October 2001. Retrieved 01 July 2025.
- ^ "In Search Of Identity: Three Of 2013's Best Translated Novels". Npr. 22 December 2013. Retrieved 01 July 2025.
- ^ "In ‘Shantytown,’ César Aira gives shape to the invisible". La Times. 22 November 2013. Retrieved 01 July 2025.
- ^ Lederman, Jacob (2017). "Criminals in Our Midst: Middle-Class Reactions to Representations of the “Ordinary” in a Buenos Aires Shantytown". Latin American Perspectives. 44 (3): 135-157. DOI: 10.1177/0094582X16668314.
- ^ Annelies, Oeyen (2012). 1475-3839. Bulletin of Hispanic Studies. 89. DOI: 10.3828/bhs.2012.6.
- ^ Mckay, Micah. "The Littered City: Trash and Neoliberal Urban Space in" El aire, Bariloche", and" La villa"." Revista canadiense de estudios hispánicos (2017): 597-620.
